Mandrake Linux 7.1 Boot Problem

[MandrakeXP]

Hi All, I'm new to this forum, looked for answers for my specific problem since I havent found one, i'm posting it here...

I had a Win 98 OS, I used Partition magic 8 to create 2 partitions on my HD and installed Mandrake Linux 7.0, it was fine till I upgraded 98 to Win XP. Now i'm not able to bring up my linux OS. I dont get a dual boot screen like i used to previously, since I guess XP changed the MBR. I dont have a linux boot CD also. So do I have to install Linux again, or can I recover it using any alternate means ? If I have to use a Linux boot CD, is anything available on the web for free ?

I'm new to Linux OS and I would very much appreciate your responses. Pls help !!

[budman7]

Do you have your Mandrake installation cd? That should have the ability to be used as a rescue disk. Or, you can dl the Mandrake 10.1 official from www.distrowatch.com, and use it as an upgrade or installation.

Hope this helps.

[drakebasher]

With a little research and effort, and maybe a couple of posts here, you can create a Grub boot floppy disk and get to your Linux from there. Start by reading nerderello's Grub tutorial in the tutorials section of these forums.

You will first create a Grub floppy. Then you will identify your boot files. You will create a text file (grub.conf) in your Linux /boot directory. Finally, you will run Grub and create a new Grub boot floppy with pointers to your /boot files.

After which, you will be able to boot directly to Linux with the new boot floppy.

[MandrakeXP]

Thanks drakebasher & budman7,

I could try the upgrade to Mandrake 10.1

I'm not sure if i was using Grub or Lilo (. I could create a create a boot floppy and follow the steps drakebasher suggested if was sure which one it was. Anyways does anyone know which one the default loader is for Mandrake 7.0..is it LILO or GRUB ?

Thanks for all the help.

[drakebasher]

I'm not sure if i was using Grub or Lilo (.

It doesn't matter. Recent versions of Mandrake use LILO, but I don't think you can do what I have described with LILO.

The steps that I described do not involve writing to the MBR of the hard drive. By booting to a floppy, you will avoid all of the problems (just search these forums...) that users have had in trying to dual boot XP and Linux. Instead of writing Grub to the MBR of the hard drive, it will be written to the floppy. More specifically, Grub stage 1 will be on the floppy, Grub stages 1.5 and 2 and grub.conf will be in your /boot directory.