Dual boot
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Dual boot
started by: Anxiety
Posted by Anxiety on Mar. 20 2004,23:46
I have two partitions, one with WindowsXP Home, and the second is a blank one which I plan to install DSL on (to make a dual boot) but when I go to install it, should I still install it to hda1 and risk screwing up my XP?
Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 21 2004,00:24
First of all, you need to make sure that the XP partition is indeed shown as /dev/hda1. On some Dell machines, it is not. When you boot DSL from the CD, then you can go to /mnt and ls to see the partitions that have been found. I have one machine with 16 partitions, and DSL shows all of them in /mnt. ---
With DSL, I don't do a hard drive install in the regular fashion, like one would with Redhat 9, for instance. Look here to see how I do it:
< http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/general_howto >
---
I would store my backup.tar.gz and filetool.lst in your /dev/hda2, your
second partition, however, and place a copy of the /knoppix folder in
/dev/hda1 (in with Windows XP). As long as your Windows XP partition is /dev/hda1, then a boot floppy for DSL will find it. Then you can restore from /dev/hda2. The general_howto has the procedure on that.
In that case, you'll be running DSL off the hard drive, not the cd.
---
If you run off the cd, then you could just place your backup.tar.gz and filetool.lst in the root directory of /dev/hda1 (in with Windows XP) and
restore from there. On my Dell XP machine, I have to run off the cd, and use a usb drive (thumb drive, etc.) of 64 MB to restore. My restoration tarball is about 17 MB, and I can use it with either Damn Small Linux 0.6.1, or Luit Linux 0.2, no problem, just depends on which cd I put in the drive.
---
Dells being sold now partition XP in /dev/hde2, which cannot be found by the knoppix bunch of OS's.
Posted by lepingouin on Mar. 28 2004,18:43
HI!I-m writing this from dsl with firefox. i think its something great and id like to install it on my hard drive, but do the _real_ install (not the way mentioned above).
I have enough free disk space, but i have win2k installed (i need it for school)
I had to install it freshlz because i tried to install lindows - it worked but lilo killed my mbr!!!!!!
as i had no backup i had to reinstall win2k.
My question is that when ill run mklilo will it find the ntldr in the mbr and will integrate it or will i just be able to boot dsl?
I think i have a man of how to make the ntldr boot lilo but i dont know if it works with dsl...
If something is not clear just ask!
best wishes
lepingouin
Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 28 2004,19:18
I have one machine with about 16 partitions, and all kinds of Linux on that. I find that one needs to use a tomsrtbt boot floppy, and using fdisk, write
down your partition table. Then if something overwrites it, and many boot
managers will, then you can use tomsrtbt to write it back to the mbr with
fdisk.
---
I do not have any experience with a genuine DSL hard drive installation,
I got into these live cd's when a 80 GB drive of mine quit on me.
(I didn't want to go buy another, and install all that again)
I have just remastered DSL, with Firefox and wvdial, and what little
restoration I need to personalize it will fit on a floppy. I can move
from computer to computer very easily, something I coulld not do before.
My main machine has Redhat 9 on it, and do use that to download all
the Knoppix remasters, DSL, Luit, Feather, etc.
---
Posted by lepingouin on Mar. 28 2004,20:03
Im no more a newbee but im still new to linux!so i think remaster and stuff like this will come later
where can i find that tomsrtbt?
edit:
gogle answered my question!
i dont know if i could use it but i know what youre talkin about..
but cant i do a mbr backup with a "more normal" distro?
edit end
could you explain this?
can i also do a mbr backup with dd?
dd if=/dev/hda of=/boot/bootsector.ide bs=512 count=1
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
the problem is i found this in a book but i have no idea what im doing
if things should go wrong i should then do lilo -u
and
dd if=/boot/bootsector.ide of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
if i doo these things before the dsl install i cant mess up my mbr right?
because if this is so then i can try to install it i think...
thanks for your answer ill look what that tomsrtbt is...
best wishes
lepingouin
Posted by roberts on Mar. 28 2004,21:15
I don't want to make this sound too easy but....If you use DSL version 0.6 or higher it has been a piece of cake!
The newer lilo recognizes WinNT/Win2K/WinXP using the dsl-hdinstall. Of course lilo lists Knopipx first but second on the list is Win(NT) . Both Windows and DSL boot fine by choosing at the lilo prompt screen. I just tried this again after reading the above posts. I used DSL 0.6.1 and I have WinXP on hda1 and installed DSL on hda2.
I didn't have to do a thing!
Notes:
Do not attempt this with the older DSL 0.5.x versions as that version of lilo will ruin the mbr and you will have to repair it in order to boot up WinNT, Win2000, or WinXP.
