DSL booting from DOS
Forum: HD Install
Topic: DSL booting from DOS
started by: Patrick
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 20 2005,12:01
Hello everybody,For the record, i boot DSL (0.8.4) from a usb stick which is formated Fat16 with a msdos system on it. (DSL loads using loadlin.exe)
I've been adding applications to DSL and changed the configuration somewhat and now i want THIS EXACT DSL (and future changes i make into it) to boot from HD. (first partition = XP, second part = MsDos with DSL) Because my usb-stick-dsl is a frugal install (and boots from DOS with loadlin.exe) I think all i have to do is copy the whole usb-stick to the second partition of my hda, and then i should be able to boot into dsl from my harddisk.
Now, i have already done all that but now i need to get past my bootmanager (XP bootmanager, boot.ini). I already tried (in the recovery console of XP) to: bootcfg /rebuild, fixmbr. But no sigar. (i have added the second partition later, after the installation of XP) All i get is an error message when i try to go to the second part (MsDos with DSL): hal.dll corrupted
Further more: in the first bootsector i have got the ACRONIS BOOTRECOVERY installed. (little bootable program with which i can restore images that are automaticaly made when i am in XP)
So: first bootsector: ACRONIS RECOVERY MANAGER
second bootsector: XP bootmanager
I noticed that i lose ACRONIS when i "fixmbr", XP really wants to be in the first bootsector.
Frankly, i am out of ideas...
Any hints ideas from you guys?
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 21 2005,10:43
I am gonna try my luck with a bootmanager (paragon bootmanager)
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 24 2005,08:14
After messing around a lot with bootsect.dos (which was missing). I still am not able to add my Msdos partition (hd0,1) to a bootmanager (not to the one of Windows XP and not to other bootmanagers like bootstar of paragon). I tried a freeware application called: btsect and this one recreated the missing file called: bootsect.dos. (so i should be able to boot to the msdos partition using this file, but i haven't been that lucky)I am now gonna try GRUB. I apt-getted it and googled some examples of the menu.lst file that GRUB uses to boot the OS's.
example i am gonna use:
************************
# /boot/grub/menu.lst - first try :-)
#
# options
timeout = 5
default = 0
title = Linux
root = (hd0,1)
kernel =c:\boot\isolinux\linux24 initrd=c:\boot\isolinux\minirt24.gz ramdisk_size=750000 init=/etc/init apm=power-off max_scsi_luns=6 dma vga=normal nomce quiet frugal
debug=2 root=/dev/hda1
title = Windows
root = (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1 # which means, let the bootmanager of XP handle the booting...
title MsDos
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainload /bootsect.dos #which means, let the /bootsect.dos handle the booting of this partition.
*********************************
As you can see: there are 2 partitions mentioned in the menu.lst (hd0,0 and hd0,1). hd0,0 is my Windows XP partition and hd0,1 is my MsDos partition (which is Fat16-formated and had DSL on it which i can start from within MsDos with loadlin.exe). So, if i can boot to MsDos with GRUB than i also boot DSL. If that fails than i will have to try to boot directly to Linux (first entry in the menu.lst).
By the way: i copied and pasted the startline from loadlin.par in GRUB/linux. I am not sure if this is gonna work like that (but i have already tried booting with a msdos-disk, changes to hd0,1 and starting DSL with the loadlin.exe (loadlin.par). AND THAT WORKED.
Tell you if it worked :-) (or not :-( )
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 24 2005,13:29
Did some more research and found this link: < http://www. > geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.htmlGreat guide for grub/XP booting
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 24 2005,19:49
Damn...root@0[dsl]# grub-install --recheck /dev/hda5
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
: Not found or not a block device.
root@0[dsl]# grub-install --force-lba /dev/hda5
: Not found or not a block device.
root@0[dsl]# grub-install /dev/hda5
: Not found or not a block device.
I also did a hd-install and then i tried grub again with the same result as above....
could this be the infamous BIOS 1024 cylinder limit?
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 25 2005,09:29
next i am gonna try this:grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hda5
or
grub-install '(hd0,1)'
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 25 2005,11:08
just in (from Henk_1955):grub-install /dev/hda --root-directory=/mnt/hda5
(rewrites the mbr of hda so XP-bootloader will be gone!)
We'll see if this works tonight....
Posted by Patrick on Jan. 26 2005,08:35
it worked, all i had to do is change some in the menu.lstI had (hdo,1) figured as the second partition of my harddisk while it should have been (hd0,4) which is the same as hda5.
From there on everything works out great, i can boot XP, i can boot DSL, and can boot MsDos (from hd0,4/hda5). I don't need loadlin.exe/loadlin.par anymore because that's all been taking care of by grub. Next i an gonna put a splashimage in grub (penguins of course)...