[coderitr]

I've found the .iso files for Red Hat Linux 9 on a public FTP server and have been downloading them since this morning. I want to install it but I have only 2 working hard drives besides the 120 GB in my XP system. I have my old system -- a P3 800 desktop with a 4GB hard drive and my notebook -- a P3 600 with a 6GB hard drive. My question is, will Linux install and run on these machines? Secondly, what will be required to set up a dual boot XP/Linux installation on my desktop. I'm assuming that I need separate partitions on which to install each OS but chances are that Linux won't recognize an NTFS partition and XP won't see a (whatever file system Linux sits on) partition -- so what manages the boot selection?

Any help you guys/gals can provide will be appreciated.

[coderitr]

Oh yeah -- current desktop computer is a P4 2.8 gHz with 120 GB hard drive, 256 MB RAM, AGP video, SiS onboard ethernet, etc.

[Whiteskin]

Will run easy on both, though setup will be much simpler on the desktop. Laptops have interesting configurations, and can be a pain. Also, linux will fit very easy into that space.

[lynch]

I'm assuming that I need separate partitions on which to install each OS but chances are that Linux won't recognize an NTFS partition and XP won't see a (whatever file system Linux sits on) partition -- so what manages the boot selection?

You assume correctly about partitions. Also about NTFS, but this only applies to Redhat and Fedora.Every other version of Linux that I know of can read NTFS. RH excluded the NTFS read capability for copyright reasons.
You can create a fat32 partition for both OSes to share files or you can try Samba, though I'm not sure if that works on a single drive.
Linux will install a bootloader to the MBR and set it up so you can choose an OS at boot. You can edit the bootloader config file to make either one the default OS.
HTH
lynch

[coderitr]

Thanks everyone for the help. I have successfully installed Linux on my notebook and it is working well. I've been reading everything I can find on installing Linux in a dual boot environment and the one stumbling block that I'm running in to is the SATA hard drive that I'm using in my P4. At least one account states that support for SATA drives in Linux is still uncertain. Also, the boot manager (LILO, Samba, etc) must be on a FAT32 partition, right? I don't know of any DOS drivers for an SATA channel so I have no way to create a FAT32 partition on my disk. Any ideas? Anyone else using a SATA drive in this manner?

Thanks Again

[Whiteskin]

SATA is still early development. Perhaps you ought to wait on the desktop, or get a small(ish) ATA disk to use linux with.

[coderitr]

Thanks Whiteskin. The problem is that SATA and IDE hard drives do not play well together from the experience that I've gathered so far. I tried putting in an IDE disk and could not get the computer to boot from the SATA disk at all. I couldn't figure out a way around that and I just wanted the additional disk for backup storage anyway so I gave up.

[Whiteskin]

Too bad. Though, i'm sure there are some hard working souls trying to solve this very problem. Keep on looking