DISCUSSION: How to Dual boot with XP/2000/NT and install linux/windows whenever You want
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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).
Code:
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?
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
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'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"?
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