G.2. Installing Red Hat Linux in a Dual-Boot Environment
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 Steps to Get You Started 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 Section 3.17 Disk Partitioning Setup, return to this
section.
G.2.1. Disk Partitioning
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 Section 3.19 Partitioning Your System 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.
G.2.2. Configuring the Boot Loader
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 3rd-party boot loader (such as System Commander
or Partition Magic) 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.
G.2.3. Post-Installation
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 parted to create these partitions. For
example, to view the partition table, you type
print in parted. For more
information about parted, refer to Section G.3 Partitioning with parted or to the
Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.
 | Warning |
|---|
| | It is highly recommended that you use
parted 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
Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide. If you formatted the Windows
partitions in NTFS format, this method will not work.
