Linux dual boot with Vista.

[Dark_Knight]

Anyone that has successfully installed a Linux distribution after installing Windows Vista please post your results (success or failure) and any advice to help readers here.

I've been trying to find the best solution using current free tools other than using third party commercial partition managers. OpenSUSE 10.2 comes with it's own partition utility but hangs when trying to resize the Windows Vista NTFS partition. I don't know if this is an issue specific to the partition manager that is part of OpenSUSE or possibly an issue specific to Windows Vista. Several Linux distributions come with their own partition manger such as OpenSUSE, Mandriva Linux, etc and I'd be interested in finding out what members here have experienced.

[Aram]

I've success. What kind of problem do you have..?

[TUK]

After installing Vista the Vista boot menu appears offering Vista or my XP instal but no option to boot FC6, so I need to re-install GRUB as my first boot menu:

Here is my drive partition info:

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[root@k1 ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6528 52436128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6529 13056 52436160 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 19958 30401 83891428 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 13057 19957 55432282+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 13057 13069 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 13070 19957 55327828+ 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order
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Iv tried the following steps

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boot: linux rescue

# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# cd /boot/grub

# grep '#boot' grub.conf
Ouput:#boot=/dev/sda

# grub-install /dev/sda4

# sync;sync;exit;exit
# reboot
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It seem to install on to sda4 and even displays info on what looks like a boot directory to double check that its correct the partition, before running the exit commands

But on Reboot the Vista menu appears?

[Dark_Knight]

I've success. What kind of problem do you have..?

Aram,

It doesn't give any error, just hangs. Possibly an issue with Microsoft's update for NTFS on Windows Vista. When I get time later this week I'm going to format the drive and try again. Next time if it occurs I'm going to see if there's a more detailed error report in the log. It would be nice if Microsoft could be more business friendly by making a better installer to recognize alternate OS such as Linux already installed on a single workstation or LAN.

When you installed Vista was it on a single partition and did you select NTFS or FAT? What Linux distribution and version are you using with Windows Vista? Did you use a third party partition manager or one built into the Linux distribution you currently use?

[TUK]

Check this thread, especially the description of when I try to re-install GRUB after Vista install, check if your symptoms are the same as mine and post back

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...reinstall.html

[Dark_Knight]

No longer an issue. Previously I was having a repartition issue resizing the NTFS partitions of Windows Vista and installing GRUB in the MBR using YAST recommended default partition set-up for a dual boot system. The resolution was to format the drive, run chkdsk, install Vista, run a system defrag after the updates, run chkdsk again, install OpenSUSE with GRUB as the bootloader.

[BennyJensen]

I partition my drive to have 3 partitions:
0: 200Mb to be used for GRUB, unformatted
1: This is where i installed VISTA
2: Unformatted for Linus

This works just fine with GRUB handling my double boot.

Benny

[saikee]

Don't know what problems you have but these are few points of Vista

(1) It can be chainloaded just like a Dos, Windows, BSD or Solaris.

(2) Vista has its own resizer program inside. You can shrink it or expand it at will.

(3) If you create a NTFS primary partition first you can tell Vista installer to get on with it to install inside. It will nuke the MBR but you can restore Grub or Lilo later.

(4) You can install Vista on the first disk and then move it to any other disk position. It will boot if you use Grub's map statements to swap the disk order on-the-fly. Lilo can do it also.

I installed Vista in hdc3 as just one of the 145 systems in the box. Didn't find it any thing different. If it is cloned the second image has to be re-activated. Think that is it.