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Dual boot XBMC and XP using XBMC live - Printable Version

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Dual boot XBMC and XP using XBMC live - rief - 2009-02-27

Hi

I'm new, I need some suggestions on dual boot XBMC and XP.
The current XBMC live wipe out all space of the harddisk.
How can I install GRUB as in ordinary UBUNTU instalation?
Is it possible?

Thank you

- jochenz - 2009-03-02

rief Wrote:Hi

I'm new, I need some suggestions on dual boot XBMC and XP.
The current XBMC live wipe out all space of the harddisk.
How can I install GRUB as in ordinary UBUNTU instalation?
Is it possible?

Thank you

i'd be intereseted in this answer too!

- Marcos - 2010-01-17

I'm interested too, trying to give 13GB to XBMC and 130GB to XP. XP is already installed, but when i try to install XBMC the installer only gives me the option to erase the whole drive.

...


unless your supposed to take the risk and press Y to continue, does it give the option after that to use a partition and not the whole drive?

- deepblue - 2010-01-18

Yes it's possible, you first need to shrink the drive in Windows to create some free unpartitioned space, then fire up the XBMC installer and go into the "Manual" partition setting. This lets you choose to format the free space for XBMC, and you then install grub to the root of the drive that contains the bootable partition, and voila.

- Marcos - 2010-01-18

deepblue Wrote:Yes it's possible, you first need to shrink the drive in Windows to create some free unpartitioned space, then fire up the XBMC installer and go into the "Manual" partition setting. This lets you choose to format the free space for XBMC, and you then install grub to the root of the drive that contains the bootable partition, and voila.

Hi, thanks for the response but...im not seeing the "Manual" option

I have a 13GB unpartitioned space in the HDD, and a 130GB NTFS XP install partition.


Here are the steps i get:

---------------------------

Boot into USB XBMC Live installer

Select "Install to XBMC to disk (HDD or USB)"

Press a key to continue...ok

Choose disk to use (Gives me only one choice, /dev/sda (156290), which is the full capacity of the internal HDD that has a 130GB NTFS XP partition on it that i want to keep.

Do you want the installer to handle it as a removable disk instead - Yes/No does this make a difference?

And then the furthest i get to is...

Erasing disk /dev/sda, proceed?

So i abort there because it really looks like if i say yes im going to lose my XP partition and a few hours of my time in the process. Sad

- TxDot - 2010-01-30

deepblue Wrote:Yes it's possible, you first need to shrink the drive in Windows to create some free unpartitioned space, then fire up the XBMC installer and go into the "Manual" partition setting. This lets you choose to format the free space for XBMC, and you then install grub to the root of the drive that contains the bootable partition, and voila.
I've done this but the space is marked as "unusable" and I see no option to format the free space. Any suggestions?

- vikjon0 - 2010-01-30

You dont need to shrink it in windows. The installer will fix that.


Quote:Boot into USB XBMC Live installer

Select "Install to XBMC to disk (HDD or USB)"

Press a key to continue...ok
Looks like you are using the old version? Make sure you download the 9.11repack from the xbmc.org.
There will be an option to shrink xp and install linux next to it.

- zosky - 2010-01-30

cool. if 9.11repack does then, then that's a nice addition.

i did this manually about a year. this is how i went about it... boot from a distro live CD of choice, partition as needed (10 for XBMC + 30 for XP + 950 for /home ), install "live" using the XBMCbuntu wiki page in my sig, install windows.

im in xbmc 90% of the time, and dual booting like once a week, to get my frag on for a few hours Rolleyes

Be forwarned
  • it takes a little more lovin care, but the end result is identical.
  • "Although this guide is not written for Linux neophytes,
    it is easily followed by anyone who can complete a Linux install."


- TxDot - 2010-01-30

vikjon0 Wrote:You dont need to shrink it in windows. The installer will fix that.



