Installing linux on Windows XP Thinkpad

[visio]

Hey, I got a T61 running Windows XP and now that I have done some tuning and updating I am pleased with how its running but there are a couple software packages I need to use for my business which only work on Linux... so I am wondering, how easy and safe it would be to install it on another partition. I have a 160GB hard drive and have 91 left... also how do I go about doing this safely? I don't want to remove windows or effect it in anyway.

MOD EDIT: Moved to linux forum.

[aaa]

There is something called Wubi that lets you dodge messy partitioning (but it ends up taking space as a big file in your Windows partition). But either way, the fact the you have space already (no resizing needed) eliminates most of the risk regardless of which linux you use.

[GIFF]

From one of my other posts:

I second using wubi.

Just run the cd (inside of windows), and select "install inside of windows".

Then select a few options. and your pretty much done.

Ubuntu will install inside of C:\ubuntu\

And now there will be a menu when you start up your Thinkpad just select Ubuntu and your ready to go! I love having the option to dual boot.

I have linux in the past but never could get used to it. But this Ubuntu distro makes everthing pretty easy, which is pretty much why I actually USE linux now.

[whizkid]

You can get it here: http://wubi-installer.org/

[rm]

Hey, I got a T61 running Windows XP and now that I have done some tuning and updating I am pleased with how its running but there are a couple software packages I need to use for my business which only work on Linux... so I am wondering, how easy and safe it would be to install it on another partition. I have a 160GB hard drive and have 91 left... also how do I go about doing this safely? I don't want to remove windows or effect it in anyway.

MOD EDIT: Moved to linux forum.

You can very safely resize your existing partition with tools like GParted to make room for Linux. From what you say your needs are, I think that all you will need is about 15 GB free for a Linux partition to be perfectly comfortable. Make sure you defrag your XP partition before resizing it.

Once this is done, install whatever Linux distro you are interested in. Most of them will offer to use the free space on your hard drive to create the Linux partitions that it needs (at least one SWAP partition and one for the OS). If you can afford to free up 30 GB on your hard drive, you will be able to have more than one Linux OS installed at the same time (sharing one SWAP partition). This is the way to go with laptops since some distros are strong in one area while others are strong in others, and on a laptop your environment is very variable.

I recommend allowing Linux to take over the boot partition. It will add an entry for Windows automatically and, if you ever have the need to tweak it, it is much more flexible and easy to configure than Windows' boot manager.

[trent9008]

I second rm.

[snessiram]

I do too. I've quite often resized windows partitions with a gparted live cd and never experienced problems doing so. I'm not sure if you have to but I usually reboot into windows before doing anything with the space that became free just to be sure and it sometimes does a chkdsk then when booting.

I don't know for other linux distributions but ubuntu has a "use largest gap of free space" (something like that) option during the install which I often find very handy.

Also note that I've experienced that gparted not only boots much faster then ubuntu live cd, but also allows you to remove swap partitions whereas gparted on the ubuntu live cd sometimes sees them as being locked.

[pailhead]

VirtualBox rules pretty hard. I use it the other way around (Ubuntu with a V-Box running XP) for Adobe applications on my T61. It works really well. XP is actually faster than it was as the only OS on this machine.

Setting up a small partition of Linux should be no problem. I've done it before. GParted works really well.

[tylerwylie]

VirtualBox rules pretty hard. I use it the other way around (Ubuntu with a V-Box running XP) for Adobe applications on my T61. It works really well. XP is actually faster than it was as the only OS on this machine.

Setting up a small partition of Linux should be no problem. I've done it before. GParted works really well.

Second the Virtualization solution, but instead VMWare Workstation

[texasmike]

If you want to setup your computer to dual boot Win/Linux, make sure to defrag at least 2 times first. Then I would use gParted to setup your partitions.

Or you could just run Linux inside a virtual machine right from Windows. I use Virtualbox myself for running Win XP as a guest from a Linux host.

[syedj]

Second the Virtualization solution, but instead VMWare Workstation

I third virtualization solution, but instead with free VMWare Server, Workstation is not free.

[jglen490]

I disagree with virtualization, under the premise that the OP put down. If the OP only needs to run a process or two, wubi is the best way to go. Running Linux on it's own, would be second, but only if the OP can afford to reboot. Running two full blown OSes inside a virtualization environment is going suck up a lot of resources. It's cool, it's hip, it's modern technology, but virtualization requires a penalty that in MOST cases, for a single user, is just not necessary.