I've recently decided to start using Linux (along with XP for games) and have downloaded Suse 10.1 (DVD).

Install goes as planned until rebooting (happens automatically after software has been installed but prior to completing all Suse install steps).

XP starts - no Grub, no Suse ...

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System config:
AMD 64
XP Drive - 200GB ATA (Seagate ST3200826A)
Suse Drive - 80GB EIDE (Western Digital WD800JB): Formally used as a spare data disk on same XP system

Jumper settings have not been changed (same as they've always been and working together under XP). Jumper settings are as follows: XP drive is set to "CS" while Suse drive is set to "slave".
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Suse config:
I've tried Grub only. I've tried various places for locating the bootloader (all on the Suse drive), but have not tried the XP drive (mbr) as I've read this is not a "good" thing to do...thoughts??? It seems obvious that the PC is not finding the bootloader, but I can't figure out how to tell where to look (outside of the XP drive mbr)???


Any help would be much appreciated.

Bruno

If you want to dual boot you will have to have a different MBR booting. That is - different from the one on the Windows disk, which will only boot Windows. So you can either get grub to install its MBR on the Windows disk, which will boot to any partition on any disk, or you can boot to a different device, say a floppy or a usb stick. Most people who dual boot are happy with the first option, but there can be good reasons not to erase the Windows MBR.

The grub-install command will install grub's mbr on your Windows disk.

There are ways to back-up and restore the Windows mbr using a linux live-cd and the dd command. Perhaps you could google these methods and be confident that you could restore the Windows mbr in case anything went wrong. You can also use the fixmbr command on your Windows recovery disk (also a live-cd). There is a free version of this utility on the FreeDOS live-cd as well.

I suggest you install grub onto a floppy, or (if you don't have a floppy) onto a usb stick, until you are confident that grub will treat you and your system well. You can read about how to do this in the grub manual-
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

My thoughts are

CS means cable select
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/unix/shel...ics-linux-5803
my preference is set the first detected drive as master and make the other the slave.

You have not mentioned optical drives and how many ide controllers you have.

Ideally the burner should be jumpered as master and on its own.

(2) have a read of my tut....it is easy to put grub into the mbr of the xp drive....which will be (hd0)

You have not given enough details of the linux /etc/fstab for me to say what your grub root is but it will be
(hd1,0 or 1 etc) as per tut.

(3) make sure you have a ms recovery cd in case grub fails on the xp drive.....it should not but I do not want a ms user to get depressed.

Thanks for the info Bernied and Aus9!

So, am I just being paranoid out messing with the windows mbr? It seems that I've read in a few places (about installing dualboot systems) not to install the bootloader into the windows mbr. Just wanting to be safe...

Thanks,

Bruno

P.S. Wow! aus9, Great tut on Grub!!!