Help doing a dualboot with Kubuntu and XP - SOLVED COMPLETELY! Thanks!

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP

Argh!!! When I try to resize the partition in GParted, it doesn't let me. I went to information and it says something like "ERROR! 1 CLUSTERS NTFS IS INCONSISTENT RUN CHKDSK AND REBOOT TWICE!"
I can't really tell what that means. As far as I can tell, I'm supposed to run chkdsk... But I don't know how to run that....
EDIT: Do I just go Start-Run-Chkdsk? I just thought of that, I'll try it now.
EDIT2: Yay, it worked... now time to "reboot twice" and then see if GParted works
EDIT3: Nope, GParted still doesn't work
EDIT4: I found that I was running chkdsk in "read only" mode. I needed to go to the command line and type "chkdsk /f" which scheduled it to run on reboot. Anyway, that made it so that GParted works! I do not have time to partition and install kubuntu today, so I will do it either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I think my problem is solved, thanks to everyone who helped. I will post here if I encounter any more problems

[Fintan]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP -SOLVED- (I think)

Great you gat 70% there.
never the less just may 2c:
You probably already have 3 primary partitions. Your win partition, your rescue partition and the one that is hidden. so you only have room your one more primary /(root). everything else will have to be extended partitions.

The reason I have a seperate data partition is mainly because of the glory blue screen days with windows. Today my windows can crash all it wants and my data stays put. (fat32 is fine for data) This setup gives me the added advantage that I can share my data with windows and Linux. Although I use Linux for 90% of the time I still need win for adobe/macromedia stuff so I have i have small windows on vmware as well and am considering scrapping my "real" windows alltogether.

Setting up a seperate /home lets you keep your desktop configurations should you for some reason trash your linux.

[Detonate]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP -SOLVED- (I think)

I'm coming in on this late, and I see you already have this pretty much worked out, But, while reading the thread, I remembered something that might be pertinent. Back when I was doing a lot of XP troubleshooting, I recall that when installing XP you have the option of using FAT instead of NTFS if your wish. And many of the Windows Gurus recommended you do this to make later recovery operations easier. They contended that very little is gained by the average XP user by using the NTSF file system. Most people that have a question about dual booting already have XP installed, and used the NTFS file system, so this doesn't apply, but if you are installing a new XP OS alongside a new Linux OS this might deserve consideration.

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP -SOLVED- (I think)

Actually, the partition that is hidden... I found out it is just free space.... stupid me :P
Does the root partition have to be a primary partition?

Also, my computer came with XP, I didn't install it. And I thought FAT32 fragmented horribly if the disc size was over 32. My hard drive is 250gb

OK, it's partitioning now... GParted says it will take 45 minutes to do the current operation... I wonder how long this is gonna take... I guess there's no turning back now
Let's just hope the power doesn't go out, and my CD drive doesn't stop and....

[Detonate]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP -SOLVED- (I think)

As I said, I wasn't talking about a situation like yours. And I did not unequivocally recommend the FAT32 XP install. As far as the fragmentation issue, that's not really a major problem if you defragment on a regular basis. A google search will turn up lots of info on NTFS vs FAT32 for anyone interested. And you can always convert to NTFS later if it doesn't work out. Does not require reinstallation to do that. As I said, it might deserve consideration.

The main idea, is that you can boot up with a Win98 or ME floppy and have complete DOS control of the file system if needed for recovery operations, which are occasionally required in XP

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP -SOLVED- (I think)

AAAAAHHH! My monitor went blank and said "No signal input"... Argh, I hope it was done partitioning when it died.... Should I just hit the power button and hope it boots into XP normally?

EDIT: It booted up, ran chkdsk, then booting into XP normally... phew :P Anyway, my main partition is shrunk. None of the other partitions show up though... But XP told me that it "installed new hardware" and it's bugging me to reboot, so I will reboot now.

Ok, so now what do I do? My main partition has been shrunk, but it doesn't look like anything else happened....

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows XP - Need More Help! ...agai

Well, booting up GParted it says that I still have my two partitions. It didn't do anything other than resize my main partition. (I'm just happy it didn't kill Windows )

Hey, would it be possible to download GParted as a Windows application instead of a boot CD? I don't really trust my CD drive much.... It sometimes "dies" after about an hour of running off a CD. (I don't need to change the Windows partition so could I run it off Windows, right?)

