changing boot.ini to boot into Linux

[Ali 0]

I have a stupid problem. I'm trying to dual-boot my system (Windows XP on Raid0, and Mandrake Linux on IDE secondary master HDD). the problem is Linux does not see my raid controller, and since i'm a newbe to linux (my second time installing) i don't know how to make it see the raid thingee anyways. on the other hand i like to keep booting from the raid drive containing Win XP Pro (i'm not confortable playing around with linux boot loader yet).

I need to know what line i should add to my boot.ini to make it load linux. i can make it work with any installation of windows using 'windows="whatever"/fastdetect', but not Linux. ;(

 

anybody has any simple solutions for the newbe guy (that i can understand and the least ammount of Linux command console)

 

for now i change the boot sequence in the BIOS everytime to boot into different OS. :x

 

thanks in advance for your help

[Ali 0]

I went through making a copy of the boot sector and copying it to floppy, so i could put it into my windows root directory.

the file is called bootsect.lnx :

 

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux Mandrake"

 

but still nothing. it just freezes or reboots, or just sits there with blinking cursor and doesn't get anywhare.

 

i'm beginning to hate linux.

 

Linux works fine when i change the boot device proirity in the BIOS.

 

any help will be appreciated

[lorddraxar 0]

Basically, you're trying to boot a partition that is on a different disk than your first...

Unfortunately, Windows Bootloader has some inherent limitations. Altough you can do the boot sector trick to boot another partition in the same disk, going to another disk probably require a better bootloader.

 

You could try xOSL, available freely at www.xosl.org, it uses an entirely graphical interface and should prove very useful. It has almost the full power of LILO but you don't have to edit any config.

[ViolentGreen 0]

Quote:

I went through making a copy of the boot sector and copying it to floppy, so i could put it into my windows root directory.
the file is called bootsect.lnx :

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux Mandrake"

but still nothing. it just freezes or reboots, or just sits there with blinking cursor and doesn't get anywhare.

i'm beginning to hate linux.

Linux works fine when i change the boot device proirity in the BIOS.

any help will be appreciated

Aer you sure it's the RAID that's the problem? I had this same problem with a non-raid setup. I have a post several months ago called "boot.ini". There is a step-by-step guide in the post and a link to another guide with some steps on it that I am actually planning on trying out tonight. I'll let yhou know if I have any luck.

Just curious...can you boot via lilo (or whatever)? I believe you have to have a second bootloader to use window's bootloader.

[Ali 0]

Quote:

Just curious...can you boot via lilo (or whatever)? I believe you have to have a second bootloader to use window's bootloader.

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, my linux does boot, but i have to change the boot priority in the bios to HDD0 instead of RAID. It works, it's just that I NEED windows also. Nothig works with linux. it's good for running a cheap PII server

[ViolentGreen 0]

Quote:

Quote:

Just curious...can you boot via lilo (or whatever)? I believe you have to have a second bootloader to use window's bootloader.

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, my linux does boot, but i have to change the boot priority in the bios to HDD0 instead of RAID. It works, it's just that I NEED windows also. Nothig works with linux. it's good for running a cheap PII server

I don't know if I see the problem then. Can you not boot into windows with lilo or do you want to screw lilo and just use the nt boot manager?

[Ali 0]

No i cannot. it does not display the list of os.

 

My windows is on Raid0 partition

my Mandrake is on a normal 30 gb hdd.

my windows doesn't see my linux and lilo doesn't see windows (mandrake linux does not support the hardware for my raid!)

 

I boot from the raid controller (windows). so i want to change my boot.ini to be able to have linux added to the list of os.

 

at this point for getting into Linux i have to go to the BIOS and change the boot device priority.

 

i think that clears everything.

 

thank you very much for the reply.

[AndyFair 0]

I think you've basically hit the nail on the head - Mandrake doesn't recognise your RAID controller - but using the Windows bootloader, you're booting from RAID, so the Mandrake bootloader (which is located on the RAID controller) doesn't recognise the device its being booted from.

Does that make sense? ;(

I think even if you were to boot of HDD0 using LILO or something similar, you'd still have problems booting Windows from this drive, as LILO still wouldn't know about the RAID controller?

The long and the short of it is if you want to be able to boot both from one drive (whether its the RAID or IDE controller), you'll need to find Linux drivers for your RAID controller.

 

Rgds

AndyF

[toomy 0]

What version of Linux Mandrake do you have???

If you have Linux Mandrake 9.0 or 9.1 then boot up your linux system and login as root.

Then start Mandrake Control Center and open the boot loader settings

there add new entry and choose a name for opsystem and choose on wich partition or drive it is installed (if you have pultiple harddisks, the drive are named hda, hdb and so on and partitions are marked as hda1, hda2, ... ,hdb1, hdb2, ...)

Make sure that the boot device is set to your primary master (usually hda)

and you should use LILO graphical mode.

Save the settings. Now reboot your machine and you should see the op system list on startup.