Linux Q & A

tht00 · 09-03-2009, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cam42

How much space did you give each OS?
15 should be a more up-to-date kernel, while 11 is older. I think.

Yes. Whenever new kernels are installed (which can happen frequently, given the rapid development of the kernel), it often keeps the old one around 'just in case' the new one doesn't cooperate properly.

**Cam42** · 09-03-2009, 09:52 PM

Which happens a lot. I've had kernel updates break my system more than once.

TFK14 · 11-12-2009, 04:31 PM

Ok, I've been playing around with Ubuntu lately(And I'm going to try openSuSE and fedora right away too) and I'm considering Dualbooting.
I only have ~17GB of space available though, would that be too much of an issue?

**Cam42** · 11-12-2009, 04:52 PM

Nah, it shouldn't be too much. If you store most of your stuff on your windows partition, remember that Linux can read/write NTFS, you should be fine. Just put Ubuntu all in one partition.

TFK14 · 11-12-2009, 07:46 PM

Ok, should that be fine with any distro?
And, would there be any chance of messing up the data on the windows partition if I just use the unpartitioned space?

**Cam42** · 11-12-2009, 07:55 PM

I'm not sure what you're saying... Have you already shrunk your windows partition?

TFK14 · 11-12-2009, 08:10 PM

No, as far as I can tell, I have ~17GB of unpartitoned space...

**Cam42** · 11-12-2009, 08:33 PM

Unpartitioned space or free space?

Have you tried something like GParted?

TFK14 · 11-12-2009, 09:04 PM

Unpartitioned as far as I can tell(228 partitioned for windows + 4.6 for some kinda of backup thing on a 250 drive)
I haven't tried actually partitioning it yet, no

**Cam42** · 11-12-2009, 09:06 PM

The backup thing is most likely a recovery partition, I'd think. Yeah, unpartitioned space is what that looks like, how much free space is on your hard drive (and by that I mean your windows c:\ drive?

TFK14 · 11-12-2009, 09:09 PM

~60GB, but I'd rather not try resizing the windows partition if I don't have to, cuz I do t really have any ways to back everything up, and my family would kill me if anything happened to anything at all.

**Cam42** · 11-13-2009, 10:18 AM

Right. Again 17GB should be fine, it that's unallocated space. I'd let the Ubuntu or whatever distro you're using disc do the partitioning for you, it knows what it needs.

TFK14 · 11-13-2009, 01:15 PM

Mmmk.
I can set GRUB to automatically boot to windows though right?

**Cam42** · 11-13-2009, 01:55 PM

I think you can, somewhere in the GRUB.lst (?) file someplace. Try asking on ubuntuforums.org

dtaylorl · 11-13-2009, 02:28 PM

Try these links: I used a similar tutorial to get a dual boot (although I had Ubuntu first). In particular the last page of the vista tutorial might be helpful.

How to dual-boot Vista with Linux (Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots
How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots