Problem with Dual Boot

[SSL]

Well I´m a portuguese newbie for linux.

But i would like to increase my knowledge for the open source and therefore i choose to instal the Red Hat 8.0 on my computer.

Until know my only contact with Linux was the Knoppix version, who works directly from CD.

In the instalation of the XP Pro I create on my computer 4 partitions:

- 20GB primary, nfts to XP;
- 10Gb nfts for my personal documents;
- 9,5GB without any formated file system for the linux system ("/")(this partition wil be Ext3 and will be formated in the red hat instalion);
- 500Mb for swap Linux

First Point:
I´ve instaled the XP, because if XP was instaled after Linux, I think he right the MBR and deleted the linux option - am i correct?

Second Point:
When I put the first RedHat CD on the drive to install de RedHat, it doesnt make boot and i enter in XP again. So I went to the Bios and check if the Boot CDRom was enable. And yes, was enable.
I try to work again with the Knoopix but the knoppix doesnt boot also. So I think that problem maybe be related to the instalation of the XP, but I dont know where is the problem. Can anyone help me?

Third Point:
How can i make sure that the first redhat CD was 100% well created? is there any url that i can check if the cd contains everything that its necessary to install the redhat system?


Sorry for my rusty english and thanks in advance for any response.

[blakelock]

Originally posted by SSL
Well I´m a portuguese newbie for linux.

But i would like to increase my knowledge for the open source and therefore i choose to instal the Red Hat 8.0 on my computer.

-Congratulations for jumping in!!


In the instalation of the XP Pro I create on my computer 4 partitions:

- 20GB primary, nfts to XP;
- 10Gb nfts for my personal documents;
- 9,5GB without any formated file system for the linux system ("/")(this partition wil be Ext3 and will be formated in the red hat instalion);
- 500Mb for swap Linux


Your partitions look pretty good but I have one comment. Linux can read NTFS but cannot write to NTFS. I like to install the XP system files on an NTFS partition and then put personal documents on a fat32 partition so that linux can write to the personal documents without problem.


First Point:
I´ve instaled the XP, because if XP was instaled after Linux, I think he right the MBR and deleted the linux option - am i correct?


The XP install will overwrite the MBR and delete the Linux boot option (if LILO is installed on the MBR) but you can always install LILO back onto the MBR if it gets deleted.


Second Point:
When I put the first RedHat CD on the drive to install de RedHat, it doesnt make boot and i enter in XP again. So I went to the Bios and check if the Boot CDRom was enable. And yes, was enable.
I try to work again with the Knoopix but the knoppix doesnt boot also. So I think that problem maybe be related to the instalation of the XP, but I dont know where is the problem. Can anyone help me?

Third Point:
How can i make sure that the first redhat CD was 100% well created? is there any url that i can check if the cd contains everything that its necessary to install the redhat system?


I don't know of any XP installation problem that would cause the CDROM to stop booting. I would only suggest that you try to boot from another CD that you know should work. I believe you check the RedHat cd with an MDSUM utility. Search for MDSUM on thsi forum for instructions.


Sorry for my rusty english and thanks in advance for any response.

Your english is much better than my portuguese!

[Jaywalker]

How can i make sure that the first redhat CD was 100% well created? is there any url that i can check if the cd contains everything that its necessary to install the redhat system?
Try at this link: http://www.shen.myby.co.uk/threel/tech/tools/md5.htm
It explains the "md5sum" process and gives you a Windows file to download. You would run that against your downloaded files and compare the result to a figure provided by the Redhat server - if they are identical, then you have a good download. If you downloaded them yourself, you must remember to burn them as ISO files, not just ordinary copies.
When I put the first RedHat CD on the drive to install de RedHat, it doesnt make boot and i enter in XP again. So I went to the Bios and check if the Boot CDRom was enable. And yes, was enable. When you say you went to BIOS and checked it, did you mean it was bootable before the hard drive? The BIOS shows the boot order, so I set mine as second, behind the floppy drive. The hard drive then becomes third.

Jaywalker

[WackyOldWiz]

- 20GB primary, nfts to XP;
- 10Gb nfts for my personal documents;
- 9,5GB without any formated file system for the linux system ("/")(this partition wil be Ext3 and will be formated in the red hat instalion);
- 500Mb for swap Linux

First Point:
I´ve instaled the XP, because if XP was instaled after Linux, I think he right the MBR and deleted the linux option - am i correct?

You are but LILO/Grub bootloaders can also mess up XP if installed to MBR. What worked for me (see below), was to create a 7GB NTFS primary for XP and a 5GB ext2/3 primary for Linux, The rest of the disk was taken by an extended partition (which can hold up to 24 logical partitions). Make the 1st logical your Linuxswap and format any others as vfat32.

Sounds complicated but it all makes sense if you use PartitionMagic to set up your hard drive (I still find fdisk, Druid etc. confusing).

If you then install LILO to root (/) and create a Linux boot floppy
you should have all the boot options you need. Boot without a floppy gives you XP, insert your bootfloppy and reboot to get linux. Either O/S should see all the vfat partitions.

PS. I'm still trying to find out why PQ's BootMagic happily starts Mandrake 9.0 & Windows on one machine but won't touch RH8 on the other. Anyone got any ideas?

[jglen490]

You are but LILO/Grub bootloaders can also mess up XP if installed to MBR. Negative.

Sounds complicated but it all makes sense if you use PartitionMagic to set up your hard drive Also, negative.

