iB::Topic::DSL booting from DOS

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Topic: DSL booting from DOS, first part XP second part DOS/DSL

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Patrick

Group: Members
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: 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?

--------------
Usb-stick sandisk cruzer titanium 512 Mb:
DSL 2.3 (final)
Firefox (Mozilla 1.06)
WM -biff -cdplay -clockmon -smixer -usic -top -net -biff -ifinfo -cpuload
gps vnc LinNeighborhood (samba) QtParted bdc
xawtv imagemagick xplanet

Patrick

Group: Members
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: Jan. 21 2005,10:43

I am gonna try my luck with a bootmanager (paragon bootmanager)

--------------
Usb-stick sandisk cruzer titanium 512 Mb:
DSL 2.3 (final)
Firefox (Mozilla 1.06)
WM -biff -cdplay -clockmon -smixer -usic -top -net -biff -ifinfo -cpuload
gps vnc LinNeighborhood (samba) QtParted bdc
xawtv imagemagick xplanet

Patrick

Group: Members
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: 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 :-( )

--------------
Usb-stick sandisk cruzer titanium 512 Mb:
DSL 2.3 (final)
Firefox (Mozilla 1.06)
WM -biff -cdplay -clockmon -smixer -usic -top -net -biff -ifinfo -cpuload
gps vnc LinNeighborhood (samba) QtParted bdc
xawtv imagemagick xplanet

Patrick

Group: Members
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: Jan. 24 2005,13:29

Did some more research and found this link: http://www. geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

Great guide for grub/XP booting

--------------
Usb-stick sandisk cruzer titanium 512 Mb:
DSL 2.3 (final)
Firefox (Mozilla 1.06)
WM -biff -cdplay -clockmon -smixer -usic -top -net -biff -ifinfo -cpuload
gps vnc LinNeighborhood (samba) QtParted bdc
xawtv imagemagick xplanet

Patrick

Group: Members
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: 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?

7 replies since Jan. 20 2005,12:01

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