After Windows is installed and you have free disk space ready for Linux,
you can start the Red Hat Linux installation program. Go to Chapter 1 to begin. At this point, the only difference between
a Red Hat Linux installation and configuring a dual-boot system during the Red Hat Linux
installation is partitioning the hard drive and configuring the boot
loader. When you are at the Disk Partitioning Setup
screen as described in the section called Disk Partitioning Setup in Chapter 3, return to this
section.
At the Disk Partitioning Setup screen of the
installation program, you have a few options. Depending on which
option you choose, the steps for configuring a dual-boot system vary.
If you do not know how many Linux partitions to create, refer to the section called Partitioning Your System in Chapter 3 for a recommended partitioning scheme.
If you choose:
Automatic partitioning — Choose Keep all
partitions and use existing free space. This option
will leave your Windows partitions on the hard drive and partition
the free space or additional hard drive for Red Hat Linux.
Manual partitioning with Disk Druid
— Do not delete the existing Windows partitions (they are
the partitions of type
vfat). Create your Linux
partitions on the additional hard drive or in the free space you
have reserved for Red Hat Linux.
Manual partitioning with fdisk —
Simliar to using Disk Druid except you
will not have the graphical interface. The basic procedure is the
same. Do not delete the existing partitions of type
FAT16,
FAT32, or
NTFS. Create your Linux
partitions on the additional hard drive or in the free space you
have reserved for Red Hat Linux.
When you arrive at the Boot Loader Installation
screen during the Red Hat Linux installation, choose to install the boot
loader. You can use a different boot loader to boot both Red Hat Linux and
Windows. Red Hat does not support alternate boot loaders. Thus, this
section will discuss how to configure GRUB or LILO to boot both
operating systems.
The Red Hat Linux installation program will usually detect Windows and
automatically configure the boot loader (GRUB or LILO) to boot either
Red Hat Linux or Windows. This can be seen on the boot loader screen of the
installation program. An entry named DOS appears
in the list of operating systems to boot.
After the installation, whenever you start the computer, you can
indicate whether you want to start Red Hat Linux or the other operating system
from the boot loader screen. Choose Red Hat Linux to boot
into Red Hat Linux, and choose DOS to boot into Windows.
If you did not partition all the free space on your hard drive for
Red Hat Linux, you can partition it for Windows after installing Red Hat Linux. You
can use cfdisk or
fdisk to create these
partitions. cfdisk is easier to use than
fdisk because it is more interactive and
has a menu from which to choose.
 | Warning |
|---|
| | It is highly recommended that you use
cfdisk or fdisk
to create partitions after installing Red Hat Linux. Other partitioning
software has been known to change the partitioning table of the hard
drive and move the Linux partitions. If this happens, the boot
loader will not be able to find the Linux partitions and will not
boot into Red Hat Linux.
|
To access the files on the Windows partitions while using Red Hat Linux, refer
to the Accessing a Windows Partition FAQ in the
Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide. If you formatted the Windows
partitions in NTFS format, this method will not work.
