Hello,

I have recently installed mandrake 9.2.

Now i have one partion with XP (which where there first) and one partion with linux.

The thing is that after the completion of my installation I'm not getting a boot option menu, the one asking me if i would like to start linux and xp when i start my computer, xp just starts right away.

And the only OS i have in my MBR is XP.

My question is how do i fix this, i want to be able to choose (and of course start it all together), i guess there must have been some wrong settings in the boot-loader (lilo) or something like that.

Big thanks in advance.

/Jim

Check if you have grub. Under mandrake go to /boot/grub

If that directory exists. Just do /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda (this will install the bot loader into your MBR).

reboot

ok thanx marghorp, sounds good.

btw, how do i get into linux without this menu, can i do it from cd1?

it may be a stupid question but i really dont have much of a clue

first, make sure you have a boot disk for windows, just in case


ok, get to a dos prompt by booting your xp machine and pressing f8 and hitting command prompt (or something close to that)

then run fdisk
list your partitions, and set the partition that is approximately 104391 blocks in size as active, thinking theoretically, this probably is hda2

on reboot, this should allow you to boot grub and get the options you want, lemme know if this doesnt work, and MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR BOOT FLOPPY HANDY IN CASE THIS DOESNT WORK

I think FC2 has only the rescue cd. However you can try CD1 and linux rescue if that works. I am not sure.

yes you can get into linux using cd1, its called linux rescue, at the boot: prompt, type in
linux rescue

then at the terminal, type in
chroot /mnt/sysimage
then you can run the thing above that he said

great, im off to try this

Oh sorry, I am just so in FC2 that I am talking about FC2. When in fact you have MDK. Sorry.

However the steps should apply all the same if using grub. Which you will find out. If using LILO, well someone will help you.

it seems that i couldn't do chroot /mnt/sysimage

maybe i should just try to re-install and go with grub right away?

Maybe you don't have to. Did you read the instructions on screen, If any?

Maybe MDK has already chrooted to the root.

Try this:

su
<your root password here>
updatedb
locate grub.conf

This should tell you if and where you have grub.conf file, not depending on if you chrooted or not. If this does not produce any results. Try:

locate lilo.conf

One of these should produce results. Post here which will produce results.

reinstall with grub, that seems easiest, if u dont want to lose any data, dont format any other partitions except the /boot one

btw, you dont have to do updatedb then do locate
you can use find

find / -name filename

in your case

find / -name lilo.conf
or
find / -name grub.conf

Did you or did you not install any boot loader at installation?

If you didn't, then it is useless to try to find the lilo.conf or grub.conf files. There will not be any. You will have to use the boot disk in that case.

in my oppinion i did install the lilo one

anyhow.. thanx guys!

i will try the other thing you said and se if i get any response.

ok