Computer Hope

Software => BSD, Linux, and Unix => Topic started by: msaboor35 on June 17, 2015, 12:43:22 AM

Title: Dual-booting windows xp with kali linux
Post by: msaboor35 on June 17, 2015, 12:43:22 AM
 I want to make windows xp dual boot with kali linux (KALI LINUX IS INSTALLED FIRST). Can anybody help me with that?
Title: Re: Dual-booting windows xp with kali linux
Post by: Geek-9pm on June 17, 2015, 09:17:49 AM
I want to make windows xp dual boot with kali linux (KALI LINUX IS INSTALLED FIRST). Can anybody help me with that?
No.  {short answer}
You need to make room for a primary partition on the hard drive. It should be the first partition. Yes, windows XP can boot from other partitions, but there are many obstacles to overcome. {long answer}

Myself, I have done this a number of times and find the short answer us the sway to go. You  must install XP first. Then Linux will deal with the details. It helps if you have spare hard drives you can use for testing different methods.
It is understood that you must have some kind of backup plan.

This phrase ' Dual-booting windows xp with Linux' in  a search brings hundreds, even thousands  of articles on the Internet from the past few years.
Almost always requires XP to be installed first

Hardware solution. Use two hard drives. Use BIOS to switch systems.
Title: Re: Dual-booting windows xp with kali linux
Post by: zeroburn on June 26, 2015, 04:57:13 PM
I would agree with Geek-9pm.

Only if it is critical for you to keep your data from Kali, just load Windows on your machine and then reinstall Kali after that. If you must, read on.

Microsoft OS's depend on being the primary OS on the drive in order to boot. Linux too, it could be argued.

Booting multiple OS's is a feature enabled by GRUB, which is installed along with most (If not every) linux distribution. GRUB is like it's own mini-OS that loads from the primary partition and, once loaded, can boot up any other operating system on any other partition.

The linux installation, if Windows is installed first, will take care of configuring GRUB to have an option to boot into that.
If Windows is installed after, you'd have to either try running
Code: [Select]
update-grub from Kali and seeing if it will detect windows, or manually edit your GRUB configuration.

Personally when I had this issue, I just backed up my data, installed Windows on the drive, then did the linux install and let it autoconfigure GRUB for me.

Let us know what route you take. I hope you get this worked out.