Comments on Windows Linux DualBoot Tutorial
This tutorial was written to help set up a dual boot on a SATA drive but it will also work for PATA so continue forward and I will let you know if you need to skip something. In order to have a fully functional dual boot system it is preferred that Windows be loaded first. After that you can load Linux and easily dump the boot configuration on Windows NTLDR file (comparable to Linux boot file).
4 Comment(s)
Comments
I tried various boot loaders but it you can avoid them if install LINUX last and then make a bootable CD.
1)Change your BIOS to boot from CD
2) Boot the Linux rescue CD
3)Run from the installed Kernal on your hard drive
4)The command: uname -r will return the number of the kernal you are using, ie 123. You need write down this number for the next command.
5) The command: /sbin/mkbootdisk -v --iso --device boot_d.iso 123 creates the file boot_d.iso in the sbin directory (not the best place for it but you can delete it later).
6) Burn the ISO image boot_d.iso to a CD. Restart your computer this should then boot your kernal without a boot loader. Down side(s): you need the cd to boot Linux AND you have to repeat this if you upgrade your kernal, AND you have to hunt down the new kernal number in a different way as uname -r only returns the running kernal number.
This is STILL better than running a bootloader which are hard to remove (LILO) and confuses WINDOWS and its repair programs ie if you fix the MBR with windows you may have 'trouble' getting your Linux to boot.
Seems a bit of confusion in the above comment ("better than running a bootloader"). Both Linux and Windows need their bootloaders - you cannot do without them! The suggestion to boot from CD seem (as far as I can see) simply has the Linux bootloader on the CD instead of the HDD. And who said anything about LILO ?!? Does anyone still use LILO? GRUB is the standard Linux boot loader these days.
The problem touched on here is that a Windows install aggressively replaces anything in the MBR (Master boot record, which is on the first track of the HDD and is NOT the boot sector, which is at the start of each partition) by its own boot loader, which will not allow a redirection to GRUB. OTOH, GRUB does allow a redirection to the Windows loader.
My own arrangement is to have the bootstrap part of GRUB in the boot sector of the /boot Linux partition, the bootstrap part of the Windows loader in the boot sector part of the Windows partition, and the OS-neutral SmartBootManager btmgr.webframe.org in the MBR. On switching on the PC, SmartBootManager presents a menu that offers booting from any of your OS's on HDD, CD, floppy, reboot, or go to BIOS. (In fact you can tell it to try to boot from the boot sector of any partition in your system.) It then chains to GRUB or the Windows loader, as you choose. Naturally I have both menus defaulting to Linux, so I am normally making coffee through this.
Leave a copy of its installation program (the Linux version in my case) on your drive somewhere. I also keep a copy of the installed SmartBootManager on a floppy. Then, if ever a Windows install blows it out of the HDD MBR, you can restore it in half a minute by booting from that floppy which can then chain to GRUB and hence Linux over the head of Windows. This floppy is the equivalent of our friend's CD (it could be on CD as well), but you don't have to use it every time, only for emergencies.
Hi man, you could also mention that if you don't install Windows in the first HD, one day it will refuse to boot. So if you have a PATA and SATA drives, be sure to install Windows in the PATA one.
A demon from NTLDR Hell.Nice article, but it is now 2006 .. how about addressing multi-boot on GFT formatted disks, 32/64-bit EFI, and how the process changes if you wish to use 64-bit Windows/LINUX and other operating systems instead of using the MBR formatted disks.