Do not attempt this with frugal_install, as the embedded lilo is unaware of other OS as it is on the CD.
Disclaimer: YMMV!
For those still too nervous and/or a linux noob, I would approach this via a windows route instead of trying to learn so much linux right away. Make an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk), Windows NT try RDISK, Win2K/XP try backup tool and choose emergency repair disk, also XP has a "repair install mode" Check you Micosoft fourms of what is appropriate for your version of Windows.
Posted by lepingouin on Mar. 29 2004,16:09
Thaks for your reply!i got the newest dsl, so i can install it without having to fear!
One thing: could somebody tell me if this dd comand is right?
id just like to know it!
best wishes and thanks a lot!
lepingouin
btw: i dont think everybody knows about the fact that lilo can now handle the ntldr...
Posted by roberts on Mar. 29 2004,18:22
In order to use the dd command, you have to have linux running. If you are running from the liveCD, then I would suggest to save the mbr to a floppy.First become root with sudo su
Then use disk dump (dd) with input file (if) /dev/hda and with output file (of) of /dev/fd0, so the command would be:
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
Be sure that the floppy is not mounted. Note all the previous contents of the floppy will be wiped out, so use a scratch floppy, but a good one, don't want read/write errors.
Now go ahead with the hard drive installation of dsl version 0.6.x. Use dsl-hdinstall
Now your done. You will not need that flloppy. Then come back here and tell everyone how easy if was! .... But just in case, if you do not see Windows in the lilo choice prompt then to restore the mbr:
Boot off the cdrom again. Get your mbr floppy and use this command to restore the mbr.
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
I just tried this on my WinXP DSL dual boot machine. I didn't have to do it, but just wanted to test it.
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 29 2004,19:03
As I understand it, your dd command is correct.Assuming that you are running with root or superuser authority (type 'sudo su' on a blank line in the command line window), it should work.
The dd command works as follows:
dd is the command name
if=/dev/hda is the FIRST IDE controlled device in your computer (Primary IDE Controller, Master drive) and is usually BUT NOT ALWAYS where your C:\ drive is found. However, it is almost always where your boot sector is located. CDROMs are usually found at /dev/hdc (Secondary IDE Controller, Master drive)
of=/boot/bootsector.ide is the full path and file name of your backup of the MBR sector.
bs=512 means that you are transferring the data in 512 byte blocks. Byte-sized chunks
count=1 means that you are not backing up the entire device, just the first block, IE: the first 512 bytes.
The restore command syntax is the same thing, only the copy is in the reverse direction.
Good Luck.
Posted by roberts on Mar. 29 2004,20:49
One more thing about dd. It is very important to have the input file (if) and the output file (of) correct. Double check, no, triple check, before you hit enter. If not correct you will destory the mbr! That is why I was sugguesting the Microsoft ERD. Also you will not be able to write into /boot from the the liveCD. It is read-only and besides you will lose it upon re-boot. That is why I suggest the floppy. You need to have it on an external media.But I want to hear that this was much to about nothing!
Posted by lepingouin on Mar. 29 2004,20:54
And it worked!anyway i learned how dd function and that is something good i think!
Dsl is now installed, but i will have to do some work on it before i can use it really...
but i havent the time till next saturday
i think ill post some other topics ;-)
thanks for your help!!!
best wishes
lepingouin
Posted by pvdvyve on April 05 2004,07:26
<I had to install it freshlz because i tried to install lindows - it worked but lilo killed my mbr!!!!!!as i had no backup i had to reinstall win2k.
___
You are learning a lot.
You didn't need to reinstall your win.
Could use the command:
install-mbr from within linux and or make win bootable in lilo (therefor change the file liloconf)
or used the command lilo -u
or boot your win from cd and do a simular command, to put back the win loader.
Remember that lilo is just a linux loader( as linload), and that these loaders are a lot user friendlier
than the loaders win uses!
On one of my pc's (an old p75-48ram) I use a third loader:
xosl(freeware)and installed from within ms-dos:
you can make more than a dual boot with this one:
(even more easy as with lilo)
at the moment I boot ms win 95 or DSL from it.
(so I boot this loader and than I make the choice to boot the win loader(first HD) or the lilo(second HD)
But by now I assume that you know a lot more about how to make DSL running(from CD, from an image on your win drive or as a real HD installed system.
Posted by lepingouinferoce on April 07 2004,22:14
hm i dont think so... - the mbr was wasted.only the first l of lilo came and then 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111
so there was nothing that might have been rescued :-(\
i tried to repair the install but win2k only checks the disk, not the mbr
best wishes
lepingouinferoce
Posted by Tomo on April 08 2004,14:04
Ive tried the dd command and it wont boot my DSL.This is how i have my HD set up.
hda1 = win2k 10Gb
hda2 = Slackware 7.5Gb (not installed yet)
hda3 = DSL 99 5Mb (installed but cant boot it)
hda4 = swap 500Mb
I did user the dd command when i had just win2k and slackware installed....... now wiped it off and re partitioned the drive so i can have DSL too.
