Getting rid of the Mandrake boot manager?

[Dr. Shim]

I have Windows98 and Windows2000 installed on my system. I really really really really really HATE this OS "chooser" Linux Mandrake installs. Is there anyway I can rid of it and create some sort of boot diskett? Its already enough for me to choose between 2000 and 98, and when I get rid of the Linux partition the friggn' Mandrake boot loader thiny still stays!!! HOW on EARTH can I get rid of it?? :eek:

[Craig McPherson]

If the boot manager is in the MBR: Run "fdisk /mbr" from a DOS prompt.

If the boot manager is on the Linux partition: Use fdisk to make the Windows partition the active partition.

Make sure to get your boot disk ready first. The easiest way to make a boot disk is to simply dd your kernel onto a floppy.

[Dr. Shim]

If the boot manager is in the MBR: Run "fdisk /mbr" from a DOS prompt.
If the boot manager is on the Linux partition: Use fdisk to make the Windows partition the active partition.

Make sure to get your boot disk ready first. The easiest way to make a boot disk is to simply dd your kernel onto a floppy.



I'm a total newbie at this, so I have a few questions about what you said above.

1. What is the "MBR"?
2. How do I find out which partition the darn thing is on?

For clarification I ment the OS selection screen when the PC boots up. A little blue/purple screen comes up asking me which OS i want. How to I get rid of THAT?

[Zaccix]

The MBR is the Master Boot Record. It's what your system uses to determine where your OS is (which drive and where) in order to load it. Doing an "fdisk /mbr" at a DOS prompt resets the MBR to the default state, which is to automatically load Windows, and clears out the Linux boot menu.

If you do reset the MBR, make sure you do it from a "real" DOS prompt (before Windows has loaded, hold down CTRL right after you've chosen "windows" from the Linux boot menu and then choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt" at the menu that follows). Alternatively, make a Windows Recovery Disk (if you haven't already) and boot from that, then when disk activity finishes, do a "fdisk /mbr".

[Craig McPherson]

Originally posted by Dr. Shim:
<STRONG>For clarification I ment the OS selection screen when the PC boots up. A little blue/purple screen comes up asking me which OS i want. How to I get rid of THAT?</STRONG>

That's what I just told you. But it depends on where the boot loader is installed.

I'll just assume that Mandrake puts its bootloader in the MBR. Mandrake is junk so I assume it'll always choose the worst possible option.

You don't actually have to be in a pure DOS environment to run "fdisk /mbr". People think that, but you can really do it in Windows just fine. Windows does not care if the MBR gets overwritten while it's running. The MBR only matters during bootup.

[Dr. Shim]

After I select WINDOWS in the linux boot menu it asks me wether I should choose 2000 or 98. If I reset the MBR will it delete the option of choosing between 2000 and 98??

[Dr. Shim]

Alright. I have done what you have suggested and it works fine. Thank you.

================Case closed==================

:cool:

[Craig McPherson]

No, Windows puts its own boot manager in its own partition, not in the MBR like an operating system is supposed to do.

People say Microsoft software never does anything right. That's so untrue: it does exactly one thing right. Not a very impressive track record, but "one" is better than "none."

[Dr. Shim]

:D

Mandrake isn't that bad! In the setup I selected to put it in the MBR! So I'm the dupe! :eek:

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Craig, I'm confused...

- Mandrake puts it's loader in the MBR (it does), which makes it junk.
- Windows does not put it's loader in the MBR, which is the only good thing Windows ever did.
- An OS's loader is supposed to be in the MBR.

[Craig McPherson]

I phrased my sentence badly. I realize now I was unclear.

An operating system is not supposed to put its boot loader in the MBR.

What is said, simplified, is this:

X does Y, and Y is correct.

Or, simplified:

X does Y, which is correct.

I then added another phrase:

X does Y, which is correct, rather than !Y.

However, I worded it like this:

X does Y, rather than !Y, which is correct.

With that wording, it's hard to tell whether I'm saying "Y is correct" or "!Y is correct." To clarify, Y is correct, not !Y.

I could have used parentheses rather than commas and I think my meaning would have been clearer.

X does Y (instead of !Y), which is correct.

In that example, isn't it clear that it's Y, rather than !Y, that's correct?

Let's try that again:

No, Windows puts its own boot manager in its own partition (as opposed to the MBR) like an operating system is supposed to do.

I apologize for my ambiguous wording.

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

I see, now. Thanks.

BTW, what's so bad about putting it in the MBR, and what other choices are there?

[Craig McPherson]

IBM designed a very reasonable system for booting OS's on the IBM PC architecture. The system works like this:

1. After the system powers on, the BIOS runs the code in the MBR on the first boot device.

2. The MBR is supposed to contain a specific bit of code that is never supposed to be changed.

3. That code in the MBR looks at the partition table for the one primary partition marked as "Active"

4. The MBR runs the code stored in the boot sector of that partition.

5. That boot sector contains bootloader code that boots the OS itself or presents an interface to the user that allows them to select from multiple OS's, depending on the bootloader.

Thus, the proper thing to do is put the Linux bootloader in the boot sector of your Linux partition. Many major distros use an obscure option in LILO (or whatever other bootloader they use) that was never meant to be actually used that allows the bootloader to be installed to the MBR. The authors of the bootloaders never intended for their programs to be used this way, but there's no way they could have prevented this sort of abuse.

This is what makes me lose all faith in humanity.

[bdg1983]

To continue...

Install for example Lilo in the Linux partition, then use fdisk to set that partition as active so it will boot.

If you dual/multi boot, then also add the other os('s) to /etc/lilo.conf.

[Dr. Shim]

Thank you for the information, it was most useful. And the other option was to put it in the partition. I had no idea what to do. :eek: