Frustrated: Cannot get dual boot to work XP RH9

[Rastar]

Okay I have followed the pet for 2K and Linux. I moved the bootsect.lin to my windows system and then added the line at the bottom of the boot.ini.

I get the really snazzy menu (NOT) but when I select Linux the screen goes black and the cursor is up in the upper left corner and nothing happens after that except a reboot.

Can anyone help me get through this I would hate to have to slick the RH distro from my laptop. ;D

Also, why does LILO have to be used isn't grub better?

Okay thanks
Ras

[pbharris]

hello,
have you tried using grub to boot both? grub boots win2k fine for me.

[Schotty]

I dont see why you didnt let RH take over the booting and use grub for the job. As for Lilo vs Grub ... they are both quite reliable, except that grub is prettier. Thats really about it. Lilo has fancy stuff too like the ability to play tetris before making your decision as to which OS to load ;D

To fix that, what I would do is boot off of my firtst RH disc, and do the rescue mode. Mount all of the partitions somewhere, like /mnt/system/ , and then chroot to /mnt/system/ (so that is your new root, and /mnt/system/boot is your new /boot dir, etc.)

Now its like having booted up to your current RH install, almost. You can hack grub or lilo, or whatever is setup via linux for bootloader purposes. Since RH genrerally like to use grub as the default, you probably have that, not lilo. Especially if you have a fresh install of 9. That merely involves only mounting your /boot partition. Not the full system like lilo will (since you need to rerun the lilo executable to install the new stuff the the bootsector or superblock). Modify /boot/grub/menu.lst to make any changes. I am not sure how to reinstall itself to make it take control if it lost control. Probably running grub will do that. My guess. The man page should have the info (or info will too)

[Ashcrow]

[quote author=Schotty link=board=1;threadid=6823;start=0#63808 date=1050330951]
I dont see why you didnt let RH take over the booting and use grub for the job.[/quote]

Generally thats the best way to do it. Windows is not ment to boot anything other than it self ... it can boot other things but it is finicky. A quick fix is to install GAG. rawrite or dd it to a disk, boot it and install it ... it will allow you to boot OS's without problem.

[Rastar]

So I guess its back to slicking the RH distro and just allow it to do its install again. Good thing I have not got Frozen Bubbles installed yet.

This actually is not a problem, the laptop version installs very quick on that computer.

Thanks all and I will grub it but where do I want grub to install on the linux partition or the windows partition in the MBR?

Ras

[pbharris]

i always do mbr and have had no issues.

[rick420]

What kinda crap distro is RH now anyways? Mandrake auto sets up dual boot since like verison -75.2 (hehe, version negative 75) . Just run the installer and when it gets to partitioning and shit it should see a windows install and then set up LILO or Grub (why use Grub anyways, it sucks ass) for u. Its a real simple thing with LILO.

[quote author=rick420 link=board=1;threadid=6823;start=0#63821 date=1050355664]
What kinda crap distro is RH now anyways? Mandrake auto sets up dual boot since like verison -75.2 (hehe, version negative 75) . Just run the installer and when it gets to partitioning and shit it should see a windows install and then set up LILO or Grub (why use Grub anyways, it sucks ass) for u. Its a real simple thing with LILO.


[/quote]

He would still have this problem with MDK, it's because he didn't install Grub/lilo.. it seems he is using the Windows bootloader -- and we all know that Microsoft doesn't play well with others.

As for Lilo vs. Grub

Grub is more advanced, supports some nice stuff like booting of a kernel image on a remote server (nice for corporations and such), it has a commandline (I love this feature) and it allows you to edit your config file directly in via the cmd line (VERY USEFUL). Another nice thing is that there's no need to run grub after a kernel upgrade.

Lilo has all the eyecandy you can imagine.. there are even GAMES avail. for lilo now I hear.. Lilo is fun, it works (sorta) but it lacks the failsafe metods Grub supports, and you need to run lilo after ever kernel upgrade to make sure it's updated.

So it comes down to which you like best, and I like Grub better since I value the failsafe features more than the ability to play tetris in my bootloader.

[Rastar]

Okay thanks all I have it working well almost ;D

Anyone know what the loadline would be for WinXp? Right now Grubs options are Linux and DOS ???? ???

[pbharris]

the DOS label will boot winXP - if it bugs you change the title from dos to winxp. the chainloader +1 thingy boots it.