Dual Boot help (Vista + Slackware 12)
 

Hello

Im currently a windows Vista user.*shame face here*
I'm really new to Linux, try'd some ubuntu a few moths ago only.
I still want to use my windows Vista untill i can get the game's and equal programs to work on Slackware before i go over to Slackware totaly.
Thing is that when I used ubuntu on my "old" computer I got it to dual boot xp and ubuntu with grub (installed grub trough the ubuntu installation). With the Slackware 12.0 install I created a swap partition (as i did with ubuntu) that I dont get it to work.
Made a 25gb partition for Slackware and a 1gb partition for swap.
When I boot my computer I get directly into windows Vista.
Try'd to get grub install trough vista but I cant find the "boot.ini" !
Now after the long and un'needed text, how do i get grub installed or how do I get my machine to dual boot boot?

man i'm "too weak" at this still :/

//Andreas.swe

vista no longer uses boot.ini. The ntldr bootloader has been replaced by something that no longer uses a plain-text config file. Instead you have to run a windows program to configure dual-booting or configure to boot with GRUB or Lilo and use that to load windows. If you want to use the windows bootloader to sual-boot with, you'll need to search the web on the topic of "dual-boot vista linux" to fins out the various ways to do it. It is pretty advanced stuff any way you do it so it would be good if you work out any problems before advancing further with setup and usage of the systems.

Yeah, Vista is definitely not dual-boot friendly. So far, everybody seems willing to dual-boot Ubuntu and Vista... but, instead of using the Vista bootloader, they use Grub. I for one don't like messing with what Pat put in Slackware, and so I'd rather either figure out how to use LILO instead, or use the Vista bootloader.

Hmm... I love browsing around while posting. Looky what I found on Digg:

This is how I used to boot a Slax install in XP. If you have more questions, post and I'll gladly elaborate.

Thank you both gnashley and Spinlock for the info.
I will do my best and get back here with results as soon as i know or hear anything new.

/Andreas

I have a dual boot laptop with vista and slackware 12. I didn't do anything different than I ever did with a dual boot. Vista was already installed and then when I installed slackware I chose the 'simple lilo install' to the mbr. Worked without incident. You get a 'Windows or Linux' prompt on boot up.

It isn't much of a problem to dual-boot vista and any linux you want -provided that Vista is installed first and you use the linux bootloader -either GRUB or Lilo.
Using the windows bootloader is what's challenging and the method varies depending on which OS is installed first.
As stated, Vista no longer uses a boot.ini file. Instead you must use a tool called bcdedit.exe to configure the bootloader. There's a freeware(?) program called easybcd that makes it somewhat easier to do.
It used to be less intrusive to windows to use ntldr and boot.ini to boot linux, but the new changes make it quite difficult to properly configure the bcd file, even for dual-booting Vista with other win versions.
I believe better and faster results can be obtained by using either GRUB or Lilo.