Ubuntu installer configures multiple OSs

[Eycks]

I want to dual boot Ubuntu on a machine that alredy has XP. One of the documents I have seen says "The Ubuntu installer will install the grub boot manager, automatically configure it to work with any other OSes you have installed, ...' Does this mean that when I boot my PC I will be given the choice of running XP or Ubuntu? Considering the other dual boot info I have found this seems to be too easy to be true. I want to install Ubuntu on a seperate hard drive.

Thanks

[saikee]

But that is what Linux is supposed to offer!

Linux is born to multiboot. Its bootloader Lilo can boot 27 images and Grub has no limit or above 150+ if you must know.

It is every Linux installer's duty to check every partition of every hard disk and include a booting choice to boot a partition if a boot loader has been found in its boot sector. A MS system always has a boot loader in the boot sector of the partition it resides. Therefore Linux can always dual boot a MS Windows.

However MS uses a common MBR from Dos to XP (changed in Vista) and so Linux can not tell a XP from a Win95 or a Dos. It usually label the system as "Windows".

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Linux needs two lines of instruction to boot a MS Windows, be it by Lilo or Grub. Thus if the installer fails totally to dual boot your XP it is a few minutes job to correct the situation.

[i845_]

A picture, they say, says a thousand words...

Ubuntu installation - Setting up Grub (http://www.hezardastan.org/breezy_xp_dualboot/images/partubuntu21.png) | Grub loaded (http://tinypic.com/iyoj7s.gif)

[happybunny]

Eycks:

Yes


when it is done, if you want to alter the order or add other OS's to boot too, look in Ubuntu under /boot/grub/menu.lst

[john2240]

I want to dual boot Ubuntu on a machine that alredy has XP. One of the documents I have seen says "The Ubuntu installer will install the grub boot manager, automatically configure it to work with any other OSes you have installed, ...' Does this mean that when I boot my PC I will be given the choice of running XP or Ubuntu? Considering the other dual boot info I have found this seems to be too easy to be true. I want to install Ubuntu on a seperate hard drive.

Thanks
separate HD is the way to go, i have dual booted so many distro's over time, and it always worked easier on a separate drive, though it is possible to do it on one
yes it is easy to dual boot ubuntu/XP
too easy

[Eycks]

I allways check things out so I went back to William Von Hagen's Ubuntu Linux Bible and re read the install process. There are three different install disks, the Live Cd, the Alternate Cd, and the server Cd. He implies that I need to use the Alternate Disk but that does not seem to install the desktop. In another place he seems to say you can install a dual boot from the Live Cd. Which one should I use?

Thanks

[happybunny]

I think that is old info....Ubuntu is one disk now, which is both a LiveCD and the install CD.

Boot off of it, and there is an icon on the desktop that says "install to harddrive"....click it