[Sussex] Gentoo and laptop....

[John Crowhurst]

> OK - the time has come to build Gentoo on my laptop...
>
> ... BUT ....
>
> ... and this is imporant...
>
> ... I need to preserve the current Windows 2000 build for dual boot -
> basically, the build in question is certified to be directly connected
> to a scared-of-linux client's network, and that client's the one that
> pays me the highest day rate, so I don't want to piss them off. :-)

Initiate a complete backup of the hard drive, so you have something to go
back to if it all goes pearshaped.

Use a partition program (like partition magic) to move the partitions
around and create a linux partition, and swap partition.

Install linux to that partition.

> Is this viable / sensible? Should I be scared?

It's viable, lots of people have done it in the past, there are two Linux
HOWTO's that explain how to do it, the first for using LILO as the boot
loader, and the second to use Win2K as the boot loader. They refer to
WinNT, but 2K is basically NT to the rest of the world!

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Linux+WinNT
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader

If you made a good backup, so if things ever do go wrong you have a simple
recovery, then you shouldn't be too scared.

--
John