Linux Install Danger

duke11235 · #1 2009-11-04, 06:02 PM CST

I now have Windows XP installed, with 30GB of free space on the end of my hard rive. If I install linux there, will it cause Windows XP to fail? Last time I tried this, it says hal.dll was not found. However, that may have been caused by having five partitions. Do u think its safe now that I'll only have 4? Will Windows XP fail if I put in a partition in the free space?

Also, Why does it says I'm using Safari in Windows, I'm using Google Chrome

**stoat** · #2 2009-11-04, 06:31 PM CST

Hello duke11235,

I don't think Windows will fail from installing Fedora if you're careful and do it correctly. But that should be said about installing any new system on your hard drive (including a new Windows system). People install Linux behind XP and other Windows systems all the time. I don't know what happened to you that last time, so I can't promise you that nothing bad will happen. But when I read posts like yours expressing such concerns, I often recommend installing Linux on a separate drive with the Windows drive disconnected during the installation. There is usually some simple tweaking of the boot loader required after the Windows drive is reconnected. But it's easy stuff and well-documented. If you have only one drive, then consider not allowing the Fedora installer (aka Anaconda) to install the GRUB boot loader in the master boot record. That will preserve your XP boot loader. Instead watch for and choose the boot loader option in Anaconda to install GRUB in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition. After the installation, XP will boot as though nothing has happened. Then configure the XP boot loader to boot Fedora (another well-documented topic).

About the partitions... If it's Fedora 11 and you want to use the new ext4 filesystem with it, you will need at least an ext3 boot partition, ext4 root partition, and a swap. Some people don't use swap, but I recommend it anyway. If you are willing to use the ext3 partition type for the root partition, then you can get by with just a root and swap even with Fedora 11. If you create an extended partition on your hard drive, then the number of partitions stops being an issue at all (within reason, of course, and within the 15 partition limit of the SATA driver). Fedora can exist entirely in logical partitions. Then your major remaining partition issue will be disk space.

P.S.: That "hal.dll is missing" message is kinda bogus. I've seen it before when the boot loader config files get misconfigured. I promise you that Anaconda did nothing to hal.dll buried inside your Windows partition. Anaconda can totally destroy a Windows partition, but it will not find and selectively destroy the hal.dll file.

tjvanwyk · #3 2009-11-04, 06:39 PM CST

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

About the partitions... If it's Fedora 11 and you want to use the new ext4 filesystem with it, you will need at least an ext3 boot partition, ext4 root partition, and a swap. Some people don't use swap, but I recommend it anyway. If you are willing to use the ext3 partition type for the root partition, then you can get by with just a root and swap. If you create an extended partition on your hard drive, then the number of partitions stops being an issue at all. Fedora can exist entirely in logical partitions. Then the only limit you will be concerned about is disk space.

Just to pitch in two cents (stoat knows this, but didn't mention it so I'll throw it out there): a swap partition is not truly necessary even if you want a swap. You can create a swap file after the install process that will function more or less the same as a full swap partition. I usually do that these days. I'll go without a swap and then just make a swap file later if necessary. As far as I know there's no difference in the performance of a swap partition vs. a swap file, and it's easier to adjust your swap size if you're using a file, should the need arise.

Also, if you tell the Fedora installer to not touch existing partitions, it won't. (At least I've never seen it do so, unlike the Windows installer - but that's neither here nor there.) Just pay attention to what you're doing.

BUT... sometimes Murphy's law kicks in. Partition tables get corrupted because the computer gods get angry, the cat jumps on your keyboard while you're making your partition layout, or some such SNAFU. So backup all important data. As we all should be doing already anyway, right?

**scottro** · #4 2009-11-04, 06:40 PM CST

As for the safari message, it seems that many things seem to think Chrome is safari. For example, in Linux, when I use chromium to edit a drupal page, I get a message (though I am not sure it's not from chromium itself), that something in safari is experimental. (I haven't paid attention to the message, I fear.)