red hat dual boot w/Winxp

[dttolcou]

I am trying to install red hat 7.3 on my laptop in a dual boot with win xp.
I ran through the install just like the installation guide instructed me to and followed the dual boot suggestions.
I had the installer use GRUB as the boot loader and installed it into the first sector of the boot partition as instructed.
The installer also said I had to choose a default boot image , so I chose red hat.
After the install was done, I rebootyed the machine and when GRUB came up, I was only given the choice of Red Hat to boot, no Win xp.
So I booted my machine with a dos boot cd and fixed the master boot record with fdisk /MBR, and was able to boot the machine into Windows, but only Windows.
So I ran installation again and chose LILO as the boot loader, installed it in the first sector of the boot p[artition as instructed and chose Win XP as my default boot image.
After the installation was complete, I rebooted and Win XP loaded, no LILO, no red hat, just Win xp.
The installation forces me to choose a default boot image when all I want is to be able to choose the OS that I want to load at startup.
The installation guide says this is possible but following the installation guide provides me with the results above.
Help! Am I doing something wrong? Is dual boot possible with Windows XP Home Edition and Red Hat 7.3?

[jimang29]

I'm pretty sure windows use the MBR..so dont give it to linux.
How is your hard drive partitioned?
check my success post on what i did.
sounds like your hard drive might not be partitioned the right way.

[dttolcou]

I have one IDE hard drive with one partition, C: NTFS, and the rest of the hard drive is unallocated free space, about 10GB.
I let the installer partition the free space for me and install linux.
When the install program asked where it should put the boot loader, GRUB, I put it in the first sector of the boot partition, not the MBR. This is what the installer recommended doing for windows NT. Since XP is built on NT and the NTFS file system, I assumed that this was the correct procedure.
I was thinking of installing the boot loader, GRUB, in the MBR on the next try, but you say I should not?
I am real confused, because a few months ago I installed Mandrake 8.2 in a triple bot with Windows ME and Windows 2000 Professional. I let the installer partition and install on the free, unallocated space on the one hard drive and I did not have one bit of trouble.
This seems like it should be a very simple procedure, but it is turning out to be a nightmare.
I had to give up the mandrake installation because I could not get Mandrake to work with all the hardware on that particular machine.
Now I am trying to give Linux another chance on a different machine, but I can not get the Penguin to co-operate no matter what I do.

[mdwatts]

If you have installed Grub/Lilo into the Linux boot/root partition, then you must set that as the active partition using the Linux fdisk or Partition Magic etc.

[dttolcou]

I used Acronis Partition expert to look at the partition setup, and I have:

C: primary/active
/boot: primary
/: logical
swap: logical

I set the /boot primary partition as active and boot the machine, and I get a meassage that says operating system missing.

So I have to boot up with the Partition Expert bootable cd and swith the active partition back to C: and it boots up normally.

Can't I do something with the Windows boot.ini file to show an OS selection screen at startup, and how do I point Windows at my Linux installation to load it?

Or is there something else I can do to select which OS I want to boot at startup?

[mdwatts]

A quick search for boot.ini in the 'How I did it' forum found this thread (http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73160&highlight=boot.ini).

The NT Loader how-to at www.tldp.org also explains.

[dttolcou]

I actually got it to work finally.
What I had to do was give the NTFS partition that has the Windows XP boot image a label during the installation.
I chose GRUB as the bootloader and had the installer put it in the MBR.
Then I chose the Windows XP boot image as the default and labeled it "Windows XP".
After installation, I rebooted the computer and GRUB came up with two boot images, RED HAT Linux and Windows XP.
I am able to choose my OS at boot up and each OS boots just fine.

[mdwatts]

You're welcome... Glad we could at least try to help.

[dttolcou]

Thanks to everyone and anyone who replied to this thread.
Your comments and suggestions prompted me to search deeper for the answers to my problem which eventually led me to a solution.
I hope this thread is able to help other "newbies" such as myself.
To recap what I learned:
1) the boot loader does go in the MBR for a dual boot
2) you must label the Windows boot image during the boot loader installation to see an entry listed for that OS during start up
3) it does not matter which boot image you choose as the default

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by dttolcou

1) the boot loader does go in the MBR for a dual boot


Not really...

I NEVER install the Linux bootloader in the mbr and I multiboot between Windows and a few installations of Linux.

I create a primary 30mb /boot partition at the beginning of hda and install my primary Linux distro bootloader (Grub) into /boot and then set /boot as the active partition.

Very similar to how Windows works as MS never installs it's bootloader into the mbr. The Windows bootloader is always installed into the Windows system partition (C:) and then set as active.

[dttolcou]

Just like anything, there is usually more than one way to achieve the desired results.
For a newbie who is looking for the easiest dual boot installation scenario, having the installer partition automatically and placing the boot loader in the MBR might be a little easier than partitioning manually.
However you do it, the moral of my story was the fact that I did not label the Windows boot partition during the boot loader installation, therefore when the boot loader popped up with a list of available OS's, the only one listed was Red Hat because it did not know what to call Windows.
During one of the installations, I opted to have the installer put the boot loader in the first sector of the /boot partition that the installer created. This partition was created automatically from the unallocated free space on the hard drive. I used Acronis partition expert, which is capable of seeing and working with linux partitions, to make the /boot partition active. When I rebooted, I got an "operating system not found" error.
So in my limited experience, creating a linux /boot partition, installing the boot loader into this partition and making this partition active did not work.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by dttolcou

During one of the installations, I opted to have the installer put the boot loader in the first sector of the /boot partition that the installer created. This partition was created automatically from the unallocated free space on the hard drive. I used Acronis partition expert, which is capable of seeing and working with linux partitions, to make the /boot partition active. When I rebooted, I got an "operating system not found" error.
So in my limited experience, creating a linux /boot partition, installing the boot loader into this partition and making this partition active did not work.

Something else must have gone wrong as creating a separate /boot partition, installing the the Linux bootloader into /boot and setting as the active partition should always work.

Has for me...

Installing in the mbr and then having to reinstall Windows always gets one of our most favorite threads posted here at LNO.

"I've reinstalled Windows and now cannot boot Linux." :rolleyes:

[dttolcou]

Well, I am sure I did something wrong, always do. But anyway, I never had to reinstall windows. I would boot with a dos floppy and run fdisk/mbr which allowed me to boot into windows, then I would try the red hat install again until I finally did the right combination of things that worked.