how do i install mandriva 2009 linux inside windows so i can dual boot each of them?
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at
21:54
I am wanting to start using linux but i dont want to lose vista. How can i dual boot Mandriva. I have tried ubuntu and it does not work so i thought i would try something different.
Tagged with: dual boot • Linux • using linux
Filed under: Mandrake
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If you want to actually run it inside Vista without affecting the operating system, you need to run a Virtual Program of some kind. I really don’t know much about those programs.
If it is a LiveCD don’t even load it until you are sure that is what you want. First you need to resize the Vista partition to create enough space to Load Mandriva onto. Once that is done you can install it using the custom install command, not the use existing space or the whole drive. It should set up dual boot automatically.
I’m running PCLinuxOS 2009-1 which is Mandriva based. It has some programs called OnPlay that allows you to Play games with a Linux System and a few other interesting programs.
Ubuntu should have worked, If you partition them separately GRUB should automatically install and list the options for OS before startup.. Mandriva uses the same method of installation bootloader wise.. So be careful with your opions. You can edit GRUB manually anyway, if it weren’t to work.. there are many guides online.
Software-
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You do NOT install Mandriva INSIDE Windows. Period. GNU Linux is part of the UNIX family of Operating Systems. That is, it is supposed to interface directly with the hardware. It certainly is possible to install Debian and Ubuntu INSIDE Windows using Wubi or Debian-Installer, but both of those are distributions which make relatively modest demands on your hardware. When you run just them they can be incredibly fast and do awesome things to your computer. Solaris, which is a UNIX anyhow, is the most memory-intensive and hardware-demanding of the Unix family, followed by Fedora followed by Mandriva. If you are used to Vista you may not notice this. Or you may see it as an advantage. When I first switched to Linux I LOVED Red Hat (Fedora’s predecessor which Mandrake and Connectiva — Mandriva’s two predecessors–were closely based on) but these days I prefer to reserve the memory for running impossible applications.
The first link describes installing it onto a machine with TWO hard drives. That is frankly highly recommended. It’s how I used to dual boot when I still used Windows. The second link describes how to repartition Vista, before installing — Ubuntu in this case — to the hard drive. Two points. Once you have space for Linux it really doesn’t matter WHICH Linux you install. Just boot up the install disk and follow the instructions. The other point is this: what it does not say is this: before repartitioning ANY windows system, in fact, JUST before is best, defragment your hard drive. Regardless of what Windows tells you it writes data to ANY part of the drive it feels like — even the end of the drive — regardless of how much space there is anywhere else on the drive. So defragment your Vista drive, insert your Vista DVD (get one if you don’t have one) and shrink your Vista partition. I personally would allow at least 40-60 G for Mandriva — but I don’t use it because of its hardware demands.
Now for the cautions: repartitioning your hard drive — whether you install Linux or not — can violate your warranty. In some cases installing Linux can violate your warranty. I bought this Laptop reconditioned from a shop which knew I was going to remove Windows and the deal was I bought it as is. If I had gone for a new one I could have even gotten "better" hardware but it wouldn’t have been guaranteed to work with Linux and the list of parts in it would have been more difficult to get.
And that is the other caution. Regardless of how easy a Linux distribution is, you are taking responsibility for your computer in a way you never have before. One VERY satisfied Mandriva user writes in her blog that what she enjoys about it is poking under the hood (and she is not a computer scientist). The Window Manager Linux uses is X-Windows, which attained more or less its current form in 1989 (two years before the kernel was written because X-Windows developed on UNIX). It’s still maintained, that is rewritten, and the desktops we use today or almost all more recent (sometimes very recent) but at the same time from time to time it doesn’t necessarily work perfectly out of the box (though you will find out the first time you boot it up). Before you install ANY Linux get a piece of paper and a pencil or pen, boot into Vista, go to the Control Panel and find and list ALL the hardware — graphics cards, mouse, monitor — all of it — you find there. Keep that list by you when you install it and the first time you boot into Linux from your hard drive. X-windows has two generic programs I don’t know whether you can access from mandriva. If it couldn’t configure itself during the install, then you will boot to the hard drive. If that happens log in as root and type X –config or xorgcfg. Those are the easy ways to get it to configure itself. If they crash, as can happen, don’t panic. Try xorgconfig. That program does not try to start X. Instead it prompts you for much of the hardware you just wrote down on that piece of paper. Find the exact matches and tell Mandriva what they are, agree to save the configuration file where it tells you to, and reboot.
I’ve added another page about installing — ubuntu through repartitioning Vista, and one about installing Mandriva to the list down below. Repartitioning can be very hairy and I strongly recommend finding two or three other tutorials on the subject and reading them, just in case they provide information these miss but you may need. Frankly, if there is any part of using Linux I don’t like, it’s the occasional need to repartition (as on this disk where I use Slackware and Gentoo both). Everything else about Linux I enjoy thoroughly.
Not all versions of linux have a wubi like method to install like ubuntu; if that is what you are referring to.
You can dual boot mandriva very easily and safely.
Good luck