boot.ini rewriten, cant boot to linux

ragecyr · 07-04-2003, 11:12 AM

so i reinstalled XP, now i dont have an OS choice on boot. checked out boot.ini and XP chucked out the linux boot. so what lines do i need to reinsert into it. I have the newest kernel, (i can figure out which disk it is), and its the default partition on that drive (linux dedicated drive), RH9 by the way. if i could get the rh9 OS choice screen back, that would rock. thanx guys

captainstorm · 07-04-2003, 11:17 AM

I have here another question. I have windows2000 and Linux on my laptop but why I could not find the boot.ini under 2000? I can not find this file...

ragecyr · 07-04-2003, 11:19 AM

its on the default hard drive (0)(0), primary master. aka c:\boot.ini

captainstorm · 07-04-2003, 11:39 AM

Thank you ragecyr. But you can not believe this: I tried "search" in windows2000 on C: for the boot.ini but it tell me "no result found". Am I missing something?

Qu Chen

ragecyr · 07-04-2003, 12:27 PM

i have no idea >_<

captainstorm · 07-04-2003, 12:55 PM

It's windows2000 professional service pack 2. It's really strange to me. Anyhow it is OK if I use the windows2000 on FAT32 and Linux. With NTFS the windows does not work, even install the LILO on the first sector

Cyclo · 07-04-2003, 01:43 PM

I dont think the windows boot loader handles non-microsoft operating systems, so the easiest way is to install linux after installing windows. Install either GRUB or LILO to the master boot record, and it should be fine, and the RH9 will automatically create the boot loader entries for windows (it says DOS, but it means windows

) and linux.

It should be possible to install GRUB or LILO from rescue mode, but I've never tried so don't really know.

captainstorm · 07-04-2003, 02:10 PM

Thank you Cyclo, while although I could not find boot.ini, I think my installing history would be useful to some others.

I am using windows2000 service pack2, originally C: was formatted as FAT32. Then installing linux7.1, with LILO on the MBR, no problem. When the machine boot, it gives you two choices: 1.Linux 2.Dos The Dos boot to windows2000.

God knows why I switched the FAT32 to NTFS (windows corruption) and I installed again the Linux, with the LILO on the first sector. However, this time I am not able to boot to windows, got the message: NTDLR not found!!

Then I formatted C:/q again and installed windows2000 and then performed a partitionless install on FAT16. This is my current situation.

One suggestion: never install any *one time* software or important software on C: and it is always better to creat a smaller FAT16 partition to save them. And it is always possible to get access to them by the emergecy disk.

Qu Chen