dual boot redhat 8 and winXP

**centr0** · 02-22-2003

Hi. I installed linux then installed XP. Now when I boot up it goes straight to XP. How do i fix this? I dont know that much about linux so if someone can put it in lamers terms that would be great. the xp partition resides in i think "/dev/hdc3" whatever that means. and i did have grub but when i try to edit /etc/grub.conf nothing is there. thank you in advance for your help guys.

**Dolda2000** · 02-22-2003

Go to my home page (the link on the bottom of the post), download the files "GRUB boot disk image" and "Floppy disk raw image writer". Then, put a discardable floppy into A:, and write grub.imb to it using rawrite.exe (they are the files you downloaded). rawrite is describes itself, so I shouldn't have to describe that here.
Then report back with what partitions that you installed Linux on and I'll help you further. (Remember your boot partition, if you made one. If you didn't, I just need your root partition)

Btw., hdc3 means the third partition on your IDE secondary master. The primary master in hda, primary slave and hdb, secondary master and hdc, and so on. The number is the partition number. Extended partitions always start with 5, no matter how many primary partitions you made.

**centr0** · 02-23-2003

Thank you for the quick response. =)
I downloaded the files you told me to download and grub.img is now on the floppy. As far as my partitions..well here goes:

/dev/hdc1 linux
/dev/hdc2 linux swap
/dev/hdc3 win95
/dev/hdc4 win95 Ext'd
/dev/hdc5 FAT32

Now I used to have winME winXP and RHL8 on this computer. IT was when I installed linux, i started seeing problems with winME and XP. I had ME on c: and XP on d:

Now I have XP on c: and d: is free. I plan on deleting it.

when i boot with the linux cd it brings me to a prompt that looks like:

-/bin/sh-2.05b#

I have no idea what that means. Any procedure that anyone tells me needs to be step by step because i just started with linux less than a day ago. Thank you for your help Dolda2000. =)

**Dolda2000** · 02-23-2003

OK, boot with the disk you made, then enter these command:

Code:

root &#40;hd2,0&#41;
setup &#40;hd0&#41;

Then reboot and you should get into grub instead. If you get an error, don't ignore it; report it here instead.
Since you installed windows last, I don't think that windows will turn up in the boot menu, but get Linux started first and we can solve that.

**Dolda2000** · 02-23-2003

Btw., what's on your hda?

**centr0** · 02-23-2003

hda? whats that? all i saw was hdc. when u say enter in those commands will it bring me to a prompt first? then enter it in each line? then reboot with the disk still in? or take it out then reboot?

**Dolda2000** · 02-23-2003

hda is your IDE primary master. It wasn't important, I was just curious. It's not usual to install on your secondary master.
And yes, it will bring you a prompt. Enter the commands, one per line, then take out the disk and reboot.

**danbo** · 02-23-2003

hda is a partition on the primary master..... i have:

hda1
hda2
hda3
hda4

you must obvioulsy have two hard drives one primary master and the other a slave

**Dolda2000** · 02-23-2003

No, actually, you don't need a slave. IDE consists of several busses. Usually you have two. Each is numbered, and they are usually referred to as primary, secondary, tertiary, quartenary, and so on. Each bus must either have nothing on it, only a master, or a master and a slave.
In Linux, IDE drives are named /dev/hd<d>, where <d> is a single, lowercase letter. hda is the primary master, hdb is the primary slave, hdc is the secondary master, and so on. Partitions on each drive are referred to as /dev/hd<d>

, where <d> is, of course, same as before, and

is the partition number, starting at 1.
The thing is, that usually you have your hard drive on your primary master. The secondary master is usually the CD-ROM. Therefore I thought that either you had done something peculiar with your IDE configuration, which is nothing wrong with (except that it confuses me), or either you had got the wrong device name. Therefore, I was just a bit curious what your primary master was.

**centr0** · 02-23-2003

ok now when i do that and if i get an error will i be able to boot back in windows? when is the point of no return? lol. assuming i get to where im going...then what? sorry for all the questions guys...im new to linux and i hold the world record for the number of times installing xp in one night. hehe

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