Here is how I set up my partitions (it didn't apply them, though, just wondering if I did it right so I can do the same thing if I try it again)
I had them in this exact order with 5mb between each partition. (I heard it's a good idea to leave a few mb between partitions)
Primary - Windows - NTFS
Primary - Linux root - EXT3
Extended:
--- Logical Drive - Linux /home - EXT3
--- Logical Drive - Linux swap - linux-swap
--- Logical Drive - Shared FAT32 - FAT32
Primary - Windows recovery discs partition - FAT32

Thank you.

EDIT: Another question. Do you recommend using 64bit or 32bit? I have an AMD Athlon 64 so I can use 64bit. 64bit is what I was planning on using, but since I haven't been able to install it yet, I though I might as well ask which one I should use. What are the differences between 64 and 32?

EDIT2: Also, can someone please explain what dibl was saying?

Just "return" when Grub invites you to install it, and it will go on the MBR of the Windows partition, which will be fine for your purpose.

As far as I can tell, "GRUB" is a boot menu, and Windows MBR is another boot menu. So I basically hit "No" when the installer asks me to install "GRUB"??

EDIT3: Yet another question: Can I do the rest of the partitioning in the partition editor in the installer or should I use GParted? I can now use the installer editor because I have shrunk the main partition (that was what I couldn't do in the built-in partition editor.

Sorry about all these questions that probably don't matter - I'm just new to Linux.

[Fintan]

Re: Help doing a dualboot with Kubuntu and XP - Need More Help!

AAAAAHHH! My monitor went blank and said "No signal input"... Argh, I hope it was done partitioning when it died.... Should I just hit the power button and hope it boots into XP normally?

Did you have a power cut or surge? Is your machine hibernating?

EDIT2: Also, can someone please explain what dibl was saying?

Just "return" when Grub invites you to install it, and it will go on the MBR of the Windows partition, which will be fine for your purpose.

As far as I can tell, "GRUB" is a boot menu, and Windows MBR is another boot menu. So I basically hit "No" when the installer asks me to install "GRUB"??

Grub is a bootloader. what dibl means is press the "return" (enter) key and grub will be installed into your mbr (master boot record) replacing the windows bootmanager and letting you choose which OS you wish to boot.

EDIT3: Yet another question: Can I do the rest of the partitioning in the partition editor in the installer or should I use GParted? I can now use the installer editor because I have shrunk the main partition (that was what I couldn't do in the built-in partition editor.

Although I have never done that but would guess that you should be able to do that way. I would try the gparted cd again first.

As for 32bit vs 64 bit I don't know as I don't have a 64bit machine. There is plenty of information/experience on this here in the forum so I would suggest a search.

I hope this helps.

Cheers
F

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dualboot with Kubuntu and XP - Need More Help!

Ok, I've got everything answered, except one question, is my partitioning "scheme" ok? (my last post)

Did you have a power cut or surge? Is your machine hibernating?

No, the power button light was still on. And where I live power outs are very rare.
If it was on standby/hibernating, the power light would be flashing. If it was sleeping, it would've come back on when I pressed buttons/mouse.
So I think it just died.
I think I moved the main partition like 1mb to the right accidentally and then it said it would take 45minutes to do that. And it crashed at that point.

[dibl]

Re: Help doing a dualboot with Kubuntu and XP - Need More Help!

Geeeeeeeeez, d41, this is just what you were afraid of! I'm sorry it went so badly ...

Your partition scheme should be fine. I thought you were going to make /home the shared one, by formatting it FAT32. But you can work with it the way you set it up -- you'll either have to mount the shared partition manually, or set it up to auto-mount when you boot (search around this forum to figure that out).

Because you are still on a steep learning curve with Linux, I would recommend going with the 32-bit OS for now. There are some extra issues with the 64-bit OS, especially with the browser, and you will probably have plenty of stuff to learn and get comfortable with on the 32-bit system.

[d41]

Re: Help doing a dualboot with Kubuntu and XP - Need More Help!

:P It's ok nothing bad happened, Windows still works fine and all it did was resize the partition (which I wanted)

I didn't know that /home could be FAT32. I think I'll do that instead. I'm gonna google and see if FAT32 can be over 32gb.

Ok, I'm set up to install! I'll try install it later today (maybe), and if I have any problems/questions I'll post here.