need a 'silent' bootloader- will grub do it?
 

Ok, I have some problems with a laptop configuration I am trying to put together- its a work laptop with win xp pro installed on single drive. I want to resize the drive for a small linux partition at end of drive, about 10gb. The general idea here is to have a small linux that appears mostly to look like win xp, not a big deal so far! but,

The main feature I need is for the laptop to be able to 'silently' boot into the linux while appearning to look like its just booting into xp pro. What I was thinking was to use a bootsplash screen like xp pro, so after short bios screen bl would have xp bootsplash, and give like 1 or 2 secs to input a key-combo else 'seamlessly' boot int5o xp && default xp bootsplash. If the right key-combo was input, it would goto linux boot with of course another replica of the xp bootsplash,, so either boot would appear to be a typical xp pro boot...

The other part of problem is that the linux partition needs to be hidden && hidden fairly well. It is not a super speedy laptop and needs more ram so encrypting whole partition doesn't seem reasonable, and I don't really knjow much about any of it anyways, and haven't had much luck with searching around so far. I have truecrypt dl'd but have to do more reading before I know if it will be suitable or not- I need an experienced user to provide some advice about possible methods && steps to take in ordert o properly implement this kind of configuration! Plus, I still have yet to find a bootloader that will fit the bill! grub has some features but as far as I can tell would have to be modified. Someone must have already tackled this kind of issue!! any help please,, cheers j

Even though we advocate the use of Linux we also believe in following your employer's rules. You shouldn't do something with your work computer that violates your employer's computer usage policies.

You want us to help you to install Linux on your employer's equipment and you want it to work in such a way that they don't know that's what you have? You do know that we don't do that sort of thing here, don't you? If you want to run Linux in your corporate environment then all power to you. You should contact your IT department and get them to help you. If the system isn't set up for multiple OSes (as in, more than Windows) you won't get terribly far.

Closing this because we don't want to help you get in trouble or lose your job.