Hello Guys, I want to install Slackware 10.2 On My Pc. I have 2 HDDs. HDD(1) 80Gb NTFS on which i already have windows XP Pro (Drive C). HDD(2) 120GB / 110GB Drive D: (NTFS) & 10GB Blank Space For Slackware Installation. What Are the best options to choose during installation, so that my pc dualboots XP & Slackware. I Tried to dualboot with Fedora Core 4, But never Worked. FC4 comes with Grub, i think Slackware Comes With LILO (Which is more customizable as a friend of mine told me). so what do You People Suggest, methods, ideas, something. Thanks.

the installer shud take of multiboot feature, just ensure that you install bootloader(grub/lilo or whatever) on MBR.

Its not that Fedora Core won't work with the Dual boot setup you've created.

I think there have been some problems in the near past with the older versions of GRUB, that they fail to detect and load Windows properly.
Each time, its a different case. (The partitioning changes from person to person.)
The ideal situation for GRUB detecting windows, that works fine out of the box, in many cases is installing both Windows and Linux on primary partitions. (Thats my personal experience)
But not much of a thing to worry, Linux is very customizable...so even if you don't get the Boot loader (GRUB / LILO) to load Windows automatically, you can configure it to do so.

So, while installation of Slackware 10.2, make sure you create a Swap partition. (512MB should be enough. )

Also, as previously told, make sure that you select to install LILO/ GRUB (its again a personal choice) on the MBR.

Grub is a modern Boot Loader. (and has more options compared to LILO)
LILO is older, but easy to use, and highly customizable.

For grub that need the command "map", so google "grub map" for a hint.

I think that is a new option.
I saw that option in the menu.lst that Ubuntu Created.
Windows seemed to work with that option.

But my main (working) menu.lst is from suse.
I wonder if the version of GRUB that SuSE uses supports that option.
My Windows still not bootable.

PS: But windows is on another HDD. So, by changing the Boot order, I still manage things

I seem to recall vaguely that several versions ago GRUB sometimes did not update its own device.map file. However, this is a simple text file and easily modified. Mine looks like this:

(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda
(hd1) /dev/hdb

However, I have updated GRUB two or three times and with each release I cannot recall this problem occurring any more.

And even if GRUB somehow failed to find existing Windows partitions, which I never have experienced FWIW, a text editor quickly remedies the situation. Here is a snippet from my menu.lst:

title NT4-Primary
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

First, let Windows thump its chest. That is, temporarily ignore running with a separate boot loader and let Windows boot from its own boot loader and install itself to the MBR. Test booting.

After you let that happen, then install the separate boot loader. If using GRUB then edit the menu.lst similar to the above. Verify the partition location is correct and that the chainloader option is available. The chainloader option passes the boot process to the file located on the first sector of that subsequent partition.

Next, depending upon where you have Windows installed (usually the first partition for most people), you might need to edit the boot.ini text file located in the C: root directory. For example, I maintain two NT4 C: partitions. The second is for emergency access to my primary working partition. For conversation's sake I maintain my old DOS 6.22/WFWG 3.11 OS on my first partition. My NT4 C: partitions are installed on partitions 2 and 3. In GRUB parlance that is drive 0 and partitions 1 and 2 respectively. I use additional partitions, such as common D: partition for all of my program files, and an E: partition for all of my data files, but they are not important to GRUB. My menu.lst partially looks like this:

title NT4-Primary
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

title NT4-Alternate
root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

title Slackware 10.1 - 2.4.28 - KDE 3.3.2
kernel (hd0,12)/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.28 root=/dev/hda23 ro hdc=ide-scsi vga=3 ide2=noprobe quiet

etc.

Because my NT4 partitions are not located in the standard assumed location, my boot.ini for NT4-Primary looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=2
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT 4.0 (Primary)" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="VGA/Safe-Windows NT 4.0 (Primary)" /basevideo /sos

My boot.ini for NT4-Alternate looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=2
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="Windows NT 4.0 (Alternate)" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="VGA/Safe-Windows NT 4.0 (Alternate)" /basevideo /sos

Notice the difference in partition locations. That is, the NT boot loader must be able to affirm that its own location matches the info contained in boot.ini. Also notice that for some weird reason, disk numbering begins with zero but partition numbering begins with 1. Go figure.

Of course, most people have only one C: partition, usually located in the first partition. In that case the boot.ini would look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="VGA/Safe-Windows" /basevideo /sos

Although applicable, the previous explanation presumed that Windows remained on the first hard disk.

I never have tried installing Windows to a second drive, but if I did the first thing I'd try is editing the boot.ini file to use either disk(1) or rdisk(1). I don't recall which is the correct option, but you need only two guesses during your experiment to remedy the problem . GRUB easily passes the loading sequence to the correct location (probably disk 1 partition 1), but the Windows boot loader gets confused by looking at its own boot.ini and seeing that it should boot from disk zero rather than disk one.

I was talking about the same problem in another post on the Forum.

I found out, that if Windows is installed on the Second Hard Drive, then GRUB Needs mapping (the map option. ) This is because Windows doesn't like being on the Second(SLave) drive. It always wants to be on the Primary Partition.

So changing the menu.lst to the following worked fine on my computer.

I'm curious wolfheart48 of the results if you try both options of separately editing the boot.ini and then the grub remapping. Let us know if you get a chance.

I have hd1 for W2x(3 partitions) and have lilo(from SW) at mbr. Hd2 has 3 linux installs and a fat32 partition. SW lilo to mbr should work for you too. In my setup grub would not load all linux installations. Your mileage may differ.
There is LQ howto for grub chainloading available.