where can i get partition magic and....

[shawn barnett]

where can i get partition magic and how can i dual boot win xp and RH 7... because win xp is located on hda and rh 7 is located on hdb but i can not get win xp to boot nor can i get it to pop up a screen to choose which os i want to load any help would be appreciated...thanks

[Stuart Browne]

Windows XP comes with a boot-loader similar to Windows NT.

Have a read through http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/other-formats/html_single/Linux+NT-Loader.html, and it should be faily simple.

[shawn barnett]

thats great but i can't load win xp on the other hd and i don't know how i can get to it i am new to linux and didn't expect for this to happen

[Stuart Browne]

Right, so your MBR is already fried. Great.

If you can get into Linux, reinstall which ever boot loader you've got there into the MBR, and then add another entry in your /etc/{grub,lilo}.conf file to point to the other file system.

You want to install the boot loader into /dev/hda's MBR, or using a Grub reference: (hd0,0).

Do you know which boot loader you installed when you installed Linux? Your choices are 'Lilo' or 'Grub'.

If you tell us, I'll see what I can do to throwing out some more detailed instructions.

[shawn barnett]

i installed it via a custom installation and installed LiLo

[Stuart Browne · Accepted solution]

ok!

Modify /etc/lilo.conf

boot=/dev/hda
..
..
image=/boot/vmlinuz-...
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hdb?

other=/dev/hda1
label=WinXP

Make sure it has similar things. Re-run '/sbin/lilo', and try a re-boot.

You might need to boot off your CD into rescue mode, and chroot /dev/hdb? (whichever your root partition is).

If you need more help, we'll need some details:

a copy of /etc/lilo.conf
sfdisk -l /dev/hda
sfdisk -l /dev/hdb

This will show us where the various pieces of information are hiding.

[shawn barnett]

what program in RH 7 can i modify this file with? or should i save it to disk and modify it on another comp in a windows based environment

[Steven E. Protter]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Unix.

You will hate it at first, but try the program vi.

vi /filename_to_edit

You'll want to search itrc and learn the basics, but hard core admins all learn vi.

We all resist at first, but we all eventually capitulate.

Transferring files back and forth to a windows environment can cause problems. If you transfer a file in binary format that should be ascii, it will screw up the Linux/Unix system.

Partition magic is available at most computer stores for around $49(US).


P

[shawn barnett]

stuart browne what do the .'s stand for is that info already contained in the file or should i type it exactly as you have it written

[Stuart Browne]

The ...'s stand for "Leave lines not mentioned alone".

[shawn barnett]

stuart check out my other post about winxp and RH7 for the LiLo info and partition info

[Stuart Browne]

Backup your existing lilo.conf, and try this:


boot=/dev/hda
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
prompt
image=/vmlinuz-2.2.16-22
label=Linux
root=/dev/hdb3
other=/dev/hda3
label=WinXP

re-run /sbin/lilo, and see what happens.

[shawn barnett]

ok i typed it exactly and it just kept trying to load linux over and over again i changed it on the disk btw any other ideas?

[Stuart Browne]

Ok..

When you typed '/sbin/lilo', it showed both "Linux*" and "WinXP" yes?

When you were booting, you selected 'WinXP', then what happened? If it then started loading Linux regardless, then you should try the following:

Change 'other=/dev/hda3' to read 'other=/dev/hda2', and then re-run '/sbin/lilo'. Reboot, select 'WinXP'.

[shawn barnett]

in the sbin directory there is no LiLo and it had no image of winxp either to select any ideas stuart

[Stuart Browne]

Ok.. when in Linux, what does 'lilo' on it's own say?

[shawn barnett]

i don't understand what you are asking do you mean a file extension or ???

[Stuart Browne]

Ok.

You are using Lilo as your boot loader.

When you modify /etc/lilo.conf, it doesn't do anything apart from modify a file.

You need to issue the command 'lilo' to write the changes to the hard-disk drive in order for them to take effect.

If /sbin/lilo doesn't exist in Linux (very odd for a lilo driven machine), then I would hope that it is somewhere else within your environment path. Issuing the command "lilo" (stripping the quotes obviously) should show you at least something, even if it is an error.

Do this. Tell us what output happens.

From your description thus far, it appears as if you've never successfully executed this command, otherwise 'WinXP' would be showing up as one of the boot loader's options.

[shawn barnett]

now i have a question that same lilo you had me retype should i have that in the /etc on the boot disk and hard drive? or just the boot disk?

[Stuart Browne]

harddisk. always hard-disk.

ok.. didn't realise you were showing us a lilo.conf from the floppy..

'chroot' is your friend ;) but that's a post for a different day..

[shawn barnett]

i used the run option and all it did was i saw a slight flash on the screen and the run box fanished..i then rebooted and it still did not bring up anything else but the option for linux ...now i have a question is there a way to view the contents of hda from a linux environment even though hda is in a windows format?

[Stuart Browne]

run box? oh. x environment.

I always forget that not all people use shells.

Given that it's NTFS, you might be able to get read access, but I don't think you'll get that out-of-the-box on a RH7 machine.

You'd need to re-compile parts of the kernel to include the experimental (read-only) NTFS access stuff.

[shawn barnett]

sorry bout that does this new info where lilo is change any of the coding?and i apologize this is a new os for me

[Stuart Browne]

You'll have an icon somewhere to open up a shell (console/terminal). do that. Then issue the command 'lilo'. What does it say?

[shawn barnett]

Fatal: open /vmlinuz 2.2.16-22 :invalid file or directory