Mandrake 9.1 and hardware Compatibility? 2

[pechenegs]

hi all, I have Xp-Pro installed and I want to duel boot with mandrake on the same HD but on seperate partitions, is this possible. I also want to know if my hardware is compatible ? I have a MSI 6340 km133 socket A mobo, AMD duron 850mhz, sdram pc133 256 RAM, seagate 40gb drive, samsung cdrom-dvd SD608 and lite-on CDRW 48x12x48.

thx in advance

 

[pechenegs]

Manarth, ok, I can make xp primary with PM, but will this make it bootable? I don't want to touch anything just now until I'm ready to bang in the discs when I get them. And I don't think I will reformat-partition C; as mandrake will do it anyway? So, I just copy the 3 files from C; ntdetect, ntldr, and boot.ini to a floppy and I should be ok for booting Xp?

 

[manarth]

The easiest way to make XP bootable is to copy the 3 files to the same partition that XP is installed on (i.e. D.

Copying the files to a floppy is a red herring - it's not required.

If the XP partition is marked 'bootable' by PM, and the 3 files are on the partition, then XP will not have a problem booting.
If you change your 'c' drive in such a way that windows cannot recognise it (i.e. if it's formatted as a linux ext2 partition) then windows will automatically re-order your drive letters, therefore your boot.ini file will have to be modified (change every instance of d: to read c.

Reformatting c drive isn't an essential, because, as you say, mandrake will do that anyway...but it will simplify mandrake's installation and hopefully avoid confusing it. I've not installed mandrake for over a year, so I have no idea how 'intelligent' the installer is.


I don't want to touch anything just now until I'm ready to bang in the discs when I get them.

I get the impression you're a 'nervous' user - you don't want to touch anything until you're absolutely certain it's going to work. To be honest, to get the most out of linux you need to be prepared to 'play' with it: the instructions are flaky at times, and usually smattered with jargon! That said, a lot of the newer linux books don't expect you to be a techie unix user; they provide decent 'layman' translations of unix-speak.

In my experience, linux won't change anything on the windows partitions. So if you overwrite your c partition, linux won't copy over the 3 required files for you, they'll just be gone - and so windows will not boot. this is why you have to copy the files over manually.
As said, the boot.ini file currently refers to "d:\winXP\" or whatever - once you've wiped what is your current c-drive (or installed linux on it), this will need to be changed to "c:\winXP" to account for the drive letter remapping.

Good luck, let us know how your installation goes!
Any more questions in the mean time, fire away

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

Success! However I have a few problems. I wasn't able to boot into Xp, but Wolluf's boot floopy idea has got me in! wolluf, how do I now edit the boot.ini file? Do I just change it to C:\= Windows Xp professional? I have nothing whatsoever in the boot.ini file at present.

Mananrth, Mandrake did it all, it choose the lilo bootloader and saved it. However, when I went to log into mandrake it said not a good idea to log in as gnome as root, so i choose kde and made a new user, now it defaults to this user at log in and I can't get my root account to come up. how do I get into my root account to edit the etc/lilo.conf ? Can I change from user to root somehow, if so what command do I use in vi lilo.conf?

cheers pech

 

[smah]

In KDE, open a Konsole (found toward the left of the Kicker bar). Once the console opens, type su, enter. Then at the password prompt enter the root password. You are now root. vi should start vi.

BTW, you can change the startup options (including modifying lilo) in the Mandrake Control Center (also on the Kicker bar somewhere). Once again, you will need the root password for starting Mandrake Control Center.

 

[pechenegs]

ok I did that, but the changes don't seem to be happening. I'm typing
other=/dev/hda2
label=winxp
table=/dev/hda
(xp is showing up as hda2 in Mandrake control console)
and then I type
:wq! but nothing seems to happen, I have chosen windows from the mandrake choice and windows just hangs there, nothing happens, I have to use a xp boot floppy to get xp to boot. How should my boot.ini file now read as xp is now on c:\ ?

 

[manarth]

Your XP boot.ini file should read &quot;c:\WinNT&quot;....i.e. just change the D to read C...

lilo does not read the lilo.conf file on bootup. after editing lilo.conf, return to the console and simply type the command [tt]lilo[/tt] - this reinstalls lilo using the new configuration you've just written.

glad the install went OK - welcome to linux world

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

Manarth, wait, so, just type what I did above in lilo.conf and then exit and then just type lilo? Oh, and xp is showing as D; in explore not as C:\. There is no C:\ at present since I installed Mandrake. I do not have a boot.ini just now, it got wiped, so, how should it look just now seeing as I'm not really dual-booting from a windows point of view?

This is how my boot.ini file looked before I started.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=&quot;Microsoft Windows XP Professional&quot; /fastdetect
C:\=&quot;Microsoft Windows&quot;

So, your saying just change to read C:\=&quot;Microsoft Windows Xp professional&quot;

 

[manarth]

Hi pechengs,

this is how boot.ini should look[tt]
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=&quot;Microsoft Windows XP Professional&quot; /fastdetect
[/tt]
(I forgot win XP's boot.ini references by partition number, not drive letter - so no change required except removing the windows ME option....no change required to windows XP either; even though C: no longer exists if XP is happy to carry on as D: you might as well let it!)

