[SOLVED] Slackware won't boot in dual boot with windows 7...
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Slackware won't boot in dual boot with windows 7...
Alright it might be long but I just wrote what I did, please remember while answering that I am a newbie.
So I got slackware 13 from the website and created 4 partitions (primary) and left some (100GB) space as I planned to install windows 7 in that. After installing slack, when I booted from windows DVD (rtm) in partition section it said I already have 4 primary partition so windows cannot used the rest of space despite the fact that it was free (windows even grayed all options like new partition and format etc. for that space). So I thought I'd create 2-3 primary partition for linux (slackware) so that windows can use the free space and make it a primary partition.
So, Next I formatted with slack (3 partition, 2 Primary, 1 extended, total space for slack 50GB) and after its installation I worked my way with windows, but it just created one partition of 100Gb, won't let me create any saying all primary partitions are created. Anyway, I created that partition and installed windows 7. But it messed up my lilo (slack won't show in boot menu) neither can I create any new partition.
After all I reformatted again created 2 partitions for windows (that actually became 3 as windows 7 create 100Mb separate partition for system). Installed windows correctly. Then I booted with slack , which allowed only creating 1 partition as 3 were already there. So I created 1 extended partition, in which I created 4 partition 1 to mount for /boot (100M), 1 for /swap (3G), 1 for home (10G), 1 for / (35G) everything worked fine till I reached last point to install lilo. At that point it said cannot install Lilo (I tried all options simple, expert, install to MBR etc.) but it just won't install. Anyway, after that it said you can install it manually so I clicked OK. Then it said setup complete, remove disk and press alt+ctrl+del to reboot, which I did. But there is just windows 7, no slack ?
what should I do now? I know its installed in there. I saw partitions with some tool. Please tell me what to do ? I am very sad...
Anyone help......
Last edited by aryn07; 01-22-2010 at 07:50 AM.
Reason: Just adding SOLVED :)
Location: Northeastern Michigan, where Carhartt is a Designer Label
Distribution: Slackware 32- & 64-bit Stable
Posts: 3,541
Rep:
Here's what I had to do to install and dual-boot Win7 and Slackware 13.0 64-bit.
I had to delete all the partitioning on the drive (because I'd blown away Vista, installed Slackware 13.0 on the entire drive then went back to install Win7 and... well, ring around the rosey).
You install Win7 first. I gave it 20G (I'm really not going to use it for much of anything it's just that I paid the Microsoft Tax so, dammit, I put it on). Win7 creates, as you've noted three partitions, all primary; they look like this in cfdisk /dev/sda:
Code:
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unusable 1.05 *
sda1 Primary NTFS 104.86 *
sda2 Primary NTFS [^B] 20866.67 *
Install it, boot it, let it get all the critical updates, yadda, yadda, then insert the Slackware disk and reboot.
You're only going to have one primary left, sda3; that wants to be your root partition. The rest of them are swap followed by whatever else you want to do. My partitions are these:
Code:
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 10001.95 *
sda5 Logical Linux swap 5996.23 *
sda6 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda7 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda8 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda9 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda10 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda11 Logical Linux ext3 113066.60 *
Note: You must toggle the Boot flag off on the Win7 partition and toggle it on on the Slackware root partition.
The whole partitioning scheme looks like this on my machine:
Code:
cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.14.2)
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 250059350016 bytes, 250.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 30401
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unusable 1.05 *
sda1 Primary NTFS 104.86 *
sda2 Primary NTFS [^B] 20866.67 *
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 10001.95 *
sda5 Logical Linux swap 5996.23 *
sda6 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda7 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda8 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda9 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda10 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda11 Logical Linux ext3 113066.60 *
And, just for drill, mount displays
Code:
/dev/root on / type ext4 (rw,barrier=1,data=ordered)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /usr/local type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /opt type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda8 on /var/lib/mysql type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda9 on /var/lib/virtual type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda10 on /home type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda11 on /spares type ext4 (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /fat-c type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)
Why cfdisk says ext3 and mount says ext4 (which is what they are) I dunno.
Now, install Slackware, write the boot to the MBR and you'll have dual-boot.
Just as an aside, I was going to install Win7 in VirtualBox but it turns out that the blasted CPU does not support virtualization, so, dual-boot is the only way on my machine. If I had a CPU that supports virtualization, betcha believe this thing would not be dual-boot.
Anyway, hope this helps some.
[EDIT]
I'd like to give credit to whoever it was that gave me the hint but darned if I can remember who it was. My sincere apologies.
[/EDIT]
Here's what I had to do to install and dual-boot Win7 and Slackware 13.0 64-bit.
