redhat/windows boot choice

florian_mrt · 07-08-2004, 07:42 PM

I am a newbie to linux, so I thought I might start using linux "slowly" and "separately"....

I have an ACER TravelMate 800 LCI laptop, which I divided the 39 Gb harddisc into 29 Gb. FAT32 for WinXP (hda1), and 10 Gb ext 2 for RedHat9.

If I start my laptop, WinXP automatically loads. How can I get LILO to start, or get a choice screen from the beginning, or something?

I cant reinstall RedHat for the coming two weeks (The CDS arent here), and the problem is kinda urgent...

Any help highly appreciated...

KNIVES · 07-08-2004, 11:51 PM

Ok, this is a total absolute guess, so im ready to be flamed for being wrong lol.
but heres 2 commands i wuld try to see if u can change lilo's configuration:
lilo --help
lilo config
not sure if either works since i use grub...
and im still a

lol

zulfilee · 07-09-2004, 12:09 AM

Hello there
this will work if you had installed redhat last and XP first.

Boot into redhat using the redhat boot CD [Rescue mode]
i.e. You have to type linux rescue when the CD boots up.

Now the image of linux is mounted in /mnt/sysimage

Now type

cd /mnt/sysimage/etc

open lilo.conf and see if entries for both windows[DOS} and Linux is there.

If its there
Just type

lilo -r /mnt/sysimage

If this happens correctly Just reboot the system and Have it singin

Cheers
Z

florian_mrt · 07-12-2004, 03:09 PM

I did install WinXP first and then RedHat9, I knew about that booting collapse problem from Microsoft.

I think the problem is just very simple, and the solution very funny... Everything should work fine; its just me being a newbie that I dont know how to tell the computer to boot on a different hard drive partition...

Thanks so far for the comments, any further help?

big_gie · 07-13-2004, 12:01 PM

@florian_mrt
You should get a boot manager, even if you use Grub or Lilo. I highly suggest Smart BootManager (SBM). Put it on a bootable floppy disk, boot from it, and run it.

Installing things in the Master Boot Record (MBR) is a bit risky. Thats why you should put a 3rd party software like SBM.

Check the command line option. You can make a backup of your Master Boot Record (MBR) with SBM. That way you can safely revert back to Windows' "boot manager"