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Should I install the boot manager on the first partition of the first HD or in the boot sector of the hard drive? ( currently w2k and xp dual boot )

What packages should I install?
I plan to use it for:
Programming( Java / C / C++ )
Web surfing
Checking e-mail + newsgroups
Word Processing

Thanks in advance.
Yahoolian

I can only answer your first question. Which bootloader do you intend to use? LILO or GRUB (Linux bootloader) or stick with NTLDR (Windows NT bootloader)

If you want the Linux one, you can install it in the bootsector, I know that Mandrake Linux will automatically recognize Windows and enable it on its bootscreen.

If not, install it in the first partition and use a Linux bootdisk to get into Linux to mount the boot files onto a disk and copy it into the boot.ini file in your C:/ (There are different ways to do this, and you can check Google to find out)

etilena wrote:

I can only answer your first question. Which bootloader do you intend to use? LILO or GRUB (Linux bootloader) or stick with NTLDR (Windows NT bootloader)

I am planning on using LILO. Will it detect the windows installations?

Yahoolian wrote:

etilena wrote:

I can only answer your first question. Which bootloader do you intend to use? LILO or GRUB (Linux bootloader) or stick with NTLDR (Windows NT bootloader)

I am planning on using LILO. Will it detect the windows installations?

It should detect them and give you the option of adding them to the boot menu. Most likely the way it will wind up is boot to LILO, choose Windows and then choose which Windows to boot from NTLDR.

As for which packages, do a custom install and add development and maybe kernel development to the default packages. And don't worry about getting everything during the install, you can always add stuff later.

I've posted this on a previous thread, so here it goes:

For using NTLDR to load linux, follow these steps:

- Install your distro (Mandrake or whatever), and when it prompts you about the boot-scheme, order it to install LILO/GRUB/whatever on the boot sector of the root partition (NOT in hard disk's boot sector).
- Then, open up a console and mount your Windows partition in some directory (I'll assume /mnt for that), and do the following (I'll presume your Linux partition is /dev/hdc1):

Code:
dd if=/dev/hdc1 of=/mnt/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1


This will copy 1 block (the "count" parameter) of 512 bytes (the "b"), from the device /dev/hdc1 (the "if"->"input file") into the file /mnt/bootsect.lnx (the "of"->"output file").

The net result will be that it will copy the first 512 bytes of your Linux partition (which contain the bootsector that you told it to stick there in the installation) and dump it into a file.

- Then open up your boot.ini in the Windows partition and add a line after the [operating systems] tag:

c:\bootsect.lnx="My 3l33t Linux distro".

Next time you boot, voila... You get a new item in your boot menu to boot into Linux.

Hope this helps out. For further info, re-post.