How to setup a triple boot with Vista, XP, and Linux??

btag · 03-13-2008, 01:17 PM

Anyone see anything fatal for my computer that I might have missed? I already bricked my HD's partition table 2 times, I don't want to go for a third.

What I'm trying to do:
Have 1 (ONE) boot menu, in this case I want grub, to be able to boot all 3 operating systems: SuSE Linux, Vista, XP
MBR = grub
sda1 = XP
sda2 = Vista
sda6 = Linux

Why it is not working at the moment:
Vista saw XP and installed it's own boot loader on sda1 (I think, fdisk tells me I'm booting off of sda1)

So I first see the grub menu:
Linux
Vista (pointing to sda2) (which is unbootable)
XP (pointing to sda1) (which then boots into VISTA's bootloader)

From Vista's bootloader
there is XP and Vista

My Idea:
Hide each windows partition and make both bootable.

To do this:
I'll use Knoppix fdisk and change the partition type of the other windows partition to "hidden ntfs" or some other obscure FS. (Hide sda2, and make sda1 self bootable)
Have the visible Windows fix it's own booting.
Repeat for the other partition. (Hide sda1, make sda2 bootable)

Once both are bootable:
set up grub accordingly to point to each.

So my question is will this work? Am I missing something that could potentially brick my partition table, hd, ect???

All my data is backed up so I don't have much data to lose, but waiting 2 hrs for a partition restore is NOT FUN!

bigrigdriver · 03-13-2008, 01:45 PM

There is no need to hide partitions. When you install Suse, it will write a boot menu in /boot/grub/menu.lst. The menu will include entries for both windows patitions.

During installation of Suse, watch for a prompt or dialogue box that asks where you want to install grub. Specify MBR instead of root partition.

If you experience difficulty booting either windows partition after you install Suse, post your /etc/fstaf (or the output of fdidk -l) and /boot/grub/menu.lst. My experience with Suse leads me to beleive that you won't have any trouble booting windows.

btag · 03-13-2008, 02:02 PM

The problem is I installed Windows Vista after linux, and everything does work. I just don't like the 2 consecutive boot menus: grub then win-loader (or ntldr w/e Vista is using).

/boot/grub/menu.lst :

Code:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Sep 20 09:01:34 EDT 2007
default 1
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/sda6 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/sda5 splash=silent showopts noapic nolapci irqfixup pci=nommconf
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows xp###
title Windows XP Tablet 2005
    rootnoverify (hd0,5)
    chainloader (hd0,0)+1

title Windows Vista Ultimate
    rootnoverify (hd0,5)
    chainloader (hd0,1)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/sda6 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3 irqfixup noapic nolapic pci=nommconf
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

fdisk /dev/sda -l:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        5099    40957686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            5100       10199    40965750    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3           10200       24321   113434965    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           10200       10293      755023+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           10294       12382    16779861   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           12383       22121    78228486    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8           22122       24321    17671468+  83  Linux

sda1 = XP
sda2 = Vista
sda6 = SuSE Linux
sda7 = just storage
sda8 = just storage (backups from partimage)

bigrigdriver · 03-13-2008, 02:13 PM

Try this configuration. Caution: comment out existing lines for the windows entries instead of deleting them, or make a backup copy of your current menu.lst. If needed, it will be much easier to restore your menu.lst to it's present state.

Code:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/sda6 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/sda5 splash=silent showopts noapic nolapci irqfixup pci=nommconf
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows xp###
title Windows XP Tablet 2005
    root (hd0,0)
    makeactive
    chainloader +1

title Windows Vista Ultimate
    root (hd0,1)
   makeactive
    chainloader +1

btag · 03-13-2008, 02:35 PM

I get:

Code:

Error 12: Invalid device requested

Press any key to continue...

when I try to boot sda2 or (hd0,1)
and
sda1 or (hd0,0)

I'm going to give my idea a try.
I'll report back on how successful it is.

btag · 03-13-2008, 03:49 PM

Ok the idea was a complete failure. Vista refuses to boot off of sda2 and preceded to corrupt it's own winload.exe

I think I'll just suck it up and deal with the 2 boot menus.

ComputerGreek · 03-13-2008, 08:44 PM

This page may help:

Installing Windows 2000/XP on a Spare Partition.
http://linuxhelp.150m.com/win/addingXP.htm

Also, it is known that Vista does not produce valid boot sector information, so partition and format your partition, with XP or Linux, before installing Vista.

syg00 · 03-13-2008, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btag

I think I'll just suck it up and deal with the 2 boot menus.

This is what I do; set the time-outs to suit yourself, or hide the menu altogether.

The reason you "failed" is as you posited in the initial post. The install of Vista detects the XP loader and replaces it. Updates and uses the (XP) boot.ini as well. This means that no boot sector record is written to the Vista partition. Hence you can't boot it directly.
This happens with all M$oft dual-boot installs (since at least Win2k) when a later version of windoze is installed after a prior version.

Can be got around, but is too fiddly for me - you need to hide the current 'doze partition before you start the latter (in this case Vista) install.

rrsc16954 · 03-18-2008, 07:53 PM

I found this a few days ago but have not tried:

http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

There is a link for dual booting the other way round (vista first) in there.

Don't know about triple booting with linux: haven't tried it yet! (2 MS OSes + linux that is, I did have a quintuple boot with W98 + 4 linuxes - 2 loaded by floppy - just to see if I could. It all worked fine but I just had 40GBs so I didn't keep it for long.)

btag · 03-25-2008, 11:31 AM

Ok I got it to work after messing with it a bit more.

The key was to change the existing Windows XP partition (sda1) to hidden NTFS with fdisk. Then I installed Vista clean on sda2. It didn't complain about not being the first available partition (when I used fdisk to make sda1 a "fake" linux partition). This way both Windows have their individual bootloaders. Once installed I set the partitions back to NTFS. Also I added added the following modifications to grub to avoid windows-es seeing each other and fighting (to be on safe side).

Code:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Sep 20 09:01:34 EDT 2007
default 1
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/sda6 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/sda5 splash=silent showopts noapic nolapci irqfixup pci=nommconf
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows xp###
title Windows XP Tablet 2005
    unhide (hd0,0)
    hide (hd0,1)
    rootnoverify (hd0,5)
    chainloader (hd0,0)+1

title Windows Vista Ultimate
    unhide (hd0,1)
    hide (hd0,0)
    rootnoverify (hd0,5)
    chainloader (hd0,1)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/sda6 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3 irqfixup noapic nolapic pci=nommconf
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

Well thanks everyone who replied for their input. I hope this helps someone else who wants to do something similar.