[NTLUG:Discuss] Dual Boot Clarification

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 02:39:36PM -0500, MadHat wrote:
> On Sep 13, 2004, at 2:23 PM, Dennis wrote:
> >I appologize for the slight confusion.  I want to properly document 
> >dual booting for Linux to either 2K or XP.  A student installed RH9 
> >and was then not able to access XP.  We tried both LILO and GRUB.  Got 
> >some leads (thnak you), and if anyone knows of more would appreciate.
> 
> Check the google link I sent before.  You can't do it with LILO or 
> GRUB.  Win2K and WinXP overwrite the MBR when you boot them, you have 
> to create an image of the boot loader and put it on the MS partition 
> and add it to the MS boot loader.

Umm, hmm.  I've never had trouble dual-booting to either Win2K or WinXP,
as long as Linux was the last OS installed.  It's true that Win2K
and WinXP overwrite the MBR when you *install* them (thus losing access to
grub/Linux), but I've not experienced it happening when you *boot* them.

Usually RH9 has been smart enough to figure out what to do with grub
when installing it and detecting another OS.  If they don't, then try
the following with grub (note you can try this from the grub command
line for testing):

   grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)

where (hd0,0) indicates that Win2K/WinXP is on the first partition of
the first hard drive.  If Win2K/WinXP are somewhere else, adjust these
parameters accordingly.

   grub> makeactive

   grub> chainloader +1

   grub> boot

This has generally (in the sense of "always when I've done it right") 
worked for me to be able to boot Win2K/WinXP from grub.  Once I have
the sequence that works, I usually add it to /boot/grub.conf.

Apologies if I've misread the question or problem.

Pm