Fedora Core 2 and WinXP dual boot

[Beri, Rohit]

All:

I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look out for... In
my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the other Fedora
Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 

Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second hdd. I was
wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to chose which
OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.

Any pointers ? 

Thanks,

-B

[Paul Howarth]

On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 19:08, Beri, Rohit wrote:
>  All:
>  
>  I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look out for... In
> my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the other Fedora
> Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 
>  
>  Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second hdd. I was
> wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to chose which
> OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.
>  
>  Any pointers ?  
There are a variety of ways of achieving this, some using the XP
bootloader to load grub (e.g. http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) and
some using grub to load the XP bootloader (e.g.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html). I've used
both methods and there's not a lot to choose between them. Given that
your machine already has XP as the default OS set up though, I'd be
inclined to go for the first one, adding Linux as an additional OS on
the XP boot menu (the menu doesn't show by default if you only have XP
installed). You need to install grub or lilo on one of your linux
partitions (conventionally the root partition, e.g. /dev/hdb1) and then
have bootpart.exe add an entry to your c:\boot.ini to load up linux from
that partition.

Paul.
-- 
Paul Howarth <paul(a)city-fan.org&gt;

[Beri, Rohit]

Paul Howarth wrote:

> On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 19:08, Beri, Rohit wrote:
>   
>
> >All:
> >
> >I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look out for...
> In my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the other Fedora
> Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 
> >
> >Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second hdd. I was
> wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to chose which
> OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.
> >
> >Any pointers ? 
> >    
> >
>
> There are a variety of ways of achieving this, some using the XP
> bootloader to load grub (e.g. http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) and
> some using grub to load the XP bootloader (e.g.
> http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html). I've used
> both methods and there's not a lot to choose between them. Given that
> your machine already has XP as the default OS set up though, I'd be
> inclined to go for the first one, adding Linux as an additional OS on
> the XP boot menu (the menu doesn't show by default if you only have XP
> installed). You need to install grub or lilo on one of your linux
> partitions (conventionally the root partition, e.g. /dev/hdb1) and then
> have bootpart.exe add an entry to your c:\boot.ini to load up linux from
> that partition.
>
> Paul.
>   
>  
Thanks for the pointer. I am going to work on this over the weekend. 
Will try to post my discoveries...

Thanks,

-B

[Paul Howarth]

On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 07:55, Rohit Beri wrote:
>  Paul Howarth wrote:
>  
>  >On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 19:08, Beri, Rohit wrote:
>  >>I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look out
> for... In my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the other
> Fedora Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 
>  >>
>  >>Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second hdd.
> I was wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to chose
> which OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.
>  >>
>  >>Any pointers ? 
>  >>    
>  >>
>  >
>  >There are a variety of ways of achieving this, some using the XP
>  >bootloader to load grub (e.g. http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) and
>  >some using grub to load the XP bootloader (e.g.
>  >http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html). I've used
>  >both methods and there's not a lot to choose between them. Given that
>  >your machine already has XP as the default OS set up though, I'd be
>  >inclined to go for the first one, adding Linux as an additional OS on
>  >the XP boot menu (the menu doesn't show by default if you only have XP
>  >installed). You need to install grub or lilo on one of your linux
>  >partitions (conventionally the root partition, e.g. /dev/hdb1) and then
>  >have bootpart.exe add an entry to your c:\boot.ini to load up linux from
>  >that partition.
>  >
>  >Paul.
>  >  
>  >
>  Thanks for the pointer. I am going to work on this over the weekend. 
>  Will try to post my discoveries... 
One thing to bear in mind is that, since you were swapping out hard
disks to switch between OSes before, your FC2 install will have been on
"hda", the first hard disk, but with the drive attached as a second
drive, it'll be "hdb" (or hdc, or hdd, depending on your cabling and
jumper selection). If your /etc/fstab mounts filesystems using the
"LABEL=" technique (it probably does), this won't matter as the kernel
will still find your filesystems, but any references to /dev/hda in
there will need changing to /dev/hdb.

Paul.
-- 
Paul Howarth <paul(a)city-fan.org&gt;

[Beri, Rohit]

Paul Howarth wrote:

> On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 07:55, Rohit Beri wrote:
>   
>
> >Paul Howarth wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> >>On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 19:08, Beri, Rohit wrote:
> >>      
> >>
> >>>I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look
> out for... In my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the
> other Fedora Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 
> >>>
> >>>Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second
> hdd. I was wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to
> chose which OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.
> >>>
> >>>Any pointers ? 
> >>>   
> >>>
> >>>        
> >>>
> >>There are a variety of ways of achieving this, some using the XP
> >>bootloader to load grub (e.g. http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) and
> >>some using grub to load the XP bootloader (e.g.
> >>http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html). I've used
> >>both methods and there's not a lot to choose between them. Given that
> >>your machine already has XP as the default OS set up though, I'd be
> >>inclined to go for the first one, adding Linux as an additional OS on
> >>the XP boot menu (the menu doesn't show by default if you only have XP
> >>installed). You need to install grub or lilo on one of your linux
> >>partitions (conventionally the root partition, e.g. /dev/hdb1) and then
> >>have bootpart.exe add an entry to your c:\boot.ini to load up linux from
> >>that partition.
> >>
> >>Paul.
> >> 
> >>
> >>      
> >>
> >Thanks for the pointer. I am going to work on this over the weekend. 
> >Will try to post my discoveries...
> >    
> >
>
> One thing to bear in mind is that, since you were swapping out hard
> disks to switch between OSes before, your FC2 install will have been on
> "hda", the first hard disk, but with the drive attached as a second
> drive, it'll be "hdb" (or hdc, or hdd, depending on your cabling and
> jumper selection). If your /etc/fstab mounts filesystems using the
> "LABEL=" technique (it probably does), this won't matter as the kernel
> will still find your filesystems, but any references to /dev/hda in
> there will need changing to /dev/hdb.
>
> Paul.
>   
>  
Paul:

Took a little longer to reply. But hey I got the dual boot to work 
without re-installing any OS.... I played a lot with the bootloader on 
NT but I guess its micro$oft. Here's what I changed on grub.conf and it 
works like a charm.

title Windows XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader +1

Thanks,

-B

[Tim]

There is a bug in FC2 that reports the geometry of the drives
differently than the physical drive.  (why this is not first on the list
to fix I don't know)  What I do is have my FC2 drive as the master and
the win98 as a slave but you have to change grub to fake out the win
drive to think it's #1 to boot win98.  If all else fails and my kids
games won't play I can just unplug the master FC2 and just run with the
win drive, since windoze can't play well with others, I'd give it a D-
in citizenship.  But my case only takes 2 screws and the whole side
slides off and I'm done in 30 sec.  But I only have the kids every other
weekend, and it would be a big pain to do every day. 

Tim...

On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 11:08, Beri, Rohit wrote:
>  All:
>  
>  I have read a few post on how this is done and few things one needs to look out for... In
> my situation I have 2 hdd for my dell latitude, one running WinXP and the other Fedora
> Core 2, I was swapping HDD before. 
>  
>  Just yesterday I bought a media bay so I can plug fedora Core 2 as a second hdd. I was
> wonderding how to configure without formatting fedora core hdd to be able to chose which
> OS i want to boot to when I start the machine.
>  
>  Any pointers ? 
>  
>  Thanks,
>  
>  -B
>