Talk:HOWTO Dual Boot from Windows Bootloader (NTLDR) and why

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

I'm a bit of a chicken so I dont have the gut's to edit the article directly, but I found some things that might be benefitial if it is added!

Before doing the step below, make sure that (hd0,1) is marked as "active" and that it is the only partition marked as active! After doing it, try a reboot to see if grub actualy works.

 # grub
 grub> root (hd0,1) 	(Specify where your /boot partition resides)
 grub> setup (hd0,1) 	(Install GRUB in the boot sector of /boot)
 grub> quit 		(Exit the GRUB shell)

Now, grab the grub.mbr from (hd0,1) using the dd command as the article describes. Then, use fdisk to mark your windows partition as the only active partition, reboot to windows and continue as normal.

When I followed the guide verbatim and dident mark my /boot partition as active before running the grub install I got

 <windows root>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt, please re-install.

as an error when I tried to boot the grub.mbr from the NTLDR.

--JJacobsson 09:45, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

i dont see this page saying why to do this? it seems completely stupid

• I have rewritten the article to include two sound methods of dual-booting using NTLDR and to address the original title which the previous article did not. I hope future readers find this article informative and, of course, make any ammendments necessary. 84.92.182.215 16:48, 20 December 2005 (GMT)

[edit] Removed text

I removed this text following my update to the article since it is covered within the updates.

[edit] Quick'n'Dirty Sampler

Your original boot.ini may look something like this:

 [boot loader]
 timeout=30
 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
 [operating systems]
 multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

You would need to perform [insert some steps here] and then modify boot.ini.

Your linuxified boot.ini might look something like this:

 [boot loader]
 timeout=30
 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
 [operating systems]
 multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
 C:\grldr="Start Linux Loader (GRUB)"
 C:\Win311="Start Windows 3.1"

• There are two headers which need not be edited: [boot loader] and [operating systems].

• timeout is the time before the default option is selected in seconds

• default is the default partition

• disk(0) shows that it needs to boot the the first hard disk and partition(2) shows it boots to the second partition.

Note: If you have a dell or other ready built computer it is likely you have a utility partition as partition 1. \Windows is the folder it must boot to.

[edit] LILO example

lilo && dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/c/gentoo.img bs=512 count=1

84.92.182.215 16:45, 20 December 2005 (GMT)

[edit] Added Grub Configuration

Hi, Grub Configuration is my first addition to Gentoo Wiki. Hope it's some use to somebody.

This is the setup that i use in my computer and it took a while for me to get it working. And when i was trying to get it working i couldn't find any info on how to make it work with two separate disks. So i thought i'd share it. Hope it's of use.

Matti

I'm also a chicken and noob so don't dare to incorporate changes. Following HOWTO and Gentoo Handbook i run in to problem driven from presented example of /boot/grub/grub.conf. When you follow strictly Handbook you should have hda1(boot),hda2(swap),hda3(root) partitions, and hda1 contains kernel image straight at the / not at /boot as presented in the mentioned grub.conf example.