I would prefer to use the windows boot screen but i cant get the dd to work and load this way.
thanks
-Tomo
Posted by Rapidweather on April 10 2004,21:03
Anytime you have a problem with lilo, just get a MS-DOS boot floppy, andwhen booted up:
A:\ fdisk mbr
That ought to do it!
If you have Windows installed, then it will return (win98).
Other partitions, you might have Redhat, SuSE, Mandrake, etc. there, so use
the linux boot floppy you made during installation to get that OS booted.
One can use Loadlin to boot into a Linux partition anywhere on the system,
/dev/hda or /dev/hdb, even /dev/hdc hard drives. If you install a nice Redhat 9,
for instance, it can set up a lilo for you on your /dev/hda, even if you have Redhat 9 on /dev/hdc as I do.
Do lots of searching on Google about loadlin, it really works, and I like it over lilo any day. I had one system with 16 partitions on it, all OS's booted with loadlin. That machine was a single-processor, I never got loadlin to work on dual processor machines. Neat trick with loadlin is to put an Icon on the Windows 98 desktop "Debian Linux", or "Mandrake Linux" and boot them by double clicking on the Icon.
----
Posted by gjhicks on April 22 2004,12:50
Hi,I want to be able to boot from my hard disk and so I did the following:
1) Made a 400mb Linux ext2 partition on my hard drive. Under RedHat 9, this partition appears as "/dev/hda5".
2) Booted with the DSL CD and used the standard HD Install procedure to copy DSL to the 400mb partition.
3) Made a boot floppy, using "dd if=/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0".
4) Copied the "vmlinuz" file from the boot floppy to a folder on my Windows drive. (I did also make use of miniroot.gz but a more experienced DSL user put me straight on that error)
5) In that folder, which already had "loadlin.exe", prepared a batch file with the following command:
loadlin vmlinuz /dev/hda5 ro
Now I get tantalisingly close to success!
At the end of the usual plethora of information about the boot process, I got the following messages:
hostname 2.08
modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module fb0
X10: Fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.
On another suggestion of the more experienced DSL user, I tried editing Xsetup, to use Xvesa, rather than Xfbdev.
Still didn't work.
Can you spot in the above sequence where I am going wrong??
Regards,
Geoff.
Posted by A:>fdisk /mbr on Aug. 03 2004,07:52
I have done this quite a few times, and I have to say that it has worked 98% of the time with no problems (now THAT'S a record for a MS product!) Used it on DOS, Win. 95-98-2000. But I could not get this command to work from a DOS startup disk when win. was loaded, but a win 95-98 bootup disk worked fine.A:>fdisk /mbr
Posted by Shitman on Aug. 07 2004,17:39
how can i know which hda etc my 2nd hdd ( secondary master ) is?
Posted by mahto on Aug. 15 2004,16:22
Hello all,I've been trying to do hdinstall with dsl 7.3 and am having no luck.
I've reduced partitions to: hda1 (xp/fat32); hda5 (Linux/type83);
hda6 (Linux swap).
When trying dsl-hdinstall from RAT, I enter hda5 and get:
"Sorry system has not detected a Linux partition."
I've deleted and repartioned from dsl with cfdisk, from DOS and with PM8 and still the same error.
The iso is fine and dsl runs from cd.
The hdd and system checks out fine with < Seagate's "SeaTools" >
Any help would be much appreciated,
mahto
Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 15 2004,16:42
Try making your partitions using only primary partitions..I use cfdisk..
Primary partition 1 = fat32
Primary partition 2 = linux type 83
Primary partition 3 = linux swap type 82
Reduce your HD to just the one fat32 partition / write to HD..
REBOOT your box..
Add the 2nd=ext2 and 3rd=swap primary partitions / write to HD..
REBOOT your box..
run "mke2fs /dev/hda2"
run "mkswap /dev/hda3"
check in cfdisk one more time, you should see no
(partitions are out of order) messages...
Now, try the HDInstall of DSL..
Once this works for you, then you can make the last primary your extended set,
so that you can continue to add partitions as you have room...
73
ke4nt
Posted by mahto on Aug. 15 2004,17:46
OK, thanks for that.I'll try again later tonight.
mahto
Posted by mahto on Aug. 20 2004,04:05
Hah! My problems were hdd based.Installed a new hard drive and installing DSL now.
Thanks again