Alright everybody, i'm new to linux so you'll have to bear with me. Just installed Slackware 10.0 on my 2nd hard drive. Windows XP Pro is on my first drive. I've got the first 512bytes of the linux bootsector saved to bootsect.lnx and it's been copied to C:\bootsect.lnx (C: is my windows drive). I've added the line
>C:\bootsect.lnx="Slackware Linux"
to the end of windows' BOOT.INI
When i restart, i get the boot menu, which looks like this

Windows XP Professional
Slackware Linux
If i select windows, it boots right up. If i select linux, however....
L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99.....that scrolls across the screen. Does that for several lines, then it just halts mid-line. The computer has to be restarted to get anywhere. This happens on every try, so it's a repeatable error (for me at least). What do i do!!!!????

Thanks in advance!

-Zach

I think a better way of dual-booting would be to use LILO or GRUB... The Windows bootloader doesn't seem to support linux very well in my experience... Since you're using Slackware, LILO seems to be the way to go...

What you need to do is to you use Windows CD to restore the master boot record (MBR) but booting the CD and choosing the appropriate options.

Then, have a linux boot disk (if you haven't created one, check out Smart Book Manager, http://btmgr.webframe.org/index.php3?body=download.html).
Once in Linux, edit the /etc/lilo.conf as per the manpages, then run /sbin/lilo.

Reboot, and rejoice.

And if that doesn't work?

If you have tried it and it didn't work then post back with whatever new error messages if any come up.

khtse gave good advice, I have found Lilo to be very easy to configure to dual boot.

But, since you said that the XP still boots OK maybe the MBR is OK too. Perhaps re-edit the XP stuff back to how it was and then try installing Lilo again. if you are nervous about installing lilo to the MBR (I was at first) then use the boot floppy that you hopefully made during the Slack install to make sure Slack is working first and explore your Lilo options later


mark

So I should install LILO to the MBR? I've got a boot disc, and i've been using it to get into Slackware. It works (quite well, i might add). Not really sure what to do with liloconfig after i've got it up though. Any ideas?

Alright, i've figured it out...but you can't laugh :-p

After installing LILO to the MBR of my main drive, and adding the Linux and Windows partitions to be loaded, It still wouldn't load linux. So i went into my BIOS and discovered something.....My secondary drive was DISABLED!!!! L 99 99 probably means that it can't read the bootsector, because my DRIVE was OFF!! So, after sulking and feeling like an idiot for about 5 minutes, I've got a dual booting system, and I'm veerrrry very happy. Thanks for all the help!!

boy did I screw up. Had dual boot partition w/ debian and win xp using lilo. I decided I didn't want linux anymore so used partition magic to delete my linux partitions (only want xp on hard drive now). Now when I boot I get the L 99 99 99 99 99 error described above, only problem being that LILO is gone. I've tried going into recovery console and doing fixmbr and fixboot which complete successfully (no error messages). When I reboot comp though I just get the same boot error again. Any ideas?

Yeah, try running the windows repair installation. Put the disc in, act like you're going to install a fresh version over your old one. It'll make a fuss saying there's already an installation there, do you want to repair it. Choose that, and it'll go through and repair the install. Hopefully that'll fix your problem. And no, you don't lose any files by doing this.

-Zach

Well I tried the repair installation but no go. Windows loaded it files, rebooted, and still coudln't find the correct boot sector. Any other ideas? Or am I only left with getting a new HD and installing on that drive so I can recover files from my "broken" drive...?

My old experience with Lilo was that it was hard .. near impossible to remove from MBR !!! I actually hand edited the MBR for the system to boot.

Try installing grub on the boot sector .. with Grub you surely will be able to dual boot .. and can put windows as default.

Or try partionmagic / boot repair toolkit cd's .. available on ebay for about $2.00

alright, I'm a idiot and finally got it working. I had 2 HDs in the system and looks like fixmbr would try and fix my slave's mbr. Disconnected the slave drive and tried command again and it worked!

Woot!

haha! I had this happen to me twice before.

Don't feel bad about it. Its a right of passage.