Really simple newbie question about dual booting... 7102

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 09:01:09 -0800, blerer

Caveat: I am not running Windows XP. (I have some w2k and nt4, though.)

Build a grub bootable cdrom. Here are some instructions:

You might be up against a bit of a catch 22: You need to be running linux to build the loader disk. You can run linux as soon as you have a loader. Perhaps, knoppix or another machine provides a solution. A boot floppy (at installation) is also another way in.

Here are some tips, buttuming you can get past that*catch*(it's the best there is ;-) )

Based on what you want, when you install linux and its loader (grub is the most flexible), select the option to install grub on the linux parbreastion.

Since you won't be touching your primary parbreastion, you'll need the grub CD you made to boot linux, (just as you want).

The grub stanza on the CD for linux will be generic (no kernel specifics, yet.)

iso-boot-grub-menu.lst

breastle GNU-Linux (via grub on parbreastion) rootnoverify (hd1,1) chainloader +1

breastle Windows 2000 rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 makeactive

(Exact parameters are machine specific, Windows stanza optional.)

Your distribution will probably setup theboot-grub-menu.lst which sets kernel parameters, etc. That way, you can upgrade your kernel without requiring the boot CD to be rebuilt.

Other notes: You probably want a swap parbreastion. I also use a separate parbreastion just for Windows pagefile.sys.

-- Yossarian: That's some catch, that catch-22. Doc: It's the best there is.