Hi All,

I am a linux newbie. After working with my loveable FEDORA 10 for months, i found it a bit slower. I wanted to try with slackware this time. I already had Windows XP and fedora in my 80 GB SATA disk. Now i allotted 15 GB ( SWAP + / + /home/usr ). During my installation i encountered no issues. Slackware was nice. After installation, the system starts with an error "Invalid Partition Table".

I cursed myself for not reading all the documents and help for the slackware installation and wiped the whole disk ( i had no important datas ). And this time, first i installed Fedora 10. ANd then alloted the space as previous for the slackware installation. When i completed installation successfully, again i faced the same error "Invalid Partition Table".

I do not know what to do at this scenario. Because, when i try to read the partition tables with some rescue disks, i can see it well. But i do not know what part of slackware i am missing with. And i do not find any issues in the slackware installation media also.

Note :
Both the times i have installed the LILO which was provided with slackware. Do i need to try without installing LILO from slack and go with the bootloader provided by fedora?

I want to have Win XP, Fedora and slackware in my PC (80 GB ).


Thanks for reading till end

Why?

One word for you: virtualization. Go check out VirtualBox or VMWare. Stick with XP and run Fedora and Slackware as Guest OS's. Or do it the other way around.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but when you said you were using lilo to try and dual-boot XP and FC, that told me you're way over your head.

Hi Otheus,

Thanks for your reply .
But i do not wish to use the virtualisation technicques. I want to have all the three operating sytems....

Generally with XP, you need to use the NT Boot Loader or grub. The problem comes from the fact that XP really wants to be the first or second partition, which means there's a chance (if your computer's BIOS is old enough) that the Linux kernel cannot load on the 3rd, 4th or 5th partition. Personally, I find the NT Boot Loader acceptable and easier to install. There are some guides and FAQs out there on how to do this and go into more detail than I can.

First you use a live/rescue cd to partition your drive. You'll need one NTFS/FAT32 partition, three linux partitions with code 83, and one Linux swap partition (82). This is more than 4, so you'll need to create an extended partition. After this, straight away, install XP. Now go back and install Linux, but DO NOT have them install a boot loader on the MBR (the disks' master boot record) -- Instead, either use a boot disk or install the boot sector on each local partition. (Also, if possible, for simplicity, avoid using LVM - linux volume management). Let the two Linux installations share a single /boot image. You can boot into XP and configure the NTFS loader to "chain load" into your /boot partition, which will then run grub and let you select one of the other two operating systems. (Or, each linux installation has a /boot directory -- not in its own partition, and grub is configured for each partition independently).