help me triple boot

katokato · 09-30-2011, 08:23 PM

ok so now i download bf3 beta and it broke because it cant work on win xp. so then i want to install a windows 7 to triple boot with slackware and windows xp.

the thing is is that i already have slackware and windows xp on my computer as a dual boot setup, now i heard that you have to install linux last, so i cant install windows 7 over the linux copy.

so help me uninstall slackware and then install windows 7 then slackware.

so then i have win xp -> windows 7 ->slackware
i have important files on xp thats why i still need to keep it.

iim afraid dat lilo will broke and broke up de mbr. help plz

allend · 09-30-2011, 08:31 PM

Please edit your question to remove the offensive homophobic allusions and clean up the general tone. This is an open forum, not a backstreet gutter.

allend · 09-30-2011, 08:53 PM

Thankyou for doing that.
I suggest that you first get a live CD that includes Gparted (e.g. SystemRescueCD) and use that to organise your disk partitions.
Windows XP will be best on the first primary partition. Windows 7 will want a small boot partition and a second partition for the main operating system. Put the Slackware installation into a fourth partition. It would be best to make the fourth partition into an extended partition so you can have a separate swap and Linux partition.
You can then boot from the Slackware installation disk, follow the instructions to boot Slackware on your hard disk in a pinch, and then edit your /etc/lilo.conf to reflect the new partitioning and rerun lilo.
Then install Windows 7.
Repeat the modification of lilo to reflect the new install.

Naturally you will have backed up all important data before attempting this.

katokato · 09-30-2011, 10:02 PM

how do i reflect new partitioning with lilo?

coralfang · 09-30-2011, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katokato

how do i reflect new partitioning with lilo?

Code:

  other=/dev/sdaX
  table=/dev/sda
  label=WinblowsXP

  other=/dev/sdaX
  table=/dev/sda
  label=WinblowsVista

Assuming you have one harddrive, "table" can stay as /dev/sda.
Replace /dev/sdaX in the "other" lines for the bootable partition of that operating system.

Code:

/sbin/lilo

and reboot, you should have 3 menu entries.

bonixavier · 09-30-2011, 10:31 PM

No need for reinstall. Just make room for Windows 7, install it, then boot your Slack DVD and start your current install, like

Code:

huge.s /dev/sda2 rdinit= ro

, add the /etc/lilo.conf changes and run /sbin/lilo. Reinstalling everything will take too long.

ReaperX7 · 10-01-2011, 03:38 PM

You may also want to use cfdisk to remove any status that the Windows partitions are "bootable" except the Linux partition. It won't reformat the drive.

onebuck · 10-01-2011, 05:03 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

You may also want to use cfdisk to remove any status that the Windows partitions are "bootable" except the Linux partition. It won't reformat the drive.

Why? Slackware doesn't need the partition to be marked as 'boot'.

ReaperX7 · 10-01-2011, 06:14 PM

It's mostly to ensure that Windows 7's bootloader doesn't try to overwrite GRUB or LILO with it's own bootloader.

I've had Windows 7 still listed as bootable and I had to go back and disable it before it would stop overwriting LILO.

It's just a small optional insurance step to know to make sure Windows behaves itself with Linux.

katokato · 10-05-2011, 11:59 PM

ok i need to reinstall slackware too since its buggy i messed up some dependency thing which i dont know how to fix.
so then how bout i delete the slackware partition and bootloader messed up, then install windows 7 which rewrites the mbr with windows xp added to it, then install slackware last?

allend · 10-06-2011, 12:33 AM

A pity that you have to do the Slackware reinstall, but what you propose is the easiest path to success.

katokato · 10-06-2011, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

A pity that you have to do the Slackware reinstall, but what you propose is the easiest path to success.

thanks that is what ill be doing then.
thanks for the help!

3dBdown · 10-29-2011, 05:20 PM

(original question to be posted elsewhere)

psionl0 · 10-30-2011, 12:13 AM

Get set for some fun!

Windows 7 doesn't like sharing a hard drive with other operating systems. On some laptops, a dual boot with windows 7 and slackware is no problem but not on my PC (it seems to be something to do with the order of the 3 partitions used by Windows 7). Every time I ran lilo and tried to boot up windows, the boot-up partition would apparently "see" a problem and go into recovery mode.

My final solution was to delete the 3 primary partitions, set up a single partition in its place and install windows XP service pack 3 instead. Maybe upgrading XP to service pack 3 might allow you to use "bf3 beta".

hughetorrance · 11-01-2011, 09:26 AM

I will just tell you what I do and you can judge if it has merit or not...I multiboot a number of operating systems on two hard drives so I install GRUB to the MBR of each drive so I have two GRUB,s,usually GRUB 2 and Legacy but you can have any versions.
This allows me to easily change operating systems without having to worry about screwing up GRUB as I can install the new GRUB to either drive and that leaves one GRUB always fully functional so its no big deal if I get problems when adding or removing an operating system... LOL