Re: 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(a)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