install Mandrake WITHOUT boot loader

roddysmells · 10-22-2002, 09:06 PM

does anybody know how to install Mandrake 8.2 without installing the boot loader. I've tried to just skip it but when I try to exit the installation it comes back up. there is no option to not install it, either. im installing it on a school computer for a project, so when the computer starts, windows has to come up and no boot loader.

thanks
roddy

pagal · 10-23-2002, 03:13 AM

just let it install and after its done take a win98 bootdisk with fdisk and boot from it; at the prompt type
fdisk /mbr
and then reboot...lilo will be gone

you can download a win98 bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com if you don't already have one.

p.s: make sure you make a linux bootdisk so that you can boot into linux.

edit: fixed the slash, thanks Thymox, sorry about that.

Thymox · 10-23-2002, 04:19 AM

That would be a forward slash (fdisk /mbr), BTW. You could also, if you were so inclined, have Lilo installed, have it set to a timeout of 1 second, with no user interface and defaulting to Windows, so that for all intents and purporses, it does boot straight to Windows, but if you wanted, you could boot to Linux with no problems. I think, however, that making a Mandrake bootdisk during install time, and following Pagal's advice is probably a better idea...

panneer · 10-23-2002, 04:51 AM

jglen490 · 10-23-2002, 08:39 AM

Just install Grub or Lilo to the boot sector of your Linux boot partition. The existing code on the MBR won't see it and Windoze will come up just like it should -- on this computer that you're not supposed to be messing with

!!