Adding FC5 to an XP computer -
Bob Goodwin
bobgoodwin at wildblue.net
Fri Sep 1 23:29:20 UTC 2006
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
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