Dual boot XP / Redhat question.

m15a4 · 10-25-2003, 01:41 PM

I have 2 PC's that I am setting up as dual boot systems.

On PC 1 (that has a 15gig aprox HD), I installed XP setting 2 partitions 1 for XP (7 Gig) and 1 free space (7 Gig) for Redhat. I tested XP and it works as well as XP 'normally works'. I then rebooted w/ my Redhat 9 CD's and ran Disk Druid to setup 2 partitions on the free space. 1 Swap partition (512mb) and 1 / partition with the remaining space for Redhat. Chose Grub as my boot loader and everything is working Great!

On PC 2 (that has a 40Gig aprox HD), I installed XP setting 2 partitions 1 for XP (20 GIG) and 1 free space (19 Gig "aprox") for Redhat. I tested XP and it works. I then rebooted w/ my Redhat 9 CD's and ran Disk Druid to setup 2 partitions on the free space (Just like I did on PC1). 1 Swap partition (1Gig) and 1 / partition with the remaining 17Gig "aprox" space for Redhat. When I told Disk Druid "OK", I got the following error...

/ may not meet booting constraints for you architecture. creation of a boot disk is highly encouraged.

I told Druid to Make the change anyway and put Grub on the / partition. The redhat install ran, but upon booting the PC, it goes straight to Windoze without loading Grub so I can choose which OS. Should I have put Grub on the MBR? (That makes me nervous)

I'm lost. PC1 worked fine (and easy) why is PC2 giving me this error. Need help from you pros. Thanks in advance!

david_ross · 10-25-2003, 01:51 PM

Don't wory about the error - it is outdated and doesn;t affect modern hardware but yes you should have put grub on hte MBR. To put it on the MBR:
1) boot with RH CD1
2) at the "boot:" prompt type "linux rescue" then enter
3) once at a shell prompt enter "chroot /mnt/sysimage"
4) run "/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda"
5) reboot "shutdown -r now"

That should do it.

m15a4 · 10-25-2003, 02:06 PM

Kewl Dave, Thanks for the quick help. I'll give it a shot as soon as I get home.

btw, love the sig line

m15a4 · 10-25-2003, 04:04 PM

Hey, something just hit me. Murphy's law being what it is, how do I "undo" what you are recommending in case something "bad" happens? Just in case

david_ross · 10-26-2003, 06:30 AM

You can boot with your windows CD and reinstall the windows bootloader.