rayne. from my experience, install to the mbr. Lilo should most definitely load. if it doesnt detect your windows installation, you can edit your lilo.conf file quite easily, look it up on the net.
If you muck up your mbr you can always restore it using the windows XP installation cd - Repair utililty - command FIXMBR.
(assuming you use windows XP, im sure you could do something about the same with windows 2000). If anyone knows a better solution, please post it.

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
delay = 50
vga = normal
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz.2.4.19.2
root = /dev/hda5
label = Linux.2.4.19.2
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = windows
table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends


Probably the important thing here is the

boot=/dev/hda

in the global section. This tells LILO where to install the boot loader.

Cheers,
Moses

Thanks!

I already screwed my grub.conf that much that i needed a bootflop

And still, noone has posted a solution to the problem of Redhat 7.3 and Windows XP dual booting... Anyone know the cure?

You didn't supply a whole lot of information, digital_dreams. You say that mandrake will dual-boot? What boot manager is that? What boot manager is it that you're trying to use with RH? Have you tried manually installing the boot manager?

Mandrake works with either grub or lilo. Redhat wont boot with either, it is a known issue on the net, i just thought there may be a known solution as to why windows continues to load automatically instead of lilo/grub.
I havent installed the boot loader manually, maybe will in the near future if i find time.

We're getting a little extreme here, folks.

This is the way the boot process works:

The BIOS and its bootstrap loader look in the MBR of the first bootable device. If it finds some boot code, it loads it into memory and executes it. If the code that it finds IS boot code, then upon execution IT will look further, using whatever instructions are there, for code that will load either an OS's kernel or load a boot manager that will control the loading of some OS's kernel.

In the Windoze case. the BIOS and bootstrap loader finds code on the MBR that points to a specific boot sector. The bootstrap loader, loads whatever is in that bootsector to memory and executes it. If its Win9x, the bootsector code just points to the location of the kernel executables. If its Win2K/WinXP/WinNT, the boot sector code points to ntldr which manages loading a kernel.

If the the code that the BIOS and bootstrap loader find has nothing to do with Grub/Lilo, then neither Grub nor Lilo will be executed -- ever. With Win9x, it is absolutely essential that Grub or Lilo have code on the MBR, or some third party boot manager code on the MBR that includes some means of booting Linux. With Win2K/WinXP, you have the option of using ntldr, plus an appropriate boot.ini entry, which executes a copy of the Linux bootsector (as a file) when selected.

If you have installed both a Windoze and a Linux and are unable to boot one or the other, then you have made an error during the installation. It has nothing to do with RedHat, or Mandrake, or Slack, or any other Linux distro, it is simple human error due to lack of understanding!!