MSDOS 7.1 + Win XP + Ubuntu 9.10

fopetesl · 03-11-2010, 04:23 AM

There IS a similar thread but it deals with using LILO to multiboot.
I don't really want to go down this path since I, as a relative novice, can see a bear trap when modifying the MBR.
Also since Grub-2 almost gets there it should be relatively easy to hack it into shape.
My layout is:

Code:

/dev/sda1 WIN95 FAT32 C:\ with DOS 7.1 installed 1st and checked OK
/dev/sda2 LINUX ext4 /boot
/dev/sda3 NTFS D:\ WIN XP installed 2nd and checked OK
/dev/sda4 Extended
/dev/sda5 LINUX ext4 / UBUNTU installed last and checked OK
/dev/sda6 LINUX ext4 /home
/dev/sda7 LINUX swap
/dev/sda8 LINUX ext4 /tmp

I get the choice of UBUNTU or XP but not MSDOS 7.1

I guess if I knew how to discover DOS detail (sd0,0) whatever, it should be easy?

pierre2 · 03-11-2010, 06:05 AM

does booting into the XP, then give the option for MSDOS 7.1 ?.
sometimes you need to boot into M$ to get to an older M$ O/S like w98.

You should be able to boot Directly into MSDOS 7.1 from the Grub2 menu,
though you may have to edit that file, as Grub2 may not install it, automatically.

fopetesl · 03-11-2010, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pierre2

does booting into the XP, then give the option for MSDOS 7.1 ?.
sometimes you need to boot into M$ to get to an older M$ O/S like w98.

You should be able to boot Directly into MSDOS 7.1 from the Grub2 menu,
though you may have to edit that file, as Grub2 may not install it, automatically.

Gooday, pierre. Yes I just discovered this option - Xp named the DOS partition as "Micro$ft Windows" which threw me.
And it works but not tidy.

Haven't found out, yet, how to get Grub2 to do it.

yancek · 03-11-2010, 08:44 AM

You could try chainloader entry for DOS in Grub. With Grub Legacy you would just need an entry like:

title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I haven't used the beta version of Grub that Ubuntu 9.10 uses and it has a different method of updating as well as different file names in Grub directory. You might go to Ubuntu site or search here at LQ for Grub2 on Ubuntu to find the method.

I'm not really sure the above will work though. I had W98 and W2K installed years ago and all the boot files from W2k were in the W98 partition so DOS boot files may have been overwritten, don't really know??

fopetesl · 03-11-2010, 09:52 AM

That's fine, yancek but how do I know it is (hd0,0)?

And to make it even harder modifying Grub2 conf seems fraught with caveats

yancek · 03-11-2010, 05:23 PM

Quote:

That's fine, yancek but how do I know it is (hd0,0)?

Your initial post indicates it is, at least if what you posted was accurate, for example, the output of fdisk -l:

Quote:

/dev/sda1 WIN95 FAT32 C:\ with DOS 7.1 installed 1st and checked OK

Quote:

And to make it even harder modifying Grub2 conf seems fraught with caveats

It's a beta release. You may need to put makeactive in the command I suggested:

title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I really don't expect this to work for reasons stated in my earlier post and I think what you have now may be the best you can do. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will see the post.