Hello,
I decided I would try to install Slackware, so I burned an iso of the the latest version.
I run XP on a well equipped PC.
I partitioned my drive with Partition magic using the wizard to setup the linux partition.
I installed by booting from the CD. Everything seemed to go OK and at the end I rebooted into XP where I manually added the new OS to Bootmagic.
Rebooted and bootmagic gave me : XP and Linux.
After choosing slackware it just goes to a screen that said 'preparing to boot OS'. The problem is that it just hangs there indefinitely. I tried to reinstall a few different times. But now, frustrated, I've erased it and returned my PC to its original single partition.

I don't want to be an XP slave. Please help
Thanks -Ryan

I was in the same boat you are in about a week ago, and I can safely say, use LILO instead of BootMagic. BootMagic is meant for loading two different Windows partitions, though it may say differently. LILO will get you working in almost no time flat. If you have any other questions I'll try to answer them, but I'm still a newbie. Good luck!

Thanks...I'll give that a try. I thought about doing that before....but was scared away by the warning that if LILO doesn't get configured properly it could cause your other OS's to no longer boot.

-RY

I'm pretty sure that it's safe to boot from the Master Boot Record if you have a newer comp. That's what I do, and it works great!

I did as suggested (installed LILO to master boot record) but then on reboot LILO comes up with only slackware (no XP) and now xp is not bootable.
I've deleted linux again and reinstalled windows.
Any advice?

Ok, I think you'll have to use LILO config (type liloconfig at a Linux prompt). Go into expert mode, click the first option, follow the directions, then use the "Add Linux" option and "Add DOS" option to add your OSs. Check out the LILO mini-HOWTO here for more info.

Thanks,
the examples in this doc look very helpful. I was frustrated at first but I think I'm getting closer (i hope).
-Ry

hey i have a prob like that 1 if i just let my comp boot of my main HD (/dev/hda) it says ERROR no ???file name<<for bootit NG( iused this earler) so every time i have to boot it from a floopp i created, is there a fix for this, or can i just tell my comp to boot STRAIGHT to the floppy?

You mentioned that you used Partition Magic. I have used both Partition Magic and System Commander at one time or another. The two products are very similar with many of the same features and are made by the same company. At the moment I may actually have a little bit of both installed on my computer so I hope what I am about to say would apply in your case. So anyway, Partition Magic or System Commander usually place their own bootloader in the Master Boot Record (MBR). I am not totally sure about this detail, but I believe that when Windows XP is installed before Partition Magic, it would move or in some way alter the Windows MBR .

When Linux is installed Partition Magic prefers that LILO be installed in the "root sector of the boot partiton" not in the Master Boot Record. Partition Magic does not want to have its own MBR overwritten. That way Partion Magic can bring up its own menu first, From the Partition Magic menu I then choose which operation system I want to boot. If I choose Red Hat 9, LILO is then run from the root sector of the boot partition that Linux boots from. Oddly enough from the LILO boot menu I can also choose between the same several operating systems that I have installed. They include most of the same OS choices that the Partition Magic boot menu previously gave me. That seems a little weird and redundant doesn't it?

I recently added SuSE to my older computer in addition to RH 7.3, RH 9 and DOS 6.22. I chose to use Grub instead of LILO. By mistake when installing Grub I failed to specify where it should be installed. Afterwards when I rebooted my computer, only Grub appeared and not the Partition Magic operating system menu. I then realized that Grub had overwritten my MBR.

That problem was easy to solve. Fortunately, when installing Partition Magic the System Commander Utility Disk 1 and also the Restart Disk 2 had been created. I inserted one of them in my floppy drive and rebooted my computer. My computer then booted from the floppy disk first and System Commander immediatly detected the problem and started working on correcting it. It soon announced that the problem had been corrected. When I removed the floppy disk and rebooted, the usual System Commander OS menu then appeared as it should. I also noticed that SuSE had been added to the menu and worked ok even though it was not booting from the root sector of the SuSE boot partition.

Someday I my try to switch to a more normal and less weird way of booting up my computer. Actually, I probably won't bother to change because it does work even if it is a little weird and is not an elegant simple way of doing things. Over writing the Partion Magic or System Commander MBR is a mistake that is frequently made and is a potential drawback to using either product. Does that sound like what you might have done or did I misunderstand your problem? I did not bother to read all of the above posts very carefully.