Win XP + Linux Dual Boot

[dopkick]

I have 2 30GB drives in this system, with Winodws installed on the master and Linux (Red Hat 7.2) on the slave.

During Red Hat setup I chose to install LiLo to the first part of /dev/hdb, NOT the MBR. I used the boot disk to boot into Linux and I looked at my lilo.conf in /etc:


code:
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/hdb1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.7-10
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.7-10.img
read-only
root=/dev/hdb6

I did a /sbin/lilo as per instructions I read somewhere and recieved a "Warning: /dev/hdb1 is not on the first disk" followed by:
dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/usr/local/bootsect/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

After I transferred linux.bin to c:\ I then added to my boot.ini c:\linux.bin="Red Hat 7.2". I can boot into Windows just fine right now. However when I try to boot into Linux without the use of the boot disk I get a "L" and then it freezes. I suspect it has something to do with a screwed up linux.bin I made. Can anyone give me any help?

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

The stage at which lilo freezes (e.g. L, LI, LIL) indicates the type of error -

L error

The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started, but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error codes indicate the type of problem. This condition usually indicates a media failure or a geometry mismatch.


If your /boot partition is a /dev/hdb1 then there shouldn't really be a problem but it may be something to do with the lba aspects (you have lba32 set in lilo.conf - for a logical block addressing of a large drive). However, I would have thought that copying the boot sector would just emulate the behaviour of the normal lilo boot process but, thinking about it, you would never have actually tried that as its on /dev/hdb. So maybe thats the problem - i.e. the lilo config in /dev/hdb1 doesn't work so neither does a copy of it !

You can always do it the other way around - install lilo in the mbr and chain-load XP. If you add a block like this to /etc/lilo.conf :

other = /dev/hda1
label = winxp
loader=/boot/chain.b
table=/dev/hda

Then change 'boot=/dev/hdb1' to 'boot=/dev/hda' and do (as root) :

/sbin/lilo -v

It should write lilo to the MBR and, on reboot, there should be an option on the lilo menu to boot 'winxp'. When you choose that, it should chain-load the original M$ bootloader . However, this may be a bit risky for you if you can't be certain that the existing lilo config on the hard drive actually works.

The 'other' option would be to use a commercial bootloader like system commander (

http://www.v-com.com/product/sc7_ind.html)

or boot magic that comes with partition magic (

http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/pm7details.html)

. These install themselves in the c:\ drive and can be set to boot an o/s from any partition and/or chain-load another bootloader (e.g. for linux).

Hope this helps