Have System Commander 7.05 (SC) with WIN XP. 1st tried only partitioning utility of SC to free last 12MB of approx. 30MB Drive C: to install Fedora Core 5. GRUB menu shows only FC5 option and "Other" but no sign that XP is also added as boot option. Result: FC5 boots/runs fine vs Can't boot XP. If use SC diskette to Boot, XP restored vs then can't boot FC5.

Next tried SC via partitioning utility to trying to add FC5 as a new OS, appearing on a dual boot menu with XP. This also didn't work; or MBR reset, etc. of partitioning got out of control or confusing.

If I uninstalled SC, left CD as 1st boot read of FC5, would GRUB correct MBR, etc., recognize XP and add it to the menu along with a choice to boot/run FC5? In other words, what do I need to do to get a dual boot including XP and FC5?

Being 72 and "getting too old for this" reminds me of a parent looking at the report cards for the twins: "MS" and "LI". "What do you mean bringing home an 'F' for 'Plays well with others?'"

tnx, Steve

Hopefully you meant "Gig" not "Meg" ...
The "Other" entry in the grub menu is for XP. A standard Fedora install on a single disk should setup everything o.k.
If not, it probably means you have a (possibly hidden) vendor partition on the disk and the Fedora installer guessed wrong.
From a FC terminal enter the following (as root) and post the output(lower case ell on the fdisk, and l{i}st as the extension on the other)

I believe that if you want to use System Commander as your bootloader you need to install Grub to the partition Linux is installed on rather than the MBR. Then System Commander can boot Grub which can boot Linux.
Grub is quite capable of booting both Linux and Windows but sometimes needs to be manually configured.

tnx, in fact, Gb tnx.

I'm going to assume that Sys.Cmdr 7.05 "takes over" the MBR and likely remains hidden; thus making Fedora "guess wrong" such that I sets up its own boot without recognizing what or where XP resides. If so, the "Other" option would not make XP visible/available for boot.

Assuming the above, I will have to break out some of my Linux books and as a Newbie:

1. Get to "From a FC terminal"? Means get from Graphics to Command mode after using the 1st FC5 CD to run FC.?

2. (as root)? Means key in proper commands to identify myself as authorized(PW) and wanting to go to the root level?

3. enter

fdisk -l (syntax = - ell)
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst (syntax = .ell-no space-st)

4. "post the output"? Sorry, does this mean < ENTER>, or what?

5. Are you implying that:

a. I uninstall SC first so that it doesn't screw up the GRUB?

b. The above procedure will permit GRUB to override/ correct for proper boot while also allowing it to auto-I.D. XP and add it to the menu boot options? So SC stays installed but GRUB takes over OS selection?

I'm taking an online HP Learning Center Linux 101 course to get me a bit away from total ignorance but the instructor says dual boot is not covered; only assumes not using SC, and, except for one ref. I'm following, not going into detail.

Thanks for your patience.

Steve

(p.s. I believe I'm going to try also installing FC5 on a laptop with too little mem for graphics but enough for "command mode", thus forcing me to dig up a huge tome of encyclopedia size packed away in my basement to try to get a handle on the commands that really allow one to learn and control Linux.)

Mmm - this is going to be difficult; I have never used Fedora due to a bad experience with Redhat 9 (a predecessor). So my advice will be generic - if we get nowhere, try the Fedora forum (under Linux-Distributions I think).
I presumed you had FC installed (still) - regardless, if you can get to Fedora somehow (CD boot is fine), you need to open a terminal session. May be an icon for it else hunt through the menus. Looks like the command line interface, but in a window - just like the DOS cmd in XP.
Enter each of the commands I gave earlier - if you get output, just "cut-and-paste" it into a post here. If the fdisk fails to produce anything, try it asAt this point I'm not suggesting you do anything to your system - we don't have enough info. The above commands merely give us some.

Edit: The above obviates the need for "root" - pretend I never said it ...

Also tnx to 2damn (I'm not sure how to connect a reply to a given member without listing name.)

Your comment reminds me that one of the distributions (Red Hat? SuSe?) I successfully dual booted years ago on this machine had a fairly clear description that Sys Cmdr (SC) can boot another loader (Lilo? ; never heard of Grub then) and there was a warning to, or not to choose a particular install location. In my current case, GRUB just took over and gave me no explanation or choices as to what partition in which it should be installed. Are you aware of any flag or method that makes GRUB display choices instead of a default process which loses XP and/or overrides SC?

Assuming I leave SC installed, how do I manually configure Grub in FC5? (Actually, I'm not asking for details as much as a general description or a reference to a site that provides details.)

tnx,

Steve

Using the quote tags works.

Here's a grub manual.

I received an Email with postings thusfar (not expected; had already gone online to catch these) and replied vs I'll have to check if this goes back as an autoposting.(later...yep it did.)

Status: I'll try to protect XP installation by getting rid of error in disk 3 (of 6)of "WIN XP Setup Boot Disk" ==> I uninstalled SysCmdr 7.05 and apparently had to install another XP in partition 2 (where Fedora Core 5 (FD5)was operating/dominant)to recover.

I printed out 15 pp. of grub manual for detailed study/attempt to re-install FC5 back into the 12GB partition 2.

(Although I would have preferred to keep SC7 and get FC5 to produce a boot diskette which the former seems to handle, I'll go the "Linux route" for another day or so. If no success, I'll have to 'dump' XP or the Online Linux course temporarily because I'm running out of time.)

very appreciative of the help.

Steve

Success with dual boot!

Usual backups; Downloaded WIN XP (SP2)made Win XP setup diskettes with last(6th) offering a repair option. (No success with Sys Cmdr since it calls for FC5 to produce a loading diskette (like LILO?) vs FC5 won't as far as I know.) 2damncommon gave grub manual reference; found 4.1.2 "Load another bootloader to boot unsupported operating systems" but Newbie unsure how to access grub and add proper syntax to add XP boot as "Other". I should learn this but running out of online course time. Ditto for acquiring/using Knoppix suggested.

Uninstalled SC7 but FC5 behaved badly/killed access to XP until I ran Setup from XP CD (hadn't made 6 disk Setup yet)

Used Partition Magic(PM)to delete 2nd partition/12GB and FC5 installed and allowed XP to boot under "Other". (Have to touch space bar or down arrow quickly since FC5 default autoboots in only a few seconds. I'm sure there's an easy way to change time but will learn later.)

View from the "Bottom":

Linux is DOS (close to machine); awesome power but overwhelming without a huge, upgradeable paper set of manuals. (worked for state whose manuals had "1.2.34.a " sections with dated page updates, Index.) How to do equivalent marginal notes? Reminders to search/understand? Annotate? Index?

Can I use to good effect my upgraded voice processor on one machine while reading (add comments/questions/notes/revise on line?)

Bought BSD & MySQL. Wow! Just need to live another 200 years to use/learn all this.

Rambling...tnx for help and patience.

"ahl bee bek"

Steve