i have installed Vidalinux 1.1 on my compaq laptop of which i already have XP pro installed.

everytime i boot. i'll get into XP automatically while i'm supposed to be directed to VLOS.

during installation i've opted for GRUB to install the boot info on the first partition instead of MBR as advised by the installer.

can anyone help?


system config :

Compaq Presario 2145AF
Pentium 4 2.4GHz -M
40 GB HDD (internal)
512 DDR RAM


i have 2 hdd. 1 internal hdd (40gb) and the other one is external USB hdd at 120gb capacity.

i have partitioned my internal hard into 4 partitions. (the external hdd is irrelevant to this topic).

the VIdalinux was installed on the first partition and XP on the second.
the XP partition (2nd prttn) is "marked active". i can't mark active the first partition after reformat it into et3 file system, and dont know if it matters.

below is what it looks like in my XP boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

You should have installed the boot loader into the mbr.

You can reinstall the linux bootloader or you can install GAG which will boot both operating systems and any subsequent operating systems you install without fuss.

http://gag.sourceforge.net/