XP and gentoo dual boot

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 10:37 AM

Hello, i just installed Gentoo on my computer with XP existing already. I set up grub onto my boot partition on gentoo, i have been told i have to edit my boot.ini, but i do not know what to do. I have read another post in this forum saying that they needed to copy a file too. Do i need to copy a file? any help would be apreciated.

Demonbane · 10-10-2003, 11:02 AM

do a
"dd if=/dev/hdX of=gentoo.bin bs=512 count=1"
where /dev/hdX is your gentoo root partition, or /boot if there is one
then copy gentoo.bin to a FAT formatted floppy disk(so its readable by XP), boot to xp then copy gentoo.bin to where your boot.ini is(usually C:\, and its hidden so you gotta show all files + protected system files in folder options-view) then open your boot.ini with notepad, add the following line:

c:\gentoo.bin="Gentoo"

next time you boot you should be able to see it on nt boot loader menu.

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 02:06 PM

i booted off of the floppy, but it brought me right into the grub config, and that command you told me wouldnt work, then i tried booting off of the cdc and i triied that command, but it didnt work either, how should i do it?

aaa · 10-10-2003, 02:25 PM

"i booted off of the floppy, but it brought me right into the grub config"
What do you mean? Linux didn't start up and you just got 'grub>'?
If you are at a 'grub' prompt, you have several options. You may
be able to boot from your boot partition by chain-
loading: 'grub>root (hdx,x)', then 'grub>chainloader +1',
then 'grub>boot'. Or you can boot Gentoo directly if you know
where the Linux kernel image is: 'grub>kernel
(hdx,x)/path/to/kernel <put-options here>', then 'grub>boot'.
Note the different naming convention Grub has compared to
Linux: for example, /dev/hda=(hd0), /dev/hda1=(hd0,0). Fill in
the "x"'s with the correct numbers. Remember that grub counts
like this: 0, 1, 2, 3...

Or, from your Linux cd (or from Gentoo if you can boot it), you use 'dd':

Code:

mkdir /hd #makes a folder
mkdir /fd
mount -t vfat /dev/hdx /hd # mounts your Windows partition, fill in 'x' with number, works only if the partition is FAT32
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /fd #mounts a Windows floppy, in case you use NTFS, so you can use Windows to copy it later
dd if=/dev/hdx of=/xd/gentoo.bin bs=512 count=1 #Replace the first 'x' with the correct number of your boot partition , the second 'x' with 'h' or 'f', depending on whether you're using a floppy or not.

Copy the file and add entries to boot.ini in Windows as Demonbane instructed.

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 02:29 PM

yes, when i was installing i had the option to create a boot disk, and thats what i did. SO when i booted off of it, it gave me a grub promt. i tried the command listed above from demonbane, and it didnt work.
Where do i go to copy the file from?

Demonbane · 10-10-2003, 02:36 PM

Hmm strange the dd utility should be accessable with the live CD, what happens when you execute it?
but anyway you'll need to boot into gentoo in order to use the dd command, boot with your grub floppy, when you get to the grub prompt, first type
root (hdX, X)
to setup the root, the first X is the your disk, the second X is the partition
so for example if you have gentoo installed on the second partition of your first harddrive you would do root (hd0,1) , third partition (hd0,2) and so on, it starts from 0.
it'll show up the file system so you know if you chose the right one
after that type:
chainloader +1

then finally:
boot

it should load the actual grub in your bootsector, if its installed properly. After you get inside Gentoo invoke the commands in my previous post.

hope this helps

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 02:39 PM

thanks ill try that, i have my linux hard drive as my seconday slave with the root partition as partition 3, so it would be (hd2,2)? sorry, i just need some help with this :/

Demonbane · 10-10-2003, 02:43 PM

if the secondary slave is the second disk (ie there's nothing on primary slave) then it should be (hd1,2)
but even its not it'll either just spit out an error message or tell you filesystem is unknown, keep using the root command until you find the right one.

aaa · 10-10-2003, 02:44 PM

It would be (hd3,2).

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 02:44 PM

thanks, im going to go try it rright now

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 03:01 PM

ok, i booted from cd, and did the DD command, and it worked, it said something like 0 records in 1 records out , or sumthing liek that
now how do i copy the file?

Demonbane · 10-10-2003, 03:11 PM

yea that's what it should say
mount the floppy then copy the file:

mkdir /mnt/floppy
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
cp gentoo.bin /mnt/floppy
umount /dev/fd0
reboot

boot into xp and do the boot.ini editing

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 03:21 PM

ok, i just did all of that, now im going to reboot, COMe ON COMPUTER

lol

-navairum- · 10-10-2003, 03:51 PM

ok, the boot loader works, but whenever i choose gentoo, a black scree comes up with the word gentoo and a cursor. thenit just sits there, "gentoo *blinking cursor*"

Demonbane · 10-10-2003, 04:37 PM

k boot with the grub bootdisk, does

root (hdX,X)
chainloader +1
boot

take you to the grub menu and allow you to load it?