NTLDR Dual-boot with Damn Small Linux-Not and Windows

fakie_flip · 11-06-2006, 07:45 PM

I have Windows XP on my uncle's computer. He has a second hard drive. He was okay with me putting Linux on it. I wanted to do the minimal changes to the first hard drive with Windows XP. That's why I choose to try to dual boot using NTLDR (default bootloader with many newer MS systems including XP). I'd like to go 100% Linux, but I can't in this case. I looked at a few guides that write the same thing differently. I followed the guides.
http://www.astahost.com/info.php/usi...nux_t1510.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=87751
Some described doing the dual boot with NTLDR using Fedora Core release 3. I have "Damn Small Linux Not" installed to the second hard drive. I have not been able to boot it. The installer asked me if I wanted Grub, and I choose Grub. I am not sure exactly where Grub was installed. Does anyone know where? Did it try to put it on /dev/hda and did not install it anywhere because it could not? I am not getting enough information from the output of the installer. It's not on /dev/hda because I still go to the ntloader and boot windows normally. I did find the /boot/grub/ and some files with it including menu.lst on hdb1 after mounting it on the DSL-n live cd (same cd used for install). Something must go wrong each time I reinstall DSL-n trying to get what I am doing to work because Grub should have took over and allowed a dual boot right away like other distros do such as Ubuntu. I answered yes when the installer asked if windows was on /dev/hda1. I had no choice where to install Grub nor do I know where it went. I choose to use ext2 because it is recommended for slower computers. I have a / and swap partition. / starts at the beginning of the drive and the swap is at the end. I did use dd and follow all of the directions the same. I put linux.img, the image of linux's boot sector in my removable pen drive and then copied it over to c:\ in windows. I tried changing "c" in c:\ to "C" in boot.ini, but that did not make any difference. I tried doing dd again to start the process over again and even reinstalling "Damn Small Linux Not" again. I am stumped in finding the problems because I followed the direction. I had no choice where to install Grub with DSL-n, and it wasn't clear where it did go, however, the /boot is on the same partition mounted with / and it looks like all the Grub files are there. Before I forget to say, DSL-n shows in the ntloader. Windows boots normally if I choose it or let it go automatically. If I choose DSL-n, I get a black screen that does not change with a blinking white underscore at the top left. I was wondering what would happen if I used dd to make a copy of the boot sector for windows, so I did, copied it over and added the entry to boot.ini. When I choose that, it would take me back to the ntloader as it should and the timeout starts back at 8, what I had it set to. Here is what I added to a bottom line in boot.ini on a line by itself: c:\linux.img="Damn Small Linux Not". I also tried "grub-install /dev/hdb" and the grub notation, hd1 instead. Nothing changed. I ran it as root. I have not found a way to copy and paste from aterm that's in DSL-n. I have tried with xterm, and I could not with it either.

boot.ini

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\linux.img="Damn Small Linux Not"

pixellany · 11-06-2006, 11:51 PM

Suggestion: Long run-on paragraphs are very hard to follow and significantly reduce the amount of help you will get.

Have you tried putting grub on a floppy?
Have you tried switching the boot order in the bios and putting grub on the Linux drive?
If you have the Windows install disk, why not just put Grub on the first drive? (You can always re-install the Windows mbr code with fixmbr)

fakie_flip · 11-07-2006, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Suggestion: Long run-on paragraphs are very hard to follow and significantly reduce the amount of help you will get.

Have you tried putting grub on a floppy?
Have you tried switching the boot order in the bios and putting grub on the Linux drive?
If you have the Windows install disk, why not just put Grub on the first drive? (You can always re-install the Windows mbr code with fixmbr)

I did not put grub on a floppy because I did not have a floppy I could use at that time, and I was able to use and install grub from the DSL-n Live CD I thought. Does grub on a floppy allow me to do something I can't from a Live CD that has the grub utilities including grub-install?

The bios on the machine I am working with says it will boot the first hard drive first and if it can't, then it will boot the next one. I can't manually tell it which one to try to boot first. I tried to put grub on the first drive, but I do not think I can do it without resizing Windows on the first drive. That's been risky and caused problems for me when I tried it before. I tried "grub-install hd0" and "grub-install /dev/hda", but neither allowed me to do it. Somehow when I used Ubuntu for a dual boot in the past, it wasn't a problem, no resizing was needed, and everything was automatic and worked. However this machine wouldn't run as fast with Ubuntu with its slower hardware. I'd prefer to use NTLDR to boot the second hard drive which will bring up grub on the second hard drive and I can set the timeout in grub low enough, so I won't even see grub.