Dual-booting

I have Windows XP Media Center partitioned on sda1, and a Windows recovery partition on sda2. I want to dual-boot this box with Linux (currently Slackware, but maybe Ubuntu in the future), but not sure exactly how to partition my hdd to dual-boot. I know that I can't install LILO/GRUB on the MBR because of Windows. Is it acceptable to partition the loader in /boot straight after sda2? Or should my partition scheme look a little different?

I'm unsure of how I'm going to separate directories at the moment. Possibly something like this:

Windows
Windows recovery
/boot
/
/swap
/home
/usr

Should I separate /tmp, /var or /opt? I have ~74gb of unallocated space.

 

In all honesty, its easiest to put Grub in the MBR. Windows doesn't reside there, its not going to delete Windows. Grub also handles booting to Windows, if so configured.

I dual boot XP and Arch, with the boot loader in the MBR.

 

I understand that it doesn't delete Windows, but I thought Windows complained if you installed a boot loader other than Windows' in the MBR? At least, that's what I've always been told.

 

Nah, it doesnt care.

Vista is more finnicky, but even then, I think Grub works with it.

Dont quote me on that though.

Grub will contain an entry for Windows if configured for it. Let me know if you need the info. I'll copy my grub config file for you to see.

 

Okay, thanks. I'll backup my data and give it a go later.