All,

I have a question about setting up Grub to dual boot Windows 2000 and Redhat 7.2.

I have both OS's installed. Windows boots fine automatically (no OS menu). Redhat boots fine with the boot disk.

The last system I set up this way I used LILO (in RH 7.1) and the bootpart utility, and that worked fine, but I decided to go with GRUB this time.

The question is: How do I get a boot menu to appear (using GRUB) so I can choose which OS to load?

Some relevant(?) details:

I did a custom RH install, put GRUB in first part of /boot (not MBR), no GRUB password.

Two hard drives:
Primary Master: 3.42GB Win System, 52MB /boot, and 4-650MB FAT32 partitions.
Primary Slave: 517MB Linux Swap, 3.51GB /

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Mark

Install GRUB to linux /boot partition, and use XOSL!

www.xosl.org. Its the best boot loader I can find, and its free!

Thanks Ript! I'll check it out later when I'm sober (just came backfrom a birthday party). Thanks again. I'll post here FFR if it works and details how to do it.

Mark

All,

XOSL indeed appears to be a great bootloader, but was not the best solution for me, as it would have required repartitioning, reformating, and reinstalling both OS's.

Instead, I used the same procedure for GRUB as previously used for LILO, and it works great. See the original post for info on my hard disks.

For reference, during linux install, I chose to use GRUB instaed of LILO, and to put GRUB in the first part of /boot instead of in the MBR.

To get everything working right, here is what I did (all as root):

Boot into linux and get a command prompt (you have to use a boot disk to boot into linux at this point).

Type the following command, replacing "/dev/hda5" with the partition you made /boot:

dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

This copies the first 512 bytes of the specified partition into the file bootsect.lnx

You will need to copy this file to your windows system drive root folder, in my case C: You can do this very easily if you have mounted your windows drive(s) in linux. Otherwise, copy it to a floppy, then boot into windows and copy it from the floppy to your windows system drive.

Once in windows, use notepad or another text editor and open C:\boot.ini

Windows will try and hide the file from you, but it is usually there.
Add the following line to the end of the file:

C:\bootsect.lnx="Redhat 7.2 Enigma"

Note that you can replace the text in quotes above with whatever text you want to appear in the windows bootloader menu list. Save your changes and close the file.

Open Start>>Settings>>Control Panel>>System. Click on the advanced tab, then click on Startup And Recovery. In the dialog box, you can choose the default OS to boot, and the timeout. Make any changes, then close the dialog box and reboot.

Choosing windows from NT's boot menu will load windows, and choosing linux will load GRUB. You can change GRUB's defaults (like you just did to windows) by editing the grub.conf file. Note that in GRUB, your menu choices are a zero-based list, meaning that the first menu item is #0, the second is #1, etc.

Set Default=N where N is the number of the OS you want to load by default.
Set Timeout=N where N is the number of seconds to wait before loading the default OS.

This solution worked for me; your milage may vary.

Mark

I knew there was a way to use the NT/2k/XP boot loader to load linux. I systemed my drive with win98 before I installed 2k, so I installed XOSL on that drive, yes without a "DOS" partition, XOSL isnt a good soulution. Scince I have become used to using XOSL, I always install NT/2K/XP that way, first sys the drive with 98/95 boot disk. I also forgot this step on XP, and wenjt ahead and sys'ed it anyway, then ran a repair form the XP setup, but it pretty much did a total re-install, but I did end up witl all my same settings, etc except the video driver and then I had "DOS" on the drive also..................

I upgraded from 7.1 to 7.2 on my laptop that was happy with lilo on the MBR to boot both OS's.

Grub was a bit different at first, since it did not work.


I put the following bit into /etc/grub.conf


title Win2k
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1


Now it works perfect


I'll have to admit I was sweating there for a minute :-)

Yea, I had Lilo but I wanted somthing 3rd party, so if I decide to change anything, it doesnt affect my boot loader. Sided Lilo is like text...
call be a GUI head...

I am running Red Hat 7.2 and installed GRUB into the laptop instead of LILO. I am having problems configuring X for my screen and the only instructions available for it involved using LILO and changing lilo.conf to boot into VGA mode. How can I do this in GRUB? Alternatively, how can I get LILO to install into the MBR instead of GRUB?

I reinstalled RH 7.2 and chose the LILO option, but every time I boot up it appears that LILo has not been written into the MBR and GRUB (from a previous installation) comes up instead.

Any help appreciated!

Artemis

/etc/grub.conf

you will have a kernel line for each kernel like this

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.9-21)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.9-21 ro root=/dev/md0 hdd=ide-scsi mem=nopentium vga=ask



add the vga=ask like I have here, when you find the setting you like change it to match

I currently have Win98 / Win 2K Advanced Server / RH7.2 on a single hard drive running from a RAID controller. I have GRUB installed to the MBR that either boots Linux or Windows.

When Windows is selected, the Windows 2000 multi-boot menu kicks in and allows you to select Windows 98 or 2000.

I guess I'm in the minority having GRUB in the MBR

Hey there

I have got a simliar setup that seems to work fine I am dual booting redhat 7.2 with windows 98 and 2k I was told not to use grub for some reason i don't know why, So I have been using lilo and it works fine.

Lilo is on my /boot partition

Hi guys. Well since this is a decussion between the two boot loaders Grub and lilo I just wanna give a little info.
I think Lilo is a wonderful bootloader, it usually always works correctly. The problem, which I am a witness of, is how easy it is to break into your computer and gain root access when you have lilo installed in your MRB. If you guys recall, lilo has like a 5 second period in which is lets you choose which OS to boot into. If you use what they call "legacy" lilo you get the nice gui lilo splash screen, and if you recall at the bottom left side it says to press ctrl+x if you want to input a command into the lilo prompt. Well, that is the main problem since when you get that prompt you only need 2 steps to gain root access to that linux box.
Anyway, this is the reason why I decided to change from lilo to Grub. However, i am not sure how much secure Grub is than lilo, and if you ask me, I would be reluctant to say a whole lot more but I think is at least less simple to gain root access than it is using lilo. They both are great bootloaders independet from how secure they are though.

zLinuxz,

/sbin/grub-install /dev/hd<n> #n being where you want it.

On the primary I assume.

#add
title Win2k
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
#to /etc/grub.conf

I think you must also rely on physical security.

What's to stop someone with a floppy disk if they know your boot password or reset your bios?

Well why would I give out my boot passwd?
I can also set one on the bios, and disallow booting from floppy or cd. Then again I agree. There must be some level of physical security. In fact I agree whole heartedly. Because security is a practice, not a technology. It's more of a series of technologies.

Security is like a castle. There is a stronghold. With lookouts in the towers, and a rampart or two. Accessed only by a drawbridge over a moat with crocodiles....on on a steep ridge....

I actually have an old 486 with a lock on it. It protects the power and reset buttons. I guess you can unplug it...but plugging it back in doesn't start it up.

I feel off topic. I wonder if marktaff acheived the config he desired.