Mandrakelinux installed...but XP boots alone , no linux :-(

[narshornsyst]

Hi to everyone here ,

I have just installed Mandrakelinux 10.0 as I wanted to test it
I have an XP , so during the set up everything was fine , installed worked and it did not blew XP

But now at boot , the only system I see is ... XP . and I don't see any of lilo or whatever to boot on linux .

What shall be the problem then ?

I am a newbie so I wait for advanced user's advice ... thanks very much

Anael

[Nerderello]

during your Mandrake install it should, hopefully, have asked you if you want a bootloader (lilo or grub [better]) and where you want to put it.

You should normally put lilo or grub onto the bit of your booting harddisk called the master boot record - mbr (it's here that your PC looks for an operating system, and it's here that it should find part of lilo or grub). There is an mbr on all harddisks, so , do you have more than one harddisk (as opposed to more than one hard disk partition)? If you do, then which harddisk are you booting from (defined in your BIOS setup (that's the thing that you can press F2 or del to get into just after you start booting (ie' before any operating system starts to be loaded).

I am told, but have no personal experience of, that you can get WinXP to go into a boot loader (C:\boot.ini or maybe C:\windows\boot.ini) and that this can point to your Linux (you get given a rather boring white text on a black background menu). But, of course, you'll have to find out about this route from a WinXP forum.

have fun

Nerderello

[narshornsyst]

Thanks !

At the install linux asked me where to put the start sequence , and by default it was the root of the new linux part , so now I understand it can't show up at boot .

I should have put it on the first sector of HD , so now ... I have to de-install linux and install it again the good way ?

Thanks for answers!

PS how to de install linux ?

Best regards

Anael

[Nerderello]

you shouldn't need to re-install Linux, only the bootloader. So, hopefully, you can boot from your distro CD, and use it to allow you to get into Linux. Or, you can boot off your emrgency diskette (which of course you madce during your install .

The ideaq is that you want to get to a linux command prompte, so that you can redo the bootloader install.

If you're using lilo, all I can suggest is that you have a look around the web for some help. If you're using grub, I wrote a tutorial on how to get out of such situations (it's in the tutorial section of this site).


If all else fails and you have to re-install, just boot on the distro CD and instal ontop of your previous effort (ie. no need to get rid of it).

hve fun

Nerderello

[narshornsyst]

Well , nice , here I am .... the linux has booted and well it's fantastic !!!

The problem I have now is that my computer boots only on lilo/ directly to linux , and doesn't prompt to choose either XP or linux...I am lost ... is there a way to configure lilo inside linux to do this ? I am lost ... and I can't acces to my XP data , so ...

If anyone here has an explanation on how to do this , I would love it

Thanks !!

Best regards

Anael

[tuubaaku]

You should be able to just edit your lilo.conf file and add an entry for Windows. I use Grub, so I can't tell you exactly what it would look like.

[narshornsyst]

OK , so that's all I want ! Someone could tell me how to do it ? I search and search inside linux , but I don't get an answer ... the only place I see interesting is system/configuration/configure your computer...no lilo here ...is there a lilo.conf file and where to find it ? Then how to edit it ????

Lost ... help !!!! Please ....apart that thing , my opinion on linux is very positive for a first day with it . My internet acces was available 'de pronto' , my printer was recognized , and everything works ... fine .... ah , one more question , I would like to add japanese keybord , but each thing in its own time ...

Thanks !!!! Linux is great ...

[logobola]

narshornsyst,

lilo.conf can be found in the /etc folder. If it is not there i am not sure where else it could be. Here is my lilo.conf file for reference.

# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default="linux"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100

message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label="linux"
	root=/dev/hdb1
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent"
	vga=788
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label="linux-nonfb"
	root=/dev/hdb1
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="devfs=mount acpi=ht"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label="failsafe"
	root=/dev/hdb1
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="failsafe acpi=ht devfs=nomount"
	read-only
other=/dev/hda1
	label="windows"
	table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
	label="floppy"
	unsafe

If you installed it like me, with windows on hda and linux on hdb then it should just be a easy cut and paste of the windows option. To edit which should be done in root ('su' at the command prompt with root password) then execute your favorite text editor with /etc/lilo.conf. not sure which one you have installed but for example emacs /etc/lilo.conf would open the lilo.conf in emacs.

for the japanese keyboard go to Mandrake control center and click on hardware then keyboard. I see a 106 Japanese keyboard available. [/quote]

[Nerderello]

and then rerun lilo to get it to know about your amendments.