I had to delete all the partitioning on the drive (because I'd blown away Vista, installed Slackware 13.0 on the entire drive then went back to install Win7 and... well, ring around the rosey).
You install Win7 first. I gave it 20G (I'm really not going to use it for much of anything it's just that I paid the Microsoft Tax so, dammit, I put it on). Win7 creates, as you've noted three partitions, all primary; they look like this in cfdisk /dev/sda:
Code:
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unusable 1.05 *
sda1 Primary NTFS 104.86 *
sda2 Primary NTFS [^B] 20866.67 *
Install it, boot it, let it get all the critical updates, yadda, yadda, then insert the Slackware disk and reboot.
You're only going to have one primary left, sda3; that wants to be your root partition. The rest of them are swap followed by whatever else you want to do. My partitions are these:
Code:
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 10001.95 *
sda5 Logical Linux swap 5996.23 *
sda6 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda7 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda8 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda9 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda10 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda11 Logical Linux ext3 113066.60 *
Note: You must toggle the Boot flag off on the Win7 partition and toggle it on on the Slackware root partition.
The whole partitioning scheme looks like this on my machine:
Code:
cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.14.2)
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 250059350016 bytes, 250.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 30401
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unusable 1.05 *
sda1 Primary NTFS 104.86 *
sda2 Primary NTFS [^B] 20866.67 *
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 10001.95 *
sda5 Logical Linux swap 5996.23 *
sda6 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda7 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda8 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda9 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda10 Logical Linux ext3 20003.89 *
sda11 Logical Linux ext3 113066.60 *
And, just for drill, mount displays
Code:
/dev/root on / type ext4 (rw,barrier=1,data=ordered)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /usr/local type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /opt type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda8 on /var/lib/mysql type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda9 on /var/lib/virtual type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda10 on /home type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda11 on /spares type ext4 (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /fat-c type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)
Why cfdisk says ext3 and mount says ext4 (which is what they are) I dunno.
Now, install Slackware, write the boot to the MBR and you'll have dual-boot.
Just as an aside, I was going to install Win7 in VirtualBox but it turns out that the blasted CPU does not support virtualization, so, dual-boot is the only way on my machine. If I had a CPU that supports virtualization, betcha believe this thing would not be dual-boot.
Anyway, hope this helps some.
Oh Man, I can't thank you in words....
I am just gonna try that...
And I'll come back to know if it works.
I did the same...
but there was an error at last point (when it asks to install lilo) I selected MBR and it said can't install lilo...
It also poped up some warning that my VGA doesn't support the frame I selected so (something) will fall under text mode... (probably it was something related to boot selection, I can't remember right now...).
Than it said there was some error in 1st partition (the windows one) and said I could install lilo later manully. So I clicked ok.
Now nothing shows up....?
What to do...?
you can use your slackware disk to boot your slackware installation, the disk tells you how at the boot prompt, slackware will boot to command line then try to rerun lilo again
I tried to do so, at the boot prompt I typed hugesmp.s root=/dev/sda3
it booted though, but won't let me do anything related to lilo, also there was no files in boot directory as I checked them. I just don't understand why would it won't install lilo at all. I tried to format with ext4 also (when ext3 didn't work) but same error.
Also it said my video card does not support the frame rate I selected so the booting will fall under text.
Has it something to do with my graphic card, its nvidia 9400 gt if that matters.
What am I supposed to do now?
Location: Northeastern Michigan, where Carhartt is a Designer Label
Distribution: Slackware 32- & 64-bit Stable
Posts: 3,541
Rep:
If you boot your Slackware disk and get logged in, use cfdisk /dev/sda and check that none of the Win7 partitions are bootable and that the Slackware root partition, looks like it's /dev/sda3, is bootable. Probably is, but never hurts to look just to make sure. Double-check that you're selecting the correct partitions for /usr, /home, or whatever you've decided on. In this setup with Win7, your root ought to be /dev/sda3 and your swap will be /dev/sda5; other partitions will start at /dev/sda6 and go up from there.
It might be worth a shot to simply reinstall Slackware, do a full install, assign partitions, accept the defaults for everything (except your network settings probably) and when you get to the booting stuff let in install automatically then select the MBR when you get to that screen; when you say OK to the MBR, it's written so don't do it again before you reboot the first time. Don't fiddle with settings for your video card, let it default (it'll default to something that will work) and, you know, it's only the boot screen, all text, nothing fancy.
All of that, on every machine I own works just fine.
Thanks everyone !
I finally got it to work !
Threre was some problem with my dvd.
I burned dvd again installed windows, then slack, and wooah Lilo showed 2 menu to boot, either windows or slack!
Thanks everyone who helped, now I am thing to really switch to linux, windows is really !@#$~.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
Slackware won't boot in dual boot with windows 7...
