hi

i got xp on master and mandrake on slave.
but need to know how to dual boot. i dont care what way round i do it as long as it works.
i have heard a lot of conflicting ways. but just would like an easy step by step way as im no computer wiz, but can follow instructions.

i am using lilo.

regards

Well, depending on what partition windows is on, it could vary (I'm assuming it's the first partition on the primary hard drive, hda1)

To add this follow these steps:

1. Open up Konsole
2. type in these commands:
su
(enter root password)
kwrite /etc/lilo.conf

After KWrite comes up, add this anywhere below the line "menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw"

other=/dev/hda1
label="Windows"
table=/dev/hda
(only make sure there's a tab in front of "label" and "table")
If you want windows to be the default, edit the top line to say:
default="Windows"
Save and exit. Back to the shell, enter this command
lilo
and it will be fixed. The windows option should boot windows.

Note: If windows is not installed on /dev/hda1, it will be different. Open the mandrake linux control center, click on "Mount Points", and then on "Partitions". Click on the windows partition, and see what it says in the Details section. If it says something other than hda1 (hda2, etc) then change "/dev/hda1" to "/dev/..."

Let me know if this helps

If you installed Mandrake AFTER installing Xp, and then permitted the Mandrake installer to set up the bootloader on the MBR of the PRIMARY DRIVE (as it wanted to, on your WINDOWS drive...) this all would have been automatic.

Mandrake automatically builds a boot loader which permits you to dual boot.

What is important is to install XP -FIRST- and then Mandrake afterwards.

thanks

but i think i didnt explain properly,or did i?
i have xp on my 'master' drive.
and mandrake on a 'slave' secondary drive.

or am i just getting myself needlesly confused.
by the way, thank you both for replying so quickly and with decent instructions.

many thanks guys.
i shall try these things.

No I got it the first time.

You should do as I mentioned.

Linux will boot fine from a secondary drive provided that the bootloader is properly installed to the MBR (yes the driver where you currently have XP installed).

The Linux boot loader will take over at boot time, and permit you to choose which OS to boot from.

But to do this is -MUST- be installed on the first bootable drive (Primary Master) and on the Master Boot Record, not in the Linux partition (which is offered as a choice, that most newbies erroneously select...).

Let us know if it worked.