DISCUSSION: How to Dual boot with XP/2000/NT and install linux/windows whenever You want

This thread is to discuss the article titled: How to Dual boot with XP/2000/NT and install linux/windows whenever You want

small modification so that u don't have to reboot into windows to add linux to the OS list:
if boot.ini is not on NTFS...
after this step

dd if=/dev/hdaN of=/mnt/windowsdrive/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

replace /dev/hdaN with your Linux root partition name (/dev/hda something) .I had asked you to note it down , hadn't I? now boot to windows. find out the bootsect.lnx file from which ever drive u wrote it to using the previous command.Copy it to C:\ open boot.ini and add the following line to its end c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"

open boot.ini (u're still in linux) and add that line.

to add a newline safely...whether or not it's already there:

echo -ne '\r\nc:\\bootsect.lnx="Linux"\r\n' >> /mnt/windowsdrive/boot.ini

(note the c:\\ so that \b isn't interpreted).

no winboot required. (useful for kernel compiles and anytime u might run lilo).

anirudh

Is there somewhere I can get a windows-compatable partitioner for free?

I hope somone sees this soon, cause I really wanna get out of this windows environment!
I installed Ubuntu (latest) and then Win XP Pro. I now cannot get into my Linux OS.. AAARGH!!! I installed Grub on the MBR so when I use an app called "Bootpart.exe" from within Windows to add my Linux line to Boot.ini it works up to the point where I select it from the windows bootloader, and then it says it can't find the system files on me Root partition. So I assume I'm suppose to install grub on the first sector of the Root partition? but how?
My drives look like this:

/ = hda1 ##Root (and boot?) partition for Linux
/usr = hda2 ##other partition for everything else under Linux
WindowsXP = hda3 ##Windows system partition

WindowsStorage = hdb1 ##Just space to store windows related documents etc
WindowsPageFile= hdb2 ##Dedicated windows pagefile partition
/Swap = hdb3 ## Dedicated swap partition for Linux

Windows Storage2 = hdc1 ##more dedicated storage space for windows stuff
/storage = hdc2 ##storage space for music, movies etc under Linux

it tends to be convenient to install the windows system partition, C: on hda1. if u haven't got too much linux data (user files or storage) on it, u may wanna consider reformatting.

but even i know that's a crappy solution. if u can boot off the cd into the linux on ur hard drive (i think specifying root=/dev/hda1, at least in slackware), then use that to create a lilo or grub conf file. i haven't used grub but in this scenario, the hide/unhide features would work well. check out http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/...ith-GRUB.html.

in the partition example he's used, he's got win98 where u've got win xp (1st hard disk, 3rd partition).

title Windows 98
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
unhide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
makeactive

win2k, win98 and dos follow similar rules. 'hide' all the non winxp boot partitions; specifically the one's before it, since it won't read the linux roots after. (basically, it wants to be on the 1st partition of the 1st disk).

u can store ur config on a floppy with grub-install '(fd0)'. i just read Dual-Boot Linux and Windows 2000/Windows XP with GRUB HOWTO. apparently grub isn't to be installed on the mbr. fyi, i've installed lilo on the MBR (like i said, i haven't used grub). that doc follows the same steps as the parent article. steps from both: write grub to a floppy (optional) and to a file on a shared partition and then add it to boot.ini.

wondering how ur winxp managed to install on hda without using 'hide' and a rescue floppy. did it get formatted?

hth.
anirudh

yeah I formatted the whole disk and started from scratch. I first installed LInux (cause that's what i wanted to use) but then kinda jad to install XP.

In light of your answer. I tried using a live CD and got onto my Linux part's fine, but I couldn't get how to actually tell it to install grub to hda1, so I just formattted again and reinstalled Linux.

I'm a little impatient sometimes (and stubborn) :P

thanx for your help though!

d

no prob.

so finally it was: format, winxp, linux?

u might wanna search the forum for grub specific stuff, i'm sure there are others with similar issues.

anirudh

(right now reading MS's "Removing the Linux LILO Boot Manager" article. kinda funny/strange that they didn't mention why u should. can't beleive they didn't use that as another placement for 'get the facts') :P

Save yourself a lot of hassle and simply buy a second hard-disk drive. Most motherboards have two disk-drive controllers on-board, giving you the ability to easily have three hard-drives and a CD-ROM. (And that's excluding USB 2.0 and/or FireWire if you have those!) Installing a new drive is a snap.

Most machines these days can boot from any drive, as well as (usually) USB/FireWire and maybe even the network. So you can install Linux onto a nice, "pristine" drive .. with a boot loader such as Grub, and an entry for both Windows and Linux on the startup menu. No changes whatsoever need to be made to Windows. You can even make the OS selection directly from the BIOS ("Setup") screen.

nice option. but he already has 3 drives. hopefully that'll be my setup real soon. my machine (about 3 yrs old) doesn't boot from usb :-( and it's only got usb 1.0. also no OS selection in BIOS.

I had that problem for a long time until I heard of GAG, which solved all my windows and Linux installation problems.

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

What happened to the original article. It appears to have disappeared.

all the "answers" are 404. the most recent thread here (DISCUSSION: External USB or firewire drives) is also missing. i think there may be an issue with either the htaccess to handle the url rewriting or...eg. http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...P_Server_Howto doesn't use a number for the article (title instead) and the first post in the discussion thread points to it as http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers/276 which is 'not found'.

logical conclusions / paranoia apply :P

anirudh

I've been having the same problem with some of the tutorials I bookmarked. After some searching I found it's just as you say: the numbering scheme has been replaced by a title. But that means that all the discussion threads have the same problem. Maybe we should ask the moderators to look into a sollution for this inconvenience.

yeah. either that or the actual db entries for the first posts on the discussion threads which, afaik, is auto generated, will have to be modified/str_replaced whatever. so [u r l="ht..lq.com/questions/answers/123"]A cool topic[/ u r l] has to be made [u r l="ht..lq.com/questions/answers/A_cool_topic"]A cool topic[/ u r l]...assuming all topics are unique and all non alpha characters are converted and searched for in the same way (underscores or whatever).

ofcourse, existing bookmarks won't work, so lq should either continue the new system and use the new urls for new answers AND have provisions for searching by 'id' for old/already existing 'answers'. (yes, waaay too many 'new's)

anirudh

ps: have u informed jeremy or posted/linked to this in "website s & f"?

I'm on it....