Resort dual boot Mandrake Linux 10 & Win XP Pro

[leujel]

I've installed Madrake Linux 10 on my cmputer. It has a dualboot together with Windows XP. The standard option in the bootlist is Linux, but I want it to be Windows. Can I make Windows my first boot option after installation or without having to install all over again?

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[RhythmAce]

You can choose which OS you want as default by editing the loaders config file. You didn't say which boot loader you were using but if it's either lilo or grub, the process should be pretty much the same. You will need to change the paths in this example to match your system. Open /boot/grub/grub.conf. Look for a line that starts with "Default = 0". Now look for lines that start with the word "title". There should be one for each system. The first one is "0" the next one is "1" and so on. Change "Default" to whichever system you want to be the default.

 

[smah]

Mandrake probably used lilo as the bootloader. You can find lilo.conf in /etc. Or if you're using one of the GUI's you can use Mandrake Control Center on the panel, then Boot, Bootloader....

 

[leujel]

I've tried to change the lilo.conf file as you said RhythmAce, but it did'nt work.

Mu lilo.conf file is now like so:

boot=/dev/hdg
map=/boot/map
default="windows"
keytable=/boot/us-latin1.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
disk=/dev/hdg bios=0x80
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hdg6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hdg6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.2-3mdk
label="262-3"
root=/dev/hdg6
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.2-3mdk.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
label="linux-smp"
root=/dev/hdg6
initrd=/boot/initrd-smp.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hdg6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe acpi=ht devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hdg1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hdg
other=/dev/sda1
label="windows2"
table=/dev/sda
map-drive=0x80

You can see here that the default is windows... But it won't work.....

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[stefanwagner]

and what do you get, after running lilo?

...
linux-smb
failsafe
windows*
windows2

(asterix marking the default)
Or a errormessage?

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[leujel]

It still has the Linux-smb as default.... That's the weird thing....

In the meanwhile i've got an other computer where iv'e installed Linux on... So I don't need in on this one anymore. How can I remove it safely without having to install Windows all over again?

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[stefanwagner]

looking at my lilo.conf, I found:

default=linux_neu
...
     label=linux_neu

without """

remove: fdisk, to make use of the space.
change partition-type to htps/ntfs (type 7).
Format them on windows
But of course - make it boot to win by default first, remove all linux entries when it works - you need them, as long as it doesn't.

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[rotaman]

I've got something along the sames lines, maybe you fine gentlemen can help out a bit.

I had Mandrake 10 and WinXpPro dual booting, all was working fine until one day, winXP decided to bug out, and force me to install it again. So I did just that, formatted the Win partition, reinstalled XP clean. Unfortunately, in doing so, XP takes over again and the PC boots directly into XP... so the Linux bootloader (lilo) doesn't appear on boot up anymore.

mandrake is still there, although i can't access it without a bootloader. How do I reestablish this bootloader?

 

[stefanwagner]

get a bootable linux-cd (i.e.: knoppix), mount your partition where lilo.conf lives, run lilo with explicit telling it, which lilo.conf to use (by default: /etc/lilo.conf, but when booting from cd, this will not be YOUR lilo.conf).

'man lilo' for the syntax.

ah:

lilo -C /mnt/hdx9/etc/lilo.conf

- assuming you mounted the drive to /mnt/hdx9
check all paths in the lilo.conf!

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[rotaman]

Hi there,


What i ended up figuring out is: I put in Mandrake 10 CD1 at bootup, and told it to do an upgrade, went through with that, and voila! it didn't change any of my prior settings, etc, but it did bring back the bootloader, which is a good thing.

Thanks for you help!

 

[leujel]

Hi there,


What i ended up figuring out is: I put in Mandrake 10 CD1 at bootup, and told it to do an upgrade, went through with that, and voila! it didn't change any of my prior settings, etc, but it did bring back the bootloader, which is a good thing.

Is this something that I can do to?? Mandrake still boots as the default...

And Windows has to be default before I can perform fdisk /mbr.... Or not?

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