You'll need to copy the boot.ini to the windows drive, and the final step will be to update lilo to the new config.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

cheers Manarth, just a recall from you, what exactly do I need to type for the lilo.conf to update it?

thx again for your help

 

[pechenegs]

Manarth, problem, I don't have a boot.ini. I tried in msconfig and it isn't there. but in system through control panel it is but there is nothing in there and it won't let me save how the boot.ini should now read after editng it? How do I get around this, I found the boot.ini in search and edited it but nothing is happening.

I went into mandrake and typed lilo and it added windows and Added linux *
Added win. So I take the editing of lilo.conf worked and is saved?

cheers pech

 

[manarth]

hi pechenegs, you're welcome

- edit the lilo.conf: insert[tt]
other=/dev/hda2
label=winxp
table=/dev/hda[/tt]
then save.
- type [tt]lilo[/tt] at the linux command prompt (this reads the current lilo.conf to reinstall lilo into the MBR using the current settings).

NB - the command [tt]lilo[/tt] is in fact a linux program for updating the lilo settings.



<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

Another question, firstly I posted just before you did , so I have already did what you typed
other=/dev/hda2
label=winxp
table=/dev/hda
I typed lilo and it came up with
Added linux *
Added win .

So I take it is saved into the lilo.conf?

But if Xp is still showing as D:\ in windows, should I not edit the boot.ini file to read:
C:\=&quot;Windows Microsoft XP professional&quot; And change partition to, (partiton (1) ? plus at the moment i can't edit the boot.ini file it is missing from msconfig, but shows up in system in control panel but there is nothing in the boot.ini file and it won't let me edit it.

cheers pech

 

[manarth]

hi pechenegs,

copy the [tt]boot.ini[/tt] from your floppy to your windows drive...the only edit you need to do is to remove the line saying [tt]C:\WINDOWS\[/tt] - this refers to windows ME... Don't change XP's partition number! It's unlikely this has changed - instead of the first partition being Windows ME it's now linux, which means windows XP will still be partition 2.

lilo
Your boot program is Lilo (LInux LOader). Lilo sits in your MBR.

The [tt]lilo.conf[/tt] is not like [tt]boot.ini[/tt] - it's not read by the boot process; you can even delete the file (but I don't recommend it!)...

The [tt]lilo.conf[/tt] file is only used (by the build program) when you build Lilo...typing the command [tt]lilo[/tt] at the prompt builds lilo from the configuration file then writes it to the MBR.

All rather complex, no?

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

ok cheers Manarth. Yes I got it lol- I'll need to re-edit the lilo now to update the changes in the boot.ini!

 

[pechenegs]

hi Manarth, I edited the boot.ini and saved it to d:\ and edited the changes in etc/lilo.conf, but there is still no option to boot XP in startup and also in mandrake. I looked again in msconfig and it says boot.ini cannot be found and cannot be edited when open through control panel. how do I get the boot .ini file back, I have already saved the copy from floppy.

cheers pech

 

[smah]

pechenegs, in XP's msconfig, can you click the button for 'check all boot paths' or is it dimmed (unavailable)?

 

[pechenegs]

smah, that option isn't even there! Any other ideas?

 

[manarth]

OK, one easy way: stick your XP CD into the drive, boot from CD....instead of selecting &quot;install&quot; etc, select the &quot;Recovery console&quot; option.

When you get to the recovery console, you'll need your administrator password.

When you're in the recovery console, type [tt]fixboot d:[/tt].
This restores the boot record to your windows partition.

As for configuring lilo, you should by now have a (lilo) boot prompt asking you how you wish to boot (linux or windows).

Selecting linux boots using the normal linux kernel, selecting windows should transfer the booting process to the boot record found in partition 2 - i.e. the windows partition.

The lilo build response &quot;Adding linux....Adding windows....&quot; suggests that it has indeed added the options to the lilo boot menu.

Do you have the 2 options (linux / windows) when lilo runs?
If you don't, you'll need to go back to editing lilo.conf and rebuilding lilo. If lilo is setup properly, it will give you the 2 options, even if the boot process isn't installed properly in windows.

by the way, I assume that the windows partition has been marked as bootable? this is vital to booting from it - you can check using [tt]cfdisk[/tt] from the linux command line...if it's not bootable, mark the partition as bootable then write the partition table to disk.

Whilst you're running cfdisk, ensure that windows is indeed on partition 2 - it may be that because linux installs a linux partition and a linux swap partition, it's been renumbered to partition 3, in which case you'll have to rebuild lilo AND edit the [tt]boot.ini[/tt] to reflect the change in partition number.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[pechenegs]

Mamnarth, i have tried the opton of putting in the Xp cd and there is no option for recovery console, or fix mbr. It just want's to install on one of linux's partitions. How do I use cfdisk in lilo.conf? Could you give me the text? i have already edited the lilo.conf and I have the option to choose windows, but it doesn't do anything. Xp is on hda2 in linux and i edited lilo.ocnf to show this. I'll try the xp cd again to see if I can get into the recovery. I did make Xp primary and active using PM before i installed Linux.

cheers pech

 

[pechenegs]

ok, what I have is when my computer boots up it goes straight into Mandrake then it has an option for windows and mandrake, floppy etc? Is this what you mean or am I missing something here?