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Installation - Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux and Windows?

jesko - 14.03.2007, 23:24 Uhr
Titel: Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux and Windows?

The reason why Dual-booting questions are evergreens in forum-discussions is this:

for one school of thought there is only one acceptable solution:

grub on MBR.

Simply because grub does it all: name it the standpoint of the (real or self-appointed) professionals. Disadvantage: installations of Linux and Windows disturb one another.

the opposing opinion is that disturbing of the bootmanager of the other OS when installing a new one is not acceptable.

Besides the "grub-in-MBR"-dual-boot-method I have tried various different combinations of "cascaded" Dual-Booting methods over the years.

I want to present here a Dual-Boot-method rarely used and perhaps not well known but very elegant and very compatible with different hardwares:

-use a FAT32 primary C: partition. On the other partitions use file-systems as you need them on first, second, ... HD(s).

- Install Windows on some partition(s).

- Install one/more Linux-systems on partions you like and install grub on the respective boot-sectors of theit root-partitions.

- Install this special grub under DOS:

http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/gru ... .01.tar.gz

-you can boot this grub bootmanager afterwards with the NT-Bootmanager by a new entry in the boot.ini:

C:\boot\stage1="GRUB"

- Use a menu.lst in (C:\boot) similar to this example (3 different Linuxes on the 3 primary partions of the 2. (SATA-)HD for booting your Linux(es).

-- (Snip)
# C:\boot\menu.lst
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
default 0

title PCLINUXOS SDA1
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title UBUNTU SDA2
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title MEPIS SDA3
rootnoverify (hd1,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1
---(snip)

That 's it! This method combines the advantages of using grub for Linux with the advantage of a pristine (DOS-)MBR.

-Jesko

wh7qq - 15.03.2007, 02:49 Uhr
Titel: RE: Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux and Wind

Who needs a pristine DOS MBR? There is no problem with the normal dual boot route...just install Windo$ first and then install Kanotix on a free partition (and don't forget a swap partition) It works just fine with no problems. Done it many times w/out a hitch...so long as that order is observed. I've done it on old k-6 laptops up to new 64 bit desktops. Linux is polite and never disturbs Windo$. Just don't try to install W$ after Linux...W$ assumes it's the only OS and takes over the MBR. The W$ mavens are just trying to scare folks off of Linux by seeding that nonsense and making things more complex than they need to be.

BTW Jesko, the link you gave for the special Grub isn't working: from Yahoo, "Sorry, the page you requested was not found."

jesko - 15.03.2007, 08:02 Uhr
Titel: Re: RE: Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux and

From the author of grubinstall-1.01.tar.gz:

Zitat:

grubinstall
-----------

Purpose: allow GRUB to be booted from NT/2K/XP
-------

This tool modifies the GRUB stage1 and stage2 image files
located on an NTFS or FAT volume, to make them bootable
by NTLDR.

Author:
-------
lode_leroy@hotmail.com

So you arent really restricted to FAT32 on your C: partition!

wh7qq hat folgendes geschrieben::

BTW Jesko, the link you gave for the special Grub isn't working: from Yahoo, "Sorry, the page you requested was not found."

Link corrected.

-Jesko

kb0hae - 24.03.2007, 03:32 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux

The only problem that I see, is that in some Distros grub correctly detects Windows partitions, but does not detect existing Linux installations, and include them in the list of OSs that it is possible to boot into . Other Distros seem to have corrected this problem.

Kano - 24.03.2007, 10:23 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Is there a silver-bullit for Dual-Booting Linux

I dont think that it is a good idea to scan all partitions for menu.lst and put all those entries in a STATIC new menu.lst. That only works as long as you dont change kernels/partitions. Manually adding a chainload entry is a better choice.