{"id":413,"date":"2010-02-01T22:32:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T03:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/?p=413"},"modified":"2010-02-01T22:32:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T03:32:14","slug":"dual-boot-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/install-linux\/dual-boot-linux","title":{"rendered":"Dual-boot Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What do we mean by &#8220;Dual boot&#8221; anyway?<\/h2>\n<p>Dual boot means that our computer has 2 (two) Operating Systems. \u00a0We choose which one to &#8220;Boot&#8221; into when the computer starts.<\/p>\n<p>Many Linux users dual-boot as a way of sharing a computer. \u00a0This saves you money. \u00a0Why? Because you keep the computer you already own and install Linux on it. \u00a0I have dual booted with Windows XP and more recently, Mac OS-X Snow Leopard. \u00a0Since I don&#8217;t have a PC running Vista or Windows 7, this post will only discuss Win XP &amp; Snow Leopard dual booting with Linux.<\/p>\n<h2>How to dual boot with Linux and Windows (or Mac)<\/h2>\n<p>There are many online tutorials available. \u00a0I won&#8217;t post a tutorial here because that would be \u00a0&#8220;reinventing the wheel&#8221;. \u00a0I will only describe the fine points. \u00a0If I&#8217;ve done my job, then the process might be less intimidating when it&#8217;s time to set up your dual-boot environment.<\/p>\n<h3>Dual booting with Windows and Linux<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>First things first. \u00a0If your computer already has Windows or Mac OS-X on it, then <strong>backup your documents<\/strong>. \u00a0While the process of dual-booting is better than it was years ago, things can still go wrong. \u00a0Don&#8217;t lose your files. \u00a0Be safe, not sorry.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re running Windows XP (yes, I know this post may be outdated as we are already within the era of Windows 7) <strong>clean up your hard drive<\/strong> (junk files, temporary files) and then <strong>defragment<\/strong>. \u00a0It&#8217;s very important to defragment. \u00a0You don&#8217;t want documents and Windows Operating system files scattered all about the hard drive.<\/li>\n<li>Open a web browser and get a cup of coffee or tea. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because I think it&#8217;s a good idea now to view some <a title=\"Dual Booting WinXP and Linux (Windows installed first)\" href=\"http:\/\/apcmag.com\/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_linux_xp_installed_first.htm\" target=\"_self\">online tutorial (with screenshots) about dual-booting<\/a>. \u00a0You may even want to print out the pages of the tutorial so you can refer to them while performing the various steps involved with dual-booting. \u00a0The tutorial is easy to follow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dual booting with Mac OS-X and Linux<\/h3>\n<p>I recently purchased a MacBook and I wanted to dual-boot this machine. \u00a0Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I love the Mac OS-X. \u00a0There are just things that I needed to set up quickly that I&#8217;m still learning how to do under Mac OS-X. \u00a0Under Linux there are things that I&#8217;ve done enough times that it&#8217;s become second nature. \u00a0Here are some notes and suggestions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To dual-boot Mac OS-X and Linux, you will be creating at least one partition on your hard drive. \u00a0It&#8217;s not hard to do. \u00a0<a title=\"Install Linux on Mac OS-X\" href=\"http:\/\/www.maclife.com\/article\/howtos\/install_linux_your_mac\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s a link to the tutorial that I used<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I suggest following the instructions in the tutorial. \u00a0It helped me set up my Mac OS-X and Linux dual boot machine very quickly. \u00a0Same approach as before; backup your documents, do a cleanup if necessary, and <strong>read the tutorial completely<\/strong> before performing the steps.<\/li>\n<li>Pay extra attention to the bootloader installation step at tutorial&#8217;s end. \u00a0If you install the bootloader in the wrong place, things can break\u2014badly.<\/li>\n<li>Even though my MacBook is a 64-bit machine, I installed a 32-bit Linux distro. \u00a0I would recommend a 32-bit distro as it&#8217;s likely to be more stable for uses such as these.<\/li>\n<li>The tutorial assumes that you&#8217;re running an Intel-based system (also called &#8220;mactel&#8221;). \u00a0Be sure that this is the case before following any tutorial.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do we mean by &#8220;Dual boot&#8221; anyway? Dual boot means that our computer has 2 (two) Operating Systems. \u00a0We choose which one to &#8220;Boot&#8221; into when the computer starts. Many Linux users dual-boot as a way of sharing a computer. \u00a0This saves you money. \u00a0Why? Because you keep the computer you already own and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,20,23,24],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drive-setup","category-install-linux","category-use-linux","category-freedom-choice","tag-install"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nylinuxhelp.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}