How to install Linux and Solaris after windows

[Al-Manar]

Hello

I have windows XP on the computer. I want to install Linux and Solaris operating systems on the same PC for educational porpuse without removing windows XP. Anyone knows any URL or guides that shows how to do that?

Thank you

 

[PC eye]

The first thing you will need is a Linux partitioning tool that can also shrink the XP partition enough for creating tthe root and swap for Linux depending on distro and Solaris. GParted live for cd will be the best tool also known as the Gnome Partition Editor. Along with the download of the iso disk image for that you will need a program like BurnOn to create the bootable cd using a cd-r not cd-rw.

The 0.3.3.0 release of GParted will be the latest release without a need for mounting the "start x" feature now see in the newer versions at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828

The screen shots as well as other intructions for using the Linux partitioning tool are found at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php BurnOn has a free version that works well for burning Linux iso images to make bootable cds and is found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/

If you are planning to see changes to the XP mbr then a tutorial for either Grub or Lilo would be the thing to look at. Ubuntu did have a universal boot loader on floppy at one time that required no changes to any mbr. Once booted you simply selected the partition and ubuntu would load the OS on it. Other universal types are often retail for those.

There are a ton of links for both Grub and Lilo including the ones seen here for multibooting OSs.

http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/programming.html#multibooting

http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=405

One guide for dual booting Solaris 9 with XP is seen at http://michael.gasperi.priv.at/documents/solaris-9-dual-boot-with-windows-xp When the sata comes in this week Solaris 10 will have a chance to multiboot with XP, Vista, and the Mandriva distro.