Dual booting Windows 2K with RH Enterprise Workstation v3

Corey Fong fongc at smccd.net
Mon Oct 4 20:52:28 UTC 2004


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Knecht" <markknecht at gmail.com>
To: "Silverrod" <silverrod at comcast.net>
Cc: "Getting started with Red Hat Linux" <redhat-install-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: Dual booting Windows 2K with RH Enterprise Workstation v3


> On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 13:37:25 -0700, Silverrod <silverrod at comcast.net>
wrote:

<SNIP>

I've got a bunch of classroom systems setup with Windows on the first disk
and Linux on the second disk.  Works great.  Trick ...

The boot loader in the master boot record on the first disk must know about
both Windows and Linux.  Many Linux folks seem to prefer installing LILO or
GRUB into the MBR ... the Linux install process (at least with Red Hat and
GRUB) sees the Windows OS and makes 2 entries in GRUB, one for Windows
and one for Linux.

Alternately, you can use the existing Windows boot loader in the MBR, since
it already knows how to boot Windows.  Just need to tell it how to boot
Linux.
Since, Rod, your initial post mentioned the boot.ini file, it seems this
method is
what you are trying to do.  Steps ...

1. Boot Linux on the second disk (might need to use a boot floppy).
2. Understand where the Linux boot loader was installed ... in a separate
/boot
partition, or in the / partition.  Assuming /boot was installed in its own
partition,
say, partition 2.  Copy the boot loader into a file ...

   dd if=/dev/hdb2 bs=512 count=1 of=linboot.bin

3. Copy this newly created image onto a DOS floppy ...

   mkfs -t msdoc /dev/fd0
   mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
   cp linboot.bin /mnt/floppy
   umount /mnt/floppy

4. Now move the Linux boot image to your Windows system on the first disk,
so the Windows loader can see it ...

   boot into Windows
   copy linboot.bin to C:\
   edit C:\boot.ini to contain a line, something like ...

      C:\LINBOOT.BIN="Red Hat EL WS"

5. Reboot ... you should see 2 choices in the Windows boot loader display.

r,
Corey Fong
Skyline College,
San Mateo Community College District, CA

P.S. I found this in the book ... Linux+, by Jason Eckert and John Schitka.
BTW,
a great book.

P.P.S.  Rod, sounds like you tried to jump directly to L:\LINBOOT.BIN.  I
understand
that Windows just doesn't like to look beyond the first hard drive.  But I
don't know
details.







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