[hunterwey]

Ok that makes sense and I was thinking of doing that. My XP pro edition is at a friends house. Secondly my laptop does not have a floppy drive so if you have any suggestions on how to boot it up if things go wrong that would be great.

Secondly my backup file on my external h/d that is not in this equation should be good enough to have everything back to normal, before installing windows?

Another thing ive been using LILO instead of GRUB for booting but i just changed that!

[devils casper]

Secondly my laptop does not have a floppy drive so if you have any suggestions on how to boot it up if things go wrong that would be great.

XP Installation CD should work. in case it doesn't, create Bootable CD through Nero. it has an option for Creating Bootable CD in Menu.

Another thing ive been using LILO instead of GRUB for booting but i just changed that!

did you change Boot Loader Lilo to GRUB after installation?

main problem is, there isn't any GRUB conf file in your system and we can fix dual boot problem through that file only. which Boot Loader screen you get at start up? i think that none of the Linux based Boot Loader is working and you are using Dell's Boot loader.






Casper

[hunterwey]

Originally Posted by devils_casper

XP Installation CD should work. in case it doesn't, create Bootable CD through Nero. it has an option for Creating Bootable CD in Menu.

did you change Boot Loader Lilo to GRUB after installation?

main problem is, there isn't any GRUB conf file in your system and we can fix dual boot problem through that file only. which Boot Loader screen you get at start up? i think that none of the Linux based Boot Loader is working and you are using Dell's Boot loader.

Casper

Well when i installed I chose LILO, after changing to GRUB it does not load up too Linux any more bad kernel file init or something, but im going to reinstall Linux with the bootable cd's then ill say GRUB when I install. Secondly if you could post what I should say after installing GRUB version of Linux that would be great. Secondly Im pretty sure im gettin a linux bootloader screen becuase it says Mandriva One in the background, and i get the 4 choices. Linux, Linux-lnb (maybe not that), failsafe, and windows

Thanks for the help guys i have a feeling were getting somewhere

[wingruntled]

Hunter

Another thing ive been using LILO instead of GRUB for booting but i just changed that!

Bingo! with grub you should be able to setup any boot options you want . You can edit the option at bootup. Including booting to XP /hda3 or XP pro /hda6.

But /hda5 would be better

edit: OOOOPS posted out of sink.

[devils casper]

Well when i installed I chose LILO, after changing to GRUB it does not load up too Linux any more bad kernel file init or something

hmmm.... you should write that in first post.
GRUB is not configure properly and you have to create menu.lst file manually. you are going for fresh install, nothing matters now.

Secondly if you could post what I should say after installing GRUB version of Linux that would be great.

Install XP first. leave unpartitioned/free space for Linux. dont create partitions. during installation, select 'unpartitioned/free space for install. installer will create and format partitions. select GRUB Boot Loader and dont change anything else in Boot Loader section. installer will recognize Windows OS and set up Dual Boot for you.





Casper

[hunterwey]

Originally Posted by wingruntled

Hunter

Bingo! with grub you should be able to setup any boot options you want . You can edit the option at bootup. Including booting to XP /hda3 or XP pro /hda6.

But /hda5 would be better

edit: OOOOPS posted out of sink.

How do i change the booting sequence?

[hunterwey]

Originally Posted by devils_casper

hmmm.... you should write that in first post.
GRUB is not configure properly and you have to create menu.lst file manually. you are going for fresh install, nothing matters now.


Install XP first. leave unpartitioned/free space for Linux. dont create partitions. during installation, select 'unpartitioned/free space for install. installer will create and format partitions. select GRUB Boot Loader and dont change anything else in Boot Loader section. installer will recognize Windows OS and set up Dual Boot for you.





Casper

Casper is there any way I dont have to reinstall XP pro. Can I just change the booting sequence or how the computer recognizes to boot from hard drives?.

The commands you gave me on Page 1 are working now after I installed GRUB. SO let me know if this changes plan of attack. Thanks

Hunter

[devils casper]

its possible to configure GRUB and setup everything without re-install.
which command is working now? how did you re-install GRUB? is Mandrive booting up?
if your system has menu.lst file now, post its contents. if not, post the output of 'ls /boot' command.





Casper

[hunterwey]

Originally Posted by devils_casper

its possible to configure GRUB and setup everything without re-install.
which command is working now? how did you re-install GRUB? is Mandrive booting up?
if your system has menu.lst file now, post its contents. if not, post the output of 'ls /boot' command.





Casper

First of all I formatted all partitions of Linux deleted them and then reinstalled using GRUB, so GRUB is working.

Here is the code

/boot/grub/menu.lst:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
shade 1
viewport 3 2 77 22
splashimage (hd0,6)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 failsafe
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
/boot/grub/menu.lst lines 1-23/23 (END)




Here is the code from

ls /boot:

[hunter@localhost ~]$ ls /boot
config@ kernel.h-2.6.17-5mdvlegacy
config-2.6.17-5mdvlegacy message-graphic
grub/ System.map@
initrd-2.6.17-5mdvlegacy.img System.map-2.6.17-5mdvlegacy
initrd.img@ vmlinuz@
kernel.h@ vmlinuz-2.6.17-5mdvlegacy

[devils casper]

okk. now edit menu.lst file. you must be root to edit menu.lst file.

title windows
root (hd0,5)
makeactive
chainloader +1

save file and reboot. in case, Windows doesn''t boot, add mapping code.

title windows
root (hd0,5)
map (hd0,0) (hd0,5)
map (hd0,5) (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

try without mapping code first. if that doesn't work, only then add mapping code.



Casper