| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
smith
Apprentice
Joined: 12 Sep 2003
Posts: 222
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 11:52 pm Post subject: third party boot loader? |
 |
|
| Anyone know a good free bootloader that will all me to install it in windows xp and load gentoo aswell.. I don't want to use grub or lilo due to bad experiences with both. thx |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
meowsqueak
Veteran
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1549
Location: New Zealand
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 12:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bad experiences? What happened?
I use GRUB to boot WinXP and Linux and it works flawlessly. I've never had a bad experience with GRUB. LILO however has caused me a few problems in the past. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
smith
Apprentice
Joined: 12 Sep 2003
Posts: 222
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
everytime I try to install lilo or grub... out comes the win98 boot disk. fdisk /MBR 
I have had so many problems that I don't even know where to start.. I am going to try to use the xp bootloader for now.. as outlined in the faq section of the forum.. If that doesn't work.. I am going to throw my comp the beating of its life  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
meowsqueak
Veteran
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1549
Location: New Zealand
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
Hmmm, perhaps a re-reading of the GRUB info page might be useful?
Good luck with the XP bootloader. I hope you sort it out. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
alakar
n00b
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 2
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 3:22 am Post subject: xosl |
|
|
I was going to suggest that you could try xosl http://www.xosl.org/ but the site does not seem to be responding now. But while I was looking for an alternate site I found bootpart (http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) which looks like it may help in your goal of getting linux on the windows boot manager menu.
But even with either these loaders you'll need to set up lilo or grub on the partition to do the actual loading of the linux kernel. Are there any loaders other that lilo/grub that can load a linux kernel directly?
alakar |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
water
Guru
Joined: 19 Jun 2002
Posts: 387
Location: Zierikzee, The Netherlands
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
Setting up LiLo or GRUB isn't that hard, so i doubt that you will get another bootloader to work.
_________________
Groeten uit Holland |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deepthought
Guru
Joined: 04 Apr 2003
Posts: 321
Location: icbm://5131''N:0710''E
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 8:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
To use the Windows XP bootloader (which works nice, btw), you'll also have to setup either lilo or grub.
In fact, using ntldr (the Windows XP bootloader) forces you to have two (!) bootloaders:
ntldr for Windows operating systems
<yourFavourite> for any other operating system
The problem is that ntldr doesn't know anything about Linux or any other (non-Windows, that is) operating system. What it can do is the following:
ntldr is able to boot foreign binary bootsectors - save the first 512 bytes of your boot partition (the one lilo or grub has been installed to) to a file saying
| Code: | | # dd if=/dev/<yourBootLoaderPartition> of=/mnt/<aWindowsShare>/bootsect.lin bs=512 count=1 |
in your favourite Linux shell. BY NO MEANS try to write directly to an NTFS partition. Write support for NTFS (although you can add it to the kernel) is experimental and considered EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Don't use it. Don't even think about it. Trust me. I tried...
Then, transfer this file to the C: partition of Windows XP in the same folder where boot.ini resides. Now, edit boot.ini and add the following line to the end of the file:
| Code: | | C:\bootsect.lin="Gentoo Linux" |
Reboot, and you can select this entry to boot Linux. Remember however, that lilo or grub must be setup already. Otherwise, ntldr will stop after you selected your Linux boot entry.
The advantage however is that you can keep ntldr: if you want, you may install grub or lilo anywhere, not only into the MBR (master boot record) -- where actually ntldr would reside. Just replace the appropriate commands in lilo.conf or on the grub prompt to install to your /boot partition instead of the MBR (/dev/hda1 instead of /dev/hda, for example). The boot partition would be the one you'll have to feed to the dd command used above.
I hope this explanation clears things a little.
Regards,
Alexander
_________________
Out of loyalty to its disregarded comrades, this message feels free to ignore the reader.
