LILO or Grub and where?

[eboyjones]

Going to give Linux a try. I have copies of Mandrake, Redhat and Fedora. Don't know which is best for a newbie. When I read about installing the boot loader I am a bit confused where to put it.

I have 3 drives. Drive C:WinXp Pro Drive D:empty Drive E: empty and Drive E: is where I want to install Linux. I want to use Drive D: for a Ghost copy of WinXP Pro. (drives C: and D: IDE and drive E: SCSI)

Yesterday I reformatted C: and reinstalled WinXP Pro. I have all my updates and programs installed and I was going to Ghost a copy to my D:drive, but haven't yet.

Reason I am waiting to Ghost is where do I install the boot loader so I can access ither WinXp or Linux on boot-up? Since both D: and E: are as yet un-used should I create another partition on one of these drives for Linux's boot loader?

Linux sites say to install boot loader on another drive other than the one Linux is on, but agian where?

Also which loader do you recommend, LILO or GRUB or other?http://forums.windrivers.com/images/smilies/sad2.gif

[Zerotech]

I'm getting ready to do a little dabbling in Linux myself (been doing more reading than doing in preparation).

Mandrake is supposed to be the most Windows-like for those making the cross-over (which is why I'm trying Mandrake first). SuSe is also very popular. Personally, I'm steering away from Redhat because they went all MS and offer Fedora freely with no support.

The first few experiments I tried, I used LILO. It would go onto C: on your system (the boot drive) to control which operating system boots up.

Hope I've helped. :)

[+Daemon+]

Ok for this note: when you install a Linux boot loader grub or lilo, you can install it on the mbr of any disk that’s the bootable disk. So forget what you have read and just install the boot loader on the one hard drive you have (in the MBR; Master Boot Loader)

Now for ghosting, depending on what version of ghost you have, if you ghost the windows xp partition, which can be done just fine, however remember this, when you ghost it back windows will likely re-write over the mbr (sometimes) this means you will have to boot off a rescue Linux disc and reinstall the boot loader. Just a FYI.

Ok now that you have the partitions the way you want, only create partitions for windows not for Linux from windows. Linux has there own fdisk and formatting tools. It wont use windows partitions (you do not want to use windows partitions). Here is a basic setup I think you will want.


Partition 1 = C: NTFS
Partition 2 = D: FAT32
Partition 3 = /boot (Linux boot, ext2)
Partition 4 = swap (Linux swap)
Partition 5 = / (Linux native, ext3)

Now I would use the boot loader lilo, since it is easier to use, but if you have problems with lilo you have to use grub, but use lilo first.

[eboyjones]

Thanks Daemon, Zerotech , I have the c & d setup that way now. I Will try setting up Linux as you suggest. But again on which drive should the boot loader be located?

I would appreciate more feedback on a version of Linux to start with for a newbie.

[Stalemate]

...I would appreciate more feedback on a version of Linux to start with for a newbie.

Mandrake, or the "new" Red Hat Desktop would be my picks.

[+Daemon+]

Thanks Daemon, Zerotech , I have the c & d setup that way now. I Will try setting up Linux as you suggest. But again on which drive should the boot loader be located?

I would appreciate more feedback on a version of Linux to start with for a newbie.
try any of them, perhaps try fedora

install the boot loader on the one hard drive you have (in the MBR; Master Boot Loader)

[eboyjones]

install the boot loader on the one hard drive you have (in the MBR; Master Boot Loader)

Thanks again, but Daemon I have three seperate hard drives, not one with 3 partitions. So maybe I am a bit confused by your reply. Excuse my repeatedly asking the same question. Do I install the boot loader on the drive that has Linux or on my c: drive.

[+Daemon+]

np, you want to install it on the main hdd, lilo will usally do this, on disk 1, primary master

[eboyjones]

Thanks much. Will log off and do it this morning.http://forums.windrivers.com/images/smilies/smile.gif