Today I wanted to try installing AROS on a PC with XP already on. I someone thinks about doing the same, here is what I did.

Don't do it if you haven't backed up your PC is my advice still even though it worked like a charm for me. You got to be prepared for the worst be it dual boot Linux/XP or XP/Vista or XP/AROS.


1. Booted PC with GPARTED CD. And made room for a 10 GB partition. This because Windows on this PC had long ago been set to use the whole harddisk.
2. Booted VmWAROS Live CD 1.02
3. Started InstallAROS under Tools, went with the choice "Use only available space"
4. Chose SFS 5000 MB (DH0), and SFS 5000 MB (DH1)
5. Booted when told.
6. Started InstallAROS again.
7. Went with choice "Use existing AROS partitions (on any drive)
8. Clicked use Work partition, and copy extra to Work, and checked format on both HD0,HD1.
9. Installation went through and after reboot I could see the last row in grub was my Microsoft Windows partition.
10. Booted AROS and went into grub.cfg and took away afew modes I did not need.

My Windows was doing fine still, and also the new AROS installation. Hooray !

usb/sound

Run the SYS:Tools/PCITool - it will list all available PCI devices. From there you should be able to find the exact name/manufacturerid/productid of your sound card and USB chip.

@srbin

I did not see that the last partition was empty. You can install AROS there.

Use HDToolbox to identify your 6Gb partition, then install AROS with the installer. You dont need GRUB installed. You can use a livecd as a bootdisk, and then give the system a soft reset (control + alt + delete). Just remeber to remove the CD before the reset

@all
Thanks guys for fast answer!
@james007

>Just resize one partition, and install AROS on the new empty partition. Then you can chose to NOT install grub, just boot AROS from the CD,then remove the CD and do a soft reset. It works.

I have that partition already empty. Do you mean on that one? Or i have to split it on two?

The later part can't understand, english is not my native. Can you simplify it to an idiot-proof method? :)

-about sound
I dled latest edition, few days ago. 1.0 version.
i have C-media AC97 audio device reported. Is it enough info i get?

@deadwood
Ok, so it means that during installation, i am not obliged to install grub, right?
Will then i have the option of selecting boot device as i said in first post? Ie, will that partition get 'bootable' status like C: has? Anyone tried?

-about USB
>I have a similar problem. Do you have OHCI or UHCI? I'm using OHCI and it locks my system (generally speaking)

Where can i check that?

@Installation:

I know people installed AROS with having a single Windows partitions and everything worked (partition was not damaged, grub2 menu had windows entry at the bottom) - I don't know how InstallAROS will react with your set up (an NTFS data partition on extended partition). The suggestion to not to install grub (selectable via InstallAROS) can be a solution for you.

@Sound

Which (exact name) sound chipset do you have? Also are you using the latest nightly build or VmwAROS 1.0? There were some changes to AC'97 driver after VmwAROS 1.0 release that might help in your case

@USB
I have a similar problem. Do you have OHCI or UHCI? I'm using OHCI and it locks my system (generally speaking)

Regarding the sound test lock up, it seems your soundcard
is unsupported. Do you know what chipset you have ? I have tried a couple machines with AC97 integrated soundcards and I have had the same result as you.

In my opinion to really make your effort worthwile you would first need to find a soundcard that is supported and that you could plug in to it.

Just resize one partition, and install AROS on the new empty partition. Then you can chose to NOT install grub, just boot AROS from the CD,then remove the CD and do a soft reset. It works.

.... Or wait for the WmvAROS_USB edition

Being very impressed with latest live version, i would like to try again to make dual-boot of aros+XP. I failed last time i tried to, had to reinstall xp then.



These are partitions of my hd. Disk 0 is my HD, last partition (6.16GB) is left empty just for aros, but i am not sure if i can make dual-boot.

I read all pdf's. How safe is to make dual boot installation on my pc? I wouldn't like to reinstall XP again with tons of programs...

In case it is not safe, maybe this can work; can i just plain install AROS on latest partiotion, but with no grub. At the moment of booting my computer, can i select boot partition in BIOS? Like; when i select if i will boot from hard disk or from DVD, but this time AROS partition would also appear?

Other things; when i go to prefs/AHI, i select ac97 and press 'play sound'. I hear the sound, but then pc totally blocks.

My usb mice doesn't work. When i try 'c: loadresource.... etc', aros keeps rebooting forever. I don't have USB-PS2 adapter, legacy mode is on. Will try to get adapter asap...