Support both OSs: Dual boot Windows XP and Red Hat Linux 7.3

The VMware option

I know what some of you are saying. Why not just run VMware? While VMware allows you to easily switch between multiple operating systems and perform routine tasks, a dual-boot computer works better for testing and troubleshootingââ,¬"especially when it comes to hardware. VMware also has issues with some Windows operating system features, which makes dual booting your only option.

What to do first?

This article assumes that you can wipe your machine clean and start fresh. If you can't, and you already have Windows loaded, you will need to purchase a program such as Partition Magic to free up enough space on the hard drive to install Linux. My test machine is a 1-GHz Pentium III with 192 MB RAM and 4 GB of hard drive space.

Loosely, the order of things will be as follows:

• Install Windows XP Professional and give it 2.0 GB of space out of the 4 GB available.
• Install Red Hat Linux 7.3 into the other 2 GB.

Simple, eh?

Installing Windows XP Professional

To dual boot, you can install Windows XP exactly as you normally would, while making sure to leave room for the Linux partition.

Installing Red Hat Linux 7.3

Once Windows XP is installed, you can install Red Hat Linux 7.3 by inserting CD One of three and letting it boot. Then, just follow the instructions on the screen. When it's time to partition the disk, I chose the default option to Remove All Linux Partitions On This System since I had no Linux partitions (see Figure A).

Figure A

Choose an automatic partitioning option.

Choosing this option will give you a warning that all of your data is going to be removed from the Linux partition. Don't worry about this warning, because on a fresh system there is no data to be removed. On the next screen, the Linux installer breaks down the layout of the hard drive for you to look at (see Figure B).

Figure B

Partition layout overview

At the top of the partition layout, you see that /dev/hda1 is of the type NTFS/HPFS. This is your Windows XP partition. Below that, there are four partitions for Linux. The first one is an ext3 partition labeled /boot. The ext3 type is the standard file system type for Red Hat Linux 7.3 and /boot is the name of the Linux boot partition. Next, there is another ext3 partition named /, which is the rest of the Linux file system. Finally, on an extended type partition, there is a swap partition, which every Linux system needs. After this step, you need to configure the Linux boot loader that is named GRUB.

GRUB will detect that there is already an OS installed in the master boot record and will give you on opportunity to configure it. This is a critical step. If you don't configure it here, you will have to manually edit the configuration files later. For my installation, I named the hda1 partition Windows XP and then clicked Next to continued to complete the installation by installing what I needed to run my system (see Figure C).

Figure C

Boot Loader configuration

Rebooting

Once Linux is fully installed, the system will automatically reboot, and you will be greeted with the GRUB boot loader screen (see Figure D).

Figure D

GRUB boot loader showing both operating systems

Choosing Windows XP from the list will start up Windows XP, as it should; choosing Red Hat Linux will start that OS instead. If you don't choose any OS selection, Red Hat Linux will start by default.

If you forgot the portion during setup where you needed to tell the system that you also have Windows XP, editing the file /etc/grub.conf and adding the information will do the trick for you. Since you first need to know where everything is (i.e., where the Windows XP partition resides, etc.), you can use the Linux fdisk command to view this. To use it, issue the command: fdisk /dev/hda

Once inside fdisk, issue a p command to print the partition table.

The contents of my /etc/grub.conf to dual boot the system are shown in Listing A.

You're good to go

When complete, you'll have a fully functional, dual-booting system with Windows XP and Red Hat Linux 7.3 residing on the same system. Running both operating systems on one machine will allow you to properly test the actual hardware on which you will be running Linux at a big savings.

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