Adding FC5 to an XP computer -

[Bob Goodwin]

Rick Stevens wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-09-01 at 17:13 -0400, Bob Goodwin wrote:
>   
>> Bob Goodwin wrote:
>>     
>>> Tim wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Just quoting the salient points:
>>>>
>>>> Bob Goodwin wrote:
>>>>  
>>>>         
>>>>>>> XP Home is already installed and I have no way to reinstall it, no 
>>>>>>> o/s
>>>>>>> CD's are provided.
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>               
>>>> Tim:
>>>>  
>>>>         
>>>>>> If you want to keep the XP installation as-is, and the Linux 
>>>>>> completely
>>>>>> separate, I'd consider:
>>>>>>      2. Modifying the XP bootloader menu so that *it* is used to boot
>>>>>>         itself, or Linux.
>>>>>>      3. Copying a file copy of the Linux bootblock onto the XP 
>>>>>> drive for
>>>>>>         that XP bootloader to work with.
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>             
>>>> Aaron Konstam:
>>>>  
>>>>         
>>>>> Thhis used to be the wqay to do it in the RedHat Linux days. But for a
>>>>> long time under Fedora grub does the job without any extra effort.
>>>>>     
>>>>>           
>>>> Ordinarily, I'd use GRUB to handle booting, too.  But the original
>>>> poster mentioned not having any Windows install discs.  It seems prudent
>>>> to avoid altering the Windows installation in that situation.
>>>> Especially if one isn't familiar with fixing things up, after a problem,
>>>> the hard way.
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> Prudent or not, the installation is now running with Grub and boot on 
>>> the mbr.
>>>
>>> If I break something I'll have to fix it somehow?
>>>
>>> So far things have gone smoothly, there was physical space for the drive
>>> and I was able to set bios to recognize the new second drive.  Hopefully
>>> the rest will go as uneventfully ...
>>>
>>> Bob Goodwin
>>>       
>> I have installed fc5 from the dvd twice now to be certain I've done 
>> things correctly.  I believe I have.
>>
>> The fc5 install is on the second drive, /dev/sdb.  XP is factory [Dell] 
>> installed and I have no install disk.  XP is of little importance to me 
>> but I would like to retain it is possible.  Both drives are 80G.
>>
>> It should boot Linux from the mbr, /dev/sda on which XP resides,  grub 
>> is installed with FC5 designated as the default, but I never see a grub 
>> display at turn on, it simply boots XP right off without offering any 
>> alternative.
>>
>> What am I doing wrong?
>>     
>
> grub should be installed in the MBR of the first SCSI disk (aka
> /dev/sda).  That can be done by getting in to Linux and doing
> "grub-install /dev/sda" as the root user.
>
> We need to know how you laid out the Linux stuff.  Is it all in one
> partition or did you divvy it up?  Assuming you put it in separate
> partitions, with /boot as partition 0 and / as partition 1,
> this /boot/grub/grub.conf should work:
>
> #boot=/dev/sda
> default=0
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd1,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> title Fedora Core (2.6.17-1.2174_FC5)
>         root (hd1,1)
>         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-1.2174_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb
> quiet max_luns=256
>         initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.17-1.2174_FC5.img
> title Windows XP
> 	root (hd0,0)
> 	makeactive
> 	chainloader +1
>
> If Linux is all on a single partition, change the references above
> that say "(hd1,1)" to "(hd1,0)"
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> - Life:  That which happens while you search for the remote control. -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>   
XP is installed on the original 80G h.d., untouched, still as Dell
set it up.

I installed a second 80G SATA drive and installed FC5 to that with
the DVD, all pretty much as Fedora intended except where I told it to
use the mbr and default to FC5 Linux.

Grub looks pretty much as you specify.:

sh-3.1# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5smp)
       root (hd1,0)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5smp.img
title Windows XP
       rootnoverify (hd0,1)
       chainloader +1

[I typed this manually but it looks identical to the display
on the Dell display.]

It looks to me like Dell has somehow set aside about 3 gigs of
the 80 apparently to provide a means of reinstalling Windows? 
I don't know it that has any effect on this problem?

Thanks.

Bob Goodwin