Win2000/RedHat 7.2 dualboot setup?
 

Hello! I am a Windows expert and a Linux novice - I learned about Windows by playing around, but I find it a little difficult to find what I want to know in Linux most of the time. (What's a good source of general information? A Nutshell book?)

I have Win2000 on my current system and want to dual-boot with RedHat 7.2. I have it on good authority that I need to create a partition < ~6 Gb at the beginning of my C: drive for RedHat, or it won't boot correctly - but I also remember hearing someplace that Win2000 (or any NT flavor) had to have the beginning of the C: drive, or *it* wouldn't boot.

Any truth to either of these? Any helpful comments about converting a Win32 system into a dual-boot system would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
Arachne

well they're both true depending on what boot manager you want to use. Lilo or nt booloader has to be on the mbr for it to work. I have read that there are problems with XP and RH 7.2 allow i haven't had any at all. I would say, repartition your free space, creating a partition for linux. Install linux and use LILO. Once Linux is installed just add the device (e.g. /dev/hda1) that win2k is on to the LILO.conf. You'll be all set.

errrr
 

It is true that Windows 9.x will fight for the primary and active partition (which is always /dev/hda1)...however, Windows 2000 is a bit more lenient because it expects that Windows9.x or ME will be a part of a dual boot with 2000 or NT...

I recommend this...install win2000 then go back and install redhat72... these days the partition making utilities for linux have been extremely easy even for noobies to use... just dont delete /dev/hda1 or yull be pssed!

heres how my drive is setup, in order from begaining of drive to end.
/boot 60mb boot partition
c: Fat32 10gb
d: Fat32 6gb
/ 3.5gb root partition
and the rest for swap.

I used partition magic to change the size of my c:\ drive and free up a little space at the begaining of my drive for the /boot patition. I had to do this because of some errors i was getting, something to do with the linux boot partition being over the 1024th cylinder or some crap like that.

Redhat 7.2 is the first version that does not suffer from the 1024 problem as it uses grub as the default boot loader, also any version of lilo >21.7 is safe to use with a linux partition after cylinder 1024.

good books
 

The best source of info I've found is the "Unleashed" series, the most current being 'Red Hat Linux 7.2 Unleashed'. I've found this to be the most complete source of information that goes from installation to servers and programming.

The most current info is online

Though books are good the info can be dated


the first thing on my laptop is win2k(drive c), which is over 6G. Then I have a boot partition- 20MB, a linux partition-5G, then another windows partition(drive d)


I use grub on the MBR

RH 7.2 and Win2k
 

I seem to be having a similar problem. I have win2k on (drive c), a linux partition, a boot partition, then another windows partition(drive d). I have grub on the MBR since 2k is built on NT technology.

I can't get linux to boot without the boot disk. I have tried editing grub.conf to no avail. I have heard before that since Win2k has its own bootloader it would have to be edited too. :study: Can anyone tell me how to do this??

What happens without the disk?

if windows loads then grub is not on the MBR


If you install grub to the MBR then it will work

Without the disk it boots in Win2k. I have grub located in /boot/grub/grub.conf. This is where the RH installer put it when I asked that it be installed at the front of the MBR. If this is not the correct location, how do I go about reinstalling grub without reinstalling RH? :confused:

you can boot into linux with your disk and run grub-install /dev/hda

there are a few things to check.

where the linux partition is installed, and where the windows is installed.


I would bet windows will be (hd0,0)
redhat will probably be
root (hd0,1)


if you run this


fdisk /dev/hda

and press p to list the partitions it will show them

you can select the output and paste it to the forum here


also do this


mount


this will list them as they are mounted


post that too

I used the instructions on this page to setup my dual boot with Win2k and Red Hat 7.2. Works like a charm!

Hope it helps!



http://www.enterprisedt.com/publications/dual_boot.htmlhttp://www.enterprisedt.com/publications/dual_boot.html

I have got Win2000 and RH7.2 running vcery nicely - set up as below

SCSI disk 0: Win2000
SCSI disk 1: Apps + Games for Windoze
SCSI disk 2: Red Hat 7.2

I have Grub as my boot loader, had to alter the grub.conf file as below, this moves the boot into the NT loader and 2K boots fine after that


root (hd0,0)
makeactive
bootloader+1

Works fine for me!:D

I went back through my install notes :study: (yes I am anal) and I saw where I may have made my mistake. Yes, I did tell it to install Grub but I also told it to create a boot disk (just in case). This must have kept Grub from installing. So the above directions fixed my dual boot problem!

Thanks David and everyone else for the suggestions!

your welcome:D