I installed XP and RedHat7.3 on my new machine
with linux /boot of 100mb, first partition 40gb for XP and 40gb for linux.
ILinux is automatically launched but not getting any option to launch XP.
How can I do that ?

Hello
First with dos fdisk create a primary partition for XP.Creeate only one partition that is primary.
Then install windows on that.
Aftetr that install linux and during installtion select a boot loader.Such as LILO or GRUB
.Both will be runnig.
TO make extended partaion in windows.After installling linux use windows xp disk managemnt tool to utilize rest of space if there is .

I _have_to say something here:

He is already having installed WinXP and Linux being functional - only thing he cannot do is get to WindowsXP!

Please do not reinstall or reformat anything here!!

The only thing is to: configure your boot-loader, because you probably already have it installed
or install a boot-loader like lilo - configure it - install it (let it write information about your two systems)

I have in the past two days already answered some questions about how to deal with setups like yours and on how to deal with lilo - pleas do a keyword-search for lilo - or even for my name (but then you would not find, what others said on this topic)

I just don't want to repeat over and over again - if there are questions still - ask again!

If you have been using Partition Magic, it could have hidden Win partition. Start Partition Magic and check if Win partition has "hidden" attribute. Then unhide it.

Also, you should not install boot loader in MBR. If you already did that, install it on Boot Record of /boot partition and repaire MBR with fdisk/MBR

Are you really sure about that - espacially your last sentence - Not now, John! ?

The mbr is the very first thing the bios accesses when starting/booting the machine.
If there is not info on how to find a place, where to find a program to be executed first, the machine will hang and do nothing.
If you would "repair" the mbr you get rid of information stored in there - which will make you unable to boot _any_ system on your disk.


!! This is not the case here !!

How is it supposed to help having an original mbr - which itself was already written to to be able to boot into WinXP - then linux would not be accessible. And WinXP cannot by itself made to provide a boot loader - it just can boot itself.

He/she (?) cannot boot WinXP anymore after installing linux - which means that during the linux-install there was a boot loader installed (most likely) but not correctly configured to show a menu with both available Systems there.

About the partition-magick thing - this is really probably not the issue here, but to check:

call cfdisk (if you have it) and while being not root at first.
This will pretty comfortably show you your partition-layout as it is.
!! Do not change anything - -just (q)uit the program and nothing will be done to your partitions. You just want to make sure this was, that everything is as it is supposed to be.
The same thin you can accomplish by using another program - which is not so comfortable to use - and you probably have to be root to be able to use it: fdisk (from linux)
Use this to show your layout like this:

Jonathan:/home/jochen# fdisk /dev/hda

there will be a warnig-message and a simple menu - choose p to print a list of all partitions on your disk to the screen:

this looks like that at my machine:


Platte /dev/hda: 120.0 GByte, 120060444672 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 14596 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 * 512 = 8225280 Bytes

Gerät Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1945 15623181 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1946 6808 39062047+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 6809 9240 19535040 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 9241 14596 43022070 5 Erweiterte
/dev/hda5 9241 9276 289138+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 9277 14596 42732868+ 83 Linux

Befehl (m für Hilfe):

then - again - press q to quit without writing anything to disk.

This is about everything I can say: sankulka will have to verify either opinion on how to help/what to do by providing more detailed information on what actually happened - what work and wat does not...

Well, I'm not sure, because I've never used WinXP, but browsing forums I learned that WinNT/2000/XP operating systems have trouble booting, when you install different boot loader to MBR.
"fdisk/MBR" (here I mean Microsoft fdisk) fixes MBR in way that suites those OS's. The default MBR always boots first Active partition, so setting Linux /boot partition (where GRUB or LILO should be installed) as Active could solve problem (for Win and for Linux).
If this doesn't solve problem booting Linux after "fdisk/MBR", he/she can set WinXP boot loader to load Linux.

I just saw in forums that WinXP has fixmbr instead of "fdisk/MBR"

...and here we seem to - how to say it - we try to talk about the same thing, but really we do not.

Any Windows installs some code the mbr, which enables it (and only itself) to boot up --> this means: bios accsesses the discs mbr - there it finds information on how and where to continue...
This information has to point to the actual "boot-loader" program. This is what you mean also - I think, when you say that the linux boot loader should be installed in /boot partition.
But - for this bootloader to work (to be found) during boot up - the mbr has to contain the info on where to look for it.
Now - If you wipe out and replace that information with the WindowsXP or whatever mbr - the mbr will point to the WinXP or whatever Win-versions own boot-loader - and that one is only capable of booting Windows itself - not linux - not another copy of Windows on the same or a different disc!

This approch will surely work - but you will end up with not being able to boot linux!
And changing _this_ issue from within Windows, is - well, not hard to solve - but certainly more difficult...

As it seems to be now - (I'd like a little input here from the one, who originally posted this :-) ) - Windows is still there, just cannot be booted and linux is also there and boots up ok.

