Problems on dual-booting XP and RedHat

Hi all,

I am currently running XP and i want to dual boot it along with RedHat. I know that i must first partition my hard drive and have space for linux. However i have heard that i must not install linux further than the 1024 cylinder or the BIOS will not recognize it. The first 1024 cylinder is about the first 8.5 GB or so and is not enough space for linux and the stuff ill install later.

When i install linux will it be able to recognize and write on the data on the xp NTFS partition? Can i install linux ANYWHERE on my hard drive and still be able to boot it? Do i need a boot manager or is there some default windows one that will activate itself when i have two OS?

I have already 3 primary partitions (DELLUTILITY, C:drive and some DOS partion) of which none can be deleted and i can create only one more primary partition. What do i do in order to install linux AND have space to install stuff on it? Please help me.

Thanks,

I install linux anyware an my drive, though you will have to install the Bootloader (either GrUB (Grand Unified Bootoader) or LiLo (Linux Loader)) on the MBR of your hard drive (which I think is the 1024 number you were refering to). A bootloader will be installed for you at the install.

Linux will be able to read NTFS partitions, but it is not safe at the moment to write to them. If you would like to share files between both OS's you can create a FAT32 partition that can be read and written by both OS's.

You will need at least two partitions for Linux (either primery or logical). One being the / partition were the OS is installed, and the other being SWAP (about 512MB should be big enough) which acts like virtual memory.

OK, i went to the GRUB site but the installation seems very hard. I need to boot from DOS and then istall it. Is there any simple way of doing that. Do i need a separate partition for GRUB?

So basically what GRUB will do is it will boot at the begining and then ill tell it look for the linux paertition which is further away on my hard drive and itll boot linux.

However i dont understand why i need 2 partitions for linux. Please exlpain

Thanks

You should not need to install GrUB, the distro's installer will do that.

You need two partitions for linux since you install the operating system on one ( / ) and the other that needs not be more than 512MB is size is used as virtual memory, it is konwn as the SWAP partition. Virtual memory (the SWAP partition) is like the pager file in Windows (but it has a partition for itself), and gives extra memory, so that for inctance, if you have two instences of EMACS running, when the second in loaded, some of the processes can be shared by both instaces, so prosseses that need to be there, but not directly used can go into the SWAP partition. So basicly it is extra RAM.

dylunio