Linux refuses to boot (dual-booting)

James614 · 09-09-2006, 12:52 AM

I have two hard drives, with WinXP on the first and Linux on the 2nd partition of the 2nd drive (some NTFS file storage is on the 2nd drive's 1st partition).

I installed Smart Boot Manager to avoid having to dick around with pointing one boot loader to the other, but if I select the Linux partition to boot from the screen is blank with "GRUB" in the corner. I tried installing GRUB to a floppy and even the MBR, with the same result

slantoflight · 09-09-2006, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James614

I have two hard drives, with WinXP on the first and Linux on the 2nd partition of the 2nd drive (some NTFS file storage is on the 2nd drive's 1st partition).

I installed Smart Boot Manager to avoid having to dick around with pointing one boot loader to the other, but if I select the Linux partition to boot from the screen is blank with "GRUB" in the corner. I tried installing GRUB to a floppy and even the MBR, with the same result

Well, before we go any further. Let me throw an interesting concept at you. Typically Linux, doesn't refuse to boot. In fact thats one of the things its really good at. It'll boot off of almost anything, given the opportunity. USB drives, flash drives, cd-roms, harddrives, or the internet/lan even. Its up to you to LET it boot.

Have read or peeked at this yet?

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

digital8doug · 09-09-2006, 05:15 PM

Search LQ "GAG", DL it is small, make bootable CD. GL