Looks like you are using the old version? Make sure you download the 9.11repack from the xbmc.org.
There will be an option to shrink xp and install linux next to it.
I do have the 9.11repack. Maybe the repack has been repacked since I downloaded it? I don't see a date associated with the download other than the date I downloaded it. How do I know what date the repack was created?

Edit: I checked the file date in the zip and it is 12/26/2009. Is that the most current?

- vikjon0 - 2010-01-30

Quote:Edit: I checked the file date in the zip and it is 12/26/2009. Is that the most current?

Yes, boot CD then select install and after you have selected language and country you get a screen "Partition disks"
Select resize to automaically put ubuntu next to existing OS. Or select Manual to do what ever you want including resizing partitions.

- TxDot - 2010-01-30

vikjon0 Wrote:Yes, boot CD then select install and after you have selected language and country you get a screen "Partition disks"
Select resize to automaically put ubuntu next to existing OS. Or select Manual to do what ever you want including resizing partitions.
I don't see an option for resize. These are the options I see;
Guided - use entire disk
Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM
Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Manual

Note that I'm using the xbmc Live CD

- Marcos - 2010-01-30

I think i have a similar problem, might just Win7 on with XBMC and WMC for HD instead of bual-boot

- TxDot - 2010-01-30

I tried this again my selecting Manual, selected the existing partition to resize, reduced it to 40% of its current size. Now I get a list of partitions as follows;

Code:
SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 160.0 GB ATA Hitachi HTS54501
  #1 primary      8.6 GB     ntfs
  #2 primary     43.6 GB  B  ntfs
  #3 primary     43.4 GB     ntfs
     unusable    65.1 GB     unusable
  #4 primary     32.5 MB

If I then select the partition marked unusable I get a screen that says;
How to use this free space:
Show Cylinder/Head/Sector information.
If I hit enter on that screen I get a display that shows the beginning and ending locations of the partition. I select Continue and go back to the partitioning menu.

If I then select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk" I get a red screen that says;
No root file system is defined.
Please correct this from the partitioning menu.

I'm stuck. :confused2:

- vikjon0 - 2010-01-31

Quote:I don't see an option for resize. These are the options I see;
Guided - use entire disk
Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM
Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Manual

Note that I'm using the xbmc Live CD
I guess this is because he does not see the other operating system. If xp I dont know why, I have seen it working on my own laptop. If win7 it could be that the installer does not recognize w7 yet?
I think since the installer does not see your win he will not add it to the boot loader either and you will loose sight of you win installation. Be careful.

Quote:If I then select the partition marked unusable I get a screen that says;
How to use this free space:
Show Cylinder/Head/Sector information.
If I hit enter on that screen I get a display that shows the beginning and ending locations of the partition. I select Continue and go back to the partitioning menu.

If I then select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk" I get a red screen that says;
No root file system is defined.
Please correct this from the partitioning menu.

1) This is a bit more complicated. You need to create one partition as ext4 and select mount point / and normally also a swap partition.
It could very well be that this is a bit too advance for you and that you risk messing up your system.

2) I dont think I recognize this "unusable". I also see that you already have 4 primary partitions. I think might be the max at least in winxp.
This could be the source of your whole problem. To fix this without first removing your data could be a but messy. Too make it more flexable you should have created extended partition instaed and put the extra xp partitions in that.
To fix your problem it might be enough to delete #4 and re-run installer.

To get it exactly as you want you should probably read up on the manual option then drop all partitions except xp boot, create an extended partition for media files and then add a xbmc / and a swap.

- TxDot - 2010-02-01

The device I'm installing xbmc on is a Asus eee EB1012 so the drive was already partitioned. Since the "data" partition had no data on it I deleted it and then added a new extended partition using the diskpart utility. Then when I rebooted and started the xbmc install I did have the menu option to resize the disk as indicated by vikjon0. I resized the partition to be 60GB and the install indicated it would create 2 partitions for xbmc. Once I boot back into Windows 7 I'll create another partition using the remainder of the free space for Windows 7 data.