Lilo - on the other hand - is cabable of booting more than one (a lot more) operating systems.
That is its purpose and it has been and is working very well.

As I said - (did I ?) - I am using it without any problems for at least 6 years now - with different linux and Windows-versions and always in a dual-boot setup (that is how it is now - I had sometimes setups with 3 different Windows-versions and 2 or 3 linux-versions) - and it was never problematic.
Only at the beginning - during my first setup - I did (naturally) have not much knowledge about how to make it all work - but the documentation on the subject is very complete and understandable - but it might take you a few hours to put it all together - to get the picture.
Of course, to do things like installing such crucial programs, you _will_ have to know, how your system is put together - where is what on which disc - otherwise you just do not have the information you need to actually make it work!
That is, why I showed how to use the fdisc - command: not to change or fix anything, but to see, what is where on the system - and the be able to use that info.

sankulka (original poster) - if you want help you'll need to post more information:
Post results of "cat /etc/fstab" and "cat /etc/lilo.conf" (if you're using lilo).

Grub users: what's the equivalent for lilo.conf?

It would also help to know if you installed the bootloader to MBR or to the / partition

Hello

The equivalent grub for lilo.conf is, at least in Red Hat, /boot/grub/grub.conf. However, I used Red Hat 7.3 some time before and I think this distribution uses lilo and not grub.

In my opinion, there are two solutions to this problem. You (sankulka) can use a linux loader (lilo or brub) to select what OS you want to load, or you can use the windows loader (yes, win 2000 and winXP have one, chek file C:\boot.ini).

In the past, when I have Windows98 installed, I used grub, but now, with my XP, I use windows loader. You can use what you want, but as mdg has said, we need more information to help you.

Iban.

I'd like to install FC2 on my mother's laptop which has WInXP pr-installed. I have already made space available for linux, but am reading up on the boot proceure with XP 'cos I'm not very familiar with XP and I've heard about some problems. What you write (iban) has drawn my attention. Could you explain how to use the XP boot loader to start windows, or else provide a link to an explanation?

Thank you Iban!

I did not know, that Windows actually had the capability to boot mor than one OS - not to mention even linux...I will look into it!
I have - of course - not tried it (see above) and it will stay that way!

reasons:

-I'm very comfortable and familiar with lilo and linux
-I will not try just to learn - mostly because of potential problems and because of...
...never touch a running system
But its good to know - just in case!

Hello.

First of all, a small clarification. Windows loader doesn't really boot linux, it's the usual loader (lilo or grub) who boot it. What windows loader does, is jump to the linux loader. The only advantage is that you don't need to install lilo or grub on the MBR, you can install it on the first sector of any partition and jump to it with windows loader. But who really boots linux is always lilo or grub.

After that, I'll explain the steps I follow to do it.
1.- Install linux as usually, but instaling the linux loader (grub) on the first sector of boot partition.
2.- Start linux. (You can do it with a boot disk, with the rescue mode of RedHat CD's or booting with grub installed in a boot disc. When I installed RedHat 9 on my laptop, I booted linux with grub installed in a CD)
3.- Copy the boot sector of the boot partition you have chosen during the instalation to a file:
dd if=(boot partition) of=(file) bs=512 count=1, e.g: dd if=/dev/hda2 of=~home/linux.bin bs=512 count=1
4.- Mount a windows partition and copy the file to it (you can also use a floppy).
5.- Reboot to windows.
6.- Copy the file to C:\
7.- Edit the file C:\boot.ini and add the next line at the end of the file:
c:\(file)="(Name in the boot menu)", e.g: c:\linux.bin="Linux"

The next time you reboot your system a new option called (Name in the boot menu) will appear in your windows boot menu.

*I've always used this boot system with GRUB, so I'm not sure if you can do it with lilo or not.

In the next link you will find a more detailed explanation of the steps you must follow:

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

The only thing I should add is that I don't need a separate boot partition to avoid BIOS cylinder limit if your BIOS suport LBA mode. You can read more in the next link of grub offical web:

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-faq.en.html#q2

If you need more information please ask for it, don't hesitate. I'll try to answer you as faster as posible.

Iban.

Thank you Iban - that was very detailed and clear - I can see the advantage of leaving the mbr to windows...it always annoyed me (kind of - since I know how to boot my system by using a floppy or CD...) that windows just rewites the mbr on each install without even asking for permission to do it and one always ends up not being able to boot the usual way. (that is, lilo was installed in mbr).
The way you do it - Windows will boot and you can tell it from there, to give you back the option to boot linux...
I hope I understood this correctly...

That's right, every time you need to re-install windows (sometimes too often), you just need to save the file containing the boot sector of the linux partition. After the installation, just copy it and modify boot.ini and you can boot linux again without doing anything more (installing lilo or grub). A big advantage from my point of view.