I've been running Debian Linux on my personal
computers for years. Recently my son found a Dell Optiplex 745 (one
of the small format machines that I prefer) at a very reasonable
price – with a valid license for Windows XP. It was time to
upgrade both software and hardware.
As my old Dell GX270 (with Debian
Lenny) was working just fine, I decided to try for a dual-boot
install on the new box. I found this
tutorial online.
I downloaded gparted, as suggested, and
burned the iso to a CD. I then cleaned up the Windows XP
installation and did a defrag. I ended up with the large majority of
the 80Gb disc free.
I then booted gparted and followed the
tutorial to shrink the Windows partition to ~ 20Gb. A re-boot proved Windows XP was still happy.
I downloaded the latest Debian Testing – Wheezy – as a netinst (network install) iso and again
burned a CD. After connecting the new machine to the network, I
booted the netinst CD and did a routine install for a desktop.
Things went well until the install asked me if I wanted to install
the grub bootloader on the MBR. At this point grub was supposed to
detect the Windows XP partition and edit the grub menu accordingly.
But it did not. I had no choice but to continue with the Wheezy
installation.
Wheezy booted fine, but I had no easy
way to boot to Windows. Some quick research revealed a problem with
grub detecting the Windows partition during the Wheezy install. The
note said that running (as root):
grub-update
would repair the problem. It did.
Grub detected Windows XP and added it to the bootloader menu.
I then had a dual-boot machine with
Debian Wheezy (testing) and Windows XP. Both run fine.
I would not normally bother with
Windows, but there are still several Amateur Radio Windows
applications which do not have a functional equivalent in Linux –
notably antenna modeling software.
Plus, it was interesting to try my
first dual-boot..
WB5BKL - Nick
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