Dual Install Linux and XP

I'm trying to get both Linux (SuSE 7.3) and Windows XP installed on my machine, and I'm baffled. I've tried LILO, and everytime I try it, I get zeroes and ones across the screen at the bootup. I put LILO in the MBR, and get the same thing. The only way I can access Linux is through the provided bootdisk. This requires me to load through the CD-ROM as well, and it takes about 10 minutes for this operation. Anyone have luck with this setup? BTW, XP and Linux are on SEPARATE hard drives. Thanks...

I haven't tried XP, but this is almost sure to work, regardless of what OS you're using...

Hmmm LILO not loading eh...

When you are booted from the boot disk, run lilo and see if it prints out any warnings about the 1024 cylinder limitation. PC BIOSes aren't designed to boot an operating system located past the 1024th cyclinder on an IDE hard drive. The latest LILO is supposed to fix that, and it works on a new machine at work i just installed linux on.. but maybe SUSE don't have the latest LILO.

While you're in there grab a copy of your /etc/lilo.conf and post it here

I think mutch better is to use VMWare Workstation ( http://www.vmware.com ). Then you can use cupple of OS at the same time....depending on your memory and HDD you have available. Really great software..

This is what I do on my laptops to get them to dual boot between Linux and Win2k.

Partition your hard drive such that there is a 20MB primary partition at the begining of the drive. Then partition out space for your XP installation (primary partition) and your linux installation (can be primary or logical). Hide the first 20MB partition and the linux install partition and then install XP. Once XP is running properly, unhide the linux partitions and start your Linux installation. When installing Linux, use the first 20MB partition (typically "hda1" on IDE setup) as "/boot". This allows you to put the rest of the linux installation where ever you want and not have any boot problems. DO NOT install LILO in the MBR. Install it in the the 20MB partition instead. Make sure you create a boot disk during the linux installation process just in case. Then follow the instructions on this site to configure the XP boot loader properly.
I also use VMware on other computers that have fast CPUs and lots of memory which allows it to work very well. It allows me to run Win2k and Linux at the same time on the same PC, but it is an expensive product. YMMV

Cheers!
Dave