Boot.ini in WinXP & Linux??

[ZrByte]

Is it possible to edit the boot.ini in windows XP to load any Linux installs you have??

heres what it says now....

Originally Posted by Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

If its not possible can anybody reccomend a good boot loader? As you know if you have read my previous Linux thread im planning to install Linux again, only problem is I need to keep WinXP on my other Discs.

[philip.j.fry]

Have a look at this page for some info:

http://www.mastincrosbie.com/mark/linux-ob6k/win2k.html

IMO though it will be easier to use the boot loader provided by your Linux distro. This will either be LILO, which is the easiest to set up, or Grub, which is a little more complicated but more powerful. If you are using one of the more user-friendly distros like Suse or Fedora you needn't worry about the setup as the installer will do it all for you.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

Have a look at this page for some info:

http://www.mastincrosbie.com/mark/linux-ob6k/win2k.html

IMO though it will be easier to use the boot loader provided by your Linux distro. This will either be LILO, which is the easiest to set up, or Grub, which is a little more complicated but more powerful. If you are using one of the more user-friendly distros like Suse or Fedora you needn't worry about the setup as the installer will do it all for you.

I didnt even think of that :o my newbieness is showing again
I take it I can set the bootloader to use windows as the primary boot and Linux as a secondary? (Wich will only load when I want it to)
Sorry to be asking some dumb questions but I would really rather not fubar the windows install on my laptop again so im trying to get all this down before I start

[philip.j.fry]

Yep, you can set which OS will be the primary system and the length of time before it autoboots. It'll probably set Linux as the primary boot, but