Reg:Installing LINUX in DELL PC
Reply With QuoteHello, I see that you didn't get any reply, so I start:Originally Posted by saswata
I don't know about your installation:
hd0 and hd1 one is on the primary controller as a master, and where did you put the 2nd?
primary controller slave?
secondary controller master or slave? you have a cdrom or dvd
knowing where you have installed each of your systems,
you must write them down on a piece of paper:
hd0 is the 1st drive (on primary controller), then the 2nd HD will be hd1
hda is the primary master HD is in pc terms: hd0
hdb is the primary slave HD hd1
hdc is the secondary master HD hd2
hdd is the secondary slave and in my case is the cd-rom would be hd3 if was a HD
my 2nd HD is on same controller as the cd-rom and is labelled hdc in /dev/hdc . Hence the /boot/grub/grub.conf file (bootloader for fedora) will use both names hd0 and hda for the 1st HD)
Take a look at debian /boot/grub/menu.lst (= grub.conf in fedora, both files are written on the same pattern) I have debian grub which I update to accommodate each newly installed linux, fedora and others...
--------beginning of the section you want to take a look at:
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda2
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.22.9-61.fc6) (/dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.9-61.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.9-61.fc6.img
--------this should actually suit your installation if you've installed fedora on partition 2 of 1st HD aka hd0,1 (because in pc terms, we start counting partitions from 0) while linux system counts the /dev/hda2 from (hda1, hda2... from 1, not from 0) that's why my fedora is here installed on my primary master drive on the partition 2. hd0,1 aka hda2 -
while debian is on the 1st partition of the 2nd HD (secondary controller as master, which in pc terms is hd1 (since I have no other HD as primary slave) . Then in linux terms, it names the hd1,0 (remember we start the partitions at 0) as hdc1
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-amd64
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-amd64 root=/dev/hdc1 ro
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.18-5-amd64
savedefault
don't panic with above debian root in hd0,0 (that's because I have place the /boot on its own part ition, 1st part of my 1st HD, so hd0,0), I may be confusing you here, if I do please accept my apologies. Just that my 1st HD is booting first and that's where I wanted my main system (debian) to have its /boot (bootloader) to launch all systems spread out on both HDs.
All that was to explain you that you have to edit the fredora grub.conf (text file) to start Windows,
and for that you must add:
title Windows 95/98/NT/2000/vista
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
by editing accordingly hd0,0 to suit your the location of vista on your drive?
of course you should also think about setting the drive with the boot loader (/boot/grub/grub.conf) to start first, so you do that from your BIOS, check which one is which on the 1st page of the BIOS.
but of course you must be able to start Linux first, so you could use the same disk as for your installation and do a system repair.
then, to be sure you can edit that grub.conf easily, you must log in as root and change the permissions:
chmod 664 /boot/grub/grub.conf
then from your desktop you can open the file and edit, otherwise if you don't know how to edit from the command line with vi editor it would only be another nightmare.
once edited and rebooted it will present you a menu for both linux fedora and vista.
I just hope I have been clear enough.
Can you let me know if you could manage to start and edit the grub.conf and have now both systems starting?
if you can't, the last option is to reinstall linux, which will take care of windows in the grub.conf for you. You could take advantage of that to resize the partitions and have more systems, try debian, gentoo, suse, you've so much space... they don't need so much.
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