Hi everyone, I am completely new to Linux but am very interested. I have two Live CDs - one for Ubuntu and one for Backtrack 3. I got a copy of Ubuntu because I have heard it is pretty user friendly for a Windows user like me, but I am really wanting to learn about Backtrack 3.

So I guess this is a dual question: First can anyone point me towards a guide for dual booting Backtrack and Vista on my laptop and the other side of this question is any good basic guides on Linux in general would be very helpful.

I'm old enough to have grown up using DOS so I'm not afraid of command line input, but obviously I have to know the commands to use. The main reason I am leaning towards Backtrack is because I want to learn more about penetration testing and wireless security.

I am about ready to dive into Linux, but after taking a look at the software on my Backtrack LiveCD, I realized I have a ton to learn before I can really dig into an OS that foreign to me....

So, hopefully, you'll be seeing more of me around the Linux forums and I am always thankful for any and all help!

Dual booting with Windows and Linux is pretty easy, you just need to install Vista first and have it on its own partition. Typically you would want to use Backtrack as a live CD but I know some people like to have it installed on the system. The easiest way to install Linux on the next partition would be to boot into the Ubuntu live CD and use the partition editor to create the partitions you will be using. After that you can choose to install Ubuntu on that partition or boot from the Backtrack disk and install it there. You will probably want to create a swap partition, usually 1 or 2 GiB, a root '/' partition about 10 GiB (if you are installing Backtrack it will be less, check the Backtrack site to see how much space is needed to install), and then use the remaining space for the /home partition. Having a separate /home partition allows you to keep the system files and your data separate in case you ever want to upgrade or something happens then you won't lose all of your data.

as Seekret said, the easiest way is to simply install windows first

i would recommend installing windows and let it format itself, then after it is done, boot to a livecd with a partition manager (pretty sure BT has one) then resize the NTFS paritition (you may have to first unmount it) and input a / and a swap (mountpoint swap) you can use a /home as well which is what i like to do in case the linux install gets buggered, but that shouldn't happen with BT

Thanks for the input guys. Right now I am running Ubuntu inside of Windows which I think is pretty cool, but after reading both of your replies, I am going to re-partition and install Backtrack. I've tried playing with some of the Backtrack tools on the LiveCD, but I am looking forward to trying it out fully as an installed OS.

unless you have ram restrictions (less than 2gb) having in on disk isn't going to change much to be honest, except maybe boot time of course