Linux and XP in bed together - almost!

[action711]

I already have XP on one drive and I'm trying to install Fedora 5 on the other.

It's my third attempt.

I follow all the instructions about installing Grub on the XP drive but it doesn't happen, and when I reboot I can't choose Linux.

My question, one of them, is how can Linux install a bootloader on the XP drive when that XP drive is already setup?

So now I have disconnected my XP drive and am installing Fedora again. After I will re-connect the XP drive, keep Linux on the main drive and try to add a line in the bootloader to find XP when system boots.

Thing is, I'm not sure how to do this.


Any help greatly appreciated

[devils casper]

HI !!

you are installing FC5 third time... hmmm..... you want dual boot.... why did you unplug Windows disk... ?????

FC5 already installed.... now re-install boot loader for windows HardDisk...

plug-in both disks... Window's HardDisk should be Primary Master.....
boot up through FC5 CD/DVD..... type "linux rescue" at boot: prompt
after a while you will get prompt again ... now type.....

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/hda

press Ctrl + D two times...... machine will reboot and you will get GRUB with XP and FC5 boot up options.........



.... casper ....

[action711]

Thanks for your reply.

I unplugged the windows disk just so I could boot to Linux. The plan was to install Linux on the primary drive, then add a line to the xp drive in the grub loader thing, re-plugging the xp drive.

I'm trying your method.

I left the Linux install as it was and re-connected the drives as you said.

I followed your instructions, but when I got to type

grub-install /dev/hda

I got the reply:

/dev/hdb1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

And now I'm lost again

[action711]

When I ls the dev directory, a whole load of things come up, including hda, but on navigating to it, it states it is not a directory.

I really despair. How can it be so hard for two systems to co-exist? Surely this is something that Fedora developers should see as really quite important if they are interested in getting more people to have a positive Linux experience???????

[devils casper]

well !! its very easy to have dual boot........
best way is make windows harddisk primary master...... Linux harddisk as secondry Master or slave or anything...... there is only one thing important... window's HardDisk should be primary master.

now ... boot up with FC5 CD/DVD again..... and execute chroot and grub-install command......
if you still get error... post the output of

fdisk -l .....( its small L and you must be root)

both disks should be plugged-in........




.... casper ....

[action711]

okay, done that, same result as before. I took a pic:



Thanks for all your help so far.

[action711]

Try this for more clarity

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7941/dscf000150im0.jpg

[action711]

can anyone help me here?

[rcgreen]

/dev/hdb1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

If the BIOS can't see the drive, you can't boot from it. There
may be a workaround, but the bootloader has to find
the kernel at boot time. It uses BIOS calls to access the
drive. Once the kernel is booted, it can see all drives.

In this case it may be necessary to put the kernel, or
a /boot partition, on the primary master drive.

[action711]

I'm just feelin utterly hopeless with all of this. It's just like, crap.

Now I've given up dual-booting, cos it's just too much crap to deal with, i prefer to disable the primary (windows) drive in BIOS so the only drive left is the Linux drive. Thought this would be a good workaround.

But when the Linux drive boots up, it worked before, but now all I get is a black screen and "GRUB" and a flashing cursor, which doesn't do anything.

It's just stoopid.

Ready, Fedora core 5, not 1, 5!!!!!!! And it's still this difficult to deal with.

Poor show