Registered Linux User #317705 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
meowsqueak
Veteran
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1549
Location: New Zealand
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Good explanation  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
smith
Apprentice
Joined: 12 Sep 2003
Posts: 222
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 1:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
ty deep thought.. I printed what you said.. and will try it tomorrow..
btw I am on my 3rd install attempt.. and I think I got it right this time (fingers crossed) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deepthought
Guru
Joined: 04 Apr 2003
Posts: 321
Location: icbm://5131''N:0710''E
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 8:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
I would agree to meowsqueak -- it is far more elegant to use grub for booting everything. What I do when reinstalling is the following:
1a. Make a backup of you data to CDR or another PC
1b. Double check that the backup is working
1c. Repeat 1a and 1b just in case...
2. Start your PC from the Gentoo Linux Live CD
3. Create the desired partitioning by running , including the Windows XP partitions. Don't bother setting up the correct partition type, just create them.
4. Delete the Windows partitions. We'll use the Windows XP installation to recreate them; keeping them will break the Windows installer.
5. Save the partition table and reboot from the Live CD
6. Install Windows XP. Create a C: partition in the left free space on your harddisk. Complete the Windows XP installation and verify that it's working.
7. Install Gentoo Linux
8. Create an entry in /boot/grub/grub.conf as follows:
| Code: |
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd<something>,<something>)
makeactive
chainloader +1
|
9. Install GrUB to the MBR by saying:
| Code: |
# grub
grub> root (hd<something>, <something>)
grub> setup (hd<something>)
|
10. Reboot and enjoy
Example (my PC):
I have one harddisk on the primary IDE controller as the master device. My partition table looks as follows:
/dev/hda1 /boot (Linux boot partition)
/dev/hda2 swap (Linux swap space)
/dev/hda3 C:\ (Windows XP system partition, using NTFS)
/dev/hda5 / (Linux root partition)
/dev/hda6 /home (Linux home directories)
/dev/hda7 D:\ (Windows XP data partition, using FAT32)
As such, my /boot/grub/grub.conf looks like this:
| Code: |
#
# Sample boot menu configuration file
#
# Boot automatically after 30 secs.
timeout 5
# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0
# Fallback to the second entry.
fallback 1
# Show a splash screen instead of the boot menu
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
# For booting Gentoo Linux
title Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/discs/disc0/part5 vga=791 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.4.20-gentoo-r6
# For booting Windows XP
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1
|
After completing the Gentoo Linux x86 Installation Guide, I installed GrUB with the following commands:
| Code: |
# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
|
That's it.
Regards,
Alexander
_________________
Out of loyalty to its disregarded comrades, this message feels free to ignore the reader.
Registered Linux User #317705 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
really
Guru
Joined: 27 Aug 2002
Posts: 430
Location: nowhere
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 10:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | 3. Create the desired partitioning by running
Code:
cfdisk
, including the Windows XP partitions. Don't bother setting up the correct partition type, just create them.
4. Delete the Windows partitions. We'll use the Windows XP installation to recreate them; keeping them will break the Windows installer.
|
hum. when i installed linux to a friend i did like this
3. create a partition table, holding the windows partition first, let windos be /dev/hda1, set the type aswell, dont create any linux partitions if you do there is a chance windos will screw them,
3a then reboot to a windows install disk and just format the /dev/hda1 as it knows as c: now and after the windowsinstallation is done
4 insert the gentoo live cd and add other paritions but dont resize the windows one. and just continue the installation..
or just do a dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/zeo bs=512 count=1 then when installin windows let the size of the disk be as large as you want windows to have, after the install of win install linux by adding other partitions.
i think its safer to have windows on /dev/hda1 becouse it always asumes its the only one and the first os.. has happend to me that it tryed to mount the linux parition (showing them as d: but not able to do anything) anyway it destroyed my linux boot parition and that was it.
out it went and never came back 
_________________
NoManNoProblem
Get lost before you get shot. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Installing Gentoo
