Dual Boot XP/Ubuntu on SATA and IDE...
 

Hi all,

I wanna install the Ubuntu 64 bit version in a Dual Boot with XP.

I'm gonna install XP on the Primary SATA Drive, but I wanna install Ubuntu on the IDE.

In Noobish, can someone tell me the best way to do this?

My experience with SATA and Ubuntu was a trainwreck. I have about the same MOBO as you though, a Lanparty DF250 or something. My suggestion is to try putting win XP on the SATA setup, it will work fine. Then start the Ubuntu installer and see if it sees the EIDE drive. If it does, and it should, just install to it. The Grub install will be automatic, so everything should work.

My way to do such a work is:

1. Set the primary hard disk to be your SATA disk in BIOS, and install the windows xp on it in the normal way.

2. Set the primary hard disk to be your IDE disk in BIOS, and install the linux on it. Normally, you need to install grub or lilo in the MBR of one of your hard disks. I chose my IDE disk, cause the MBR of my SATA disk is used by windows XP. In such a way, if my linux crashes, I can easily set the primary disk to be my SATA disk in BIOS and boot windows XP from it.

3. I prefer grub to make a dual boot. The last thing you need to do is to set your grub to be able to boot windows XP, cause at this moment, the windows XP does not recognize hd1 which your SATA disk is. Simply set the file /boot/grub/menu.lst, adding two lines in the windows boot section:
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)

Hope this is correct and could be helpful to your case.



Good luck!
Lingxiao

Solution
 

I think I've figured Grub out in its naming strategy. It labels starting at zero as they are labeled in Bios's Boot order preference. Can't try it yet cause I'm on a solaris mainframe but I will and edit this. As far as I can see in the code thats how grub works.

New Linux user with newfound passion

ok, this situation is my exact setup. odd b/c i was just coming to post this exact question. but i'm a little confused where i need to add those two lines. and then where do i put that file after i modify it? i know you said the windows boot section, but does that mean i need to enter it while i'm actually booted into windows xp?

the last time i tried to use linux was fedora and i remember it walking me through setting up grub. when i would boot that computer i would get a boot selection screen where i could choose either windows xp or fedora. i'm trying to do something like that.