The simplest, and usually most correct, way to install a dual-boot setup with any version of Windoze is:

Install Windoze on the first partition on the primary hard drive. During this installation, allow Windoze to only format a portion of the drive with NTFS. Next, establish a FAT32 partition, if you intend to share any data files (word processing, MP3, video, etc) between Windoze and Linux. Again, leave that portion of the hard drive that is intended for Linux unpartitioned.

Install Linux, targeting the unpartitioned space. During the install process, select either Grub or Lilo as the boot loader and direct its boot code to the MBR of the primary hard drive. Properly identify Windoze and Linux each with an appropriate name and the partition of each.

Ensure that the BIOS identifies the primary hard drive as the first bootable drive.

This works!!

There is almost no reason, with a fresh install of both OSes, to use a third party, commercial partition manager to pre-establish partitions prior to loading both OSes. There is almost no reason to ever use a third party, commercial boot manager to boot into either of these OSes. And in the absence of a catastrophic error, there is never a good reason to routinely use a boot diskette to start either OS.

[WackyOldWiz]

Commentsappreciated John. I must admit to difficulties in shaking off MicroSoft habits picked up in migrating from ZX81 DOS to Linux via Windows.

I still like the PM presentation but will take my courage in both hands (made a mess of Mandrake 5 once) and try the linux bootloader on my pentium box.

I can disable BootMagic OK, is there a way to shoehorn LiLo or Grub into my setup without a reinstall?

[jglen490]

Appreciate your willingness to try :D !!

The first thing you might do is boot with your RedHat install CD#1. Hit the F1 key to get the alternate processes. I'm a Mandrake kinda guy, but the two are very similar, but I'm still guessing a little as to the specifics. Anyway, you will either get a menu from which you can select a "rescue" option, or you can type in the word "rescue". That, in turn will present a menu where you can install/re-install a boot loader.

Grub, or Lilo, will suffice. Both work very much alike. the most important thing is to give each OS a name (i.e., RedHat, or Fred, or DOS, or you get the idea) and to properly identify where each OS is by partition. IIRC, with your setup, Windoze should be hda1 (first primary partition) and the bootable part of your Linux should be on hda2 (second primary partition). Adjust that as needed. You should target Grub's, or Lilo's, boot code to hda (MBR of your primary hard drive).

If you don't quite get it right the first time, it's O.K. the rescue option is always available. Please let us know how it goes :cool: !!

[SSL]

Hello in advance.

First let me say that this forum is the BEST forum that i've seen in internet for linux users - since beginners till advanced users. Congratulations on that. Background like this forum brings to us the idea that everyone can work in Linux

As i say before, i´m a very, very newbie linux user. To understand and evaluate in open source, first i need to install rh in my computer - this is why i´m here. Now to learn from others, maybe in the future to teach others.

Question 1.
In portugal ADSL and cable internet user have limited trafic for download and upload files. Of course, internacional limit is by far the lowest limit comparing nacional trafic. For example, i´ve 1GB for internacional trafic and 20GB for nacional - for month.
Why this? Because i try the md5sum process and the CD's that i have for RH 8.0 doesent work.
In ftp.telepac.pt (portuguese ftp) i can download de RH, version 8.0. But in the folder of the RH there are many files and i dont know what to pull. :(( In that folder there are the iso.files. (about 650mb each). Is this files to pull? And if yes, after i use a copy Cd software to create the CD for the instalition? The software burning makes the rest and creates a boot cd when create, for instance, the first CD?


Question 2.
Following the advises that i read here, my hd in this moment have:
-10GB, nfts, with SO Windows XP Pro (already running)
-10GB, FAT32, for my documents
- 9.5GB wich will be Ext3 when install rh8.0
- 500Mb for swap linux.

I remeber that i have a compaq notebook [P4, 2.4Ghz, ATI 8500, 40Gb, 512Mb, Combo drive (dvd-cdrw)]


Thanks for your help.

[WackyOldWiz]

Originally posted by jglen490
Appreciate your willingness to try :D !!

The first thing you might do is boot with your RedHat install CD#1. Hit the F1 key to get the alternate processes. :cool: !!
Tried it twice now. F5 is the key to rescue on my distro. After a couple of questions this "installs my system to /mnt/sysimage" and dumps me in a shell waiting for further commands. My knowledge of the Linux lingo is not up to performing major surgery so I have to <exit>, The m/c reboots and I'm back to square one. Sorry to be so dumb but additional help seems necessary.

SSL

I had trouble verifying distro downloads before burning them to CD. In the end, $19 via PayPal got me seven CD's from (what was the URL? I'll let you Know later). Well worth it for complete set of RH8, MDK9 and a bonus disk of extras.

[WackyOldWiz]

The one I used is www.linux-download-cds.com and it was only $15 delivered to your door but there are loads of others you might try. Is it worth burning corrupt iso files?

[WackyOldWiz]

Decided to try the complete reinstall route. Apart from a fright when Disk 2 stopped loading (due to somebody's fingerprints blocking the laser) all seemed to go well. I even found how to premount my vfat partitions.

Install completed, restarted with bootfloppy OK, restarted RH8 via GRUB boot menu (default), W98 also started from boot menu BUT WinXP CRASHED with a fatal system error.

Until I can really find my way round Linux I'd like my XP setup back. I assume it's still on hda2. Who says grub/lilo can't mess up XP :confused:

I know this is a Linux forum but suggestions will be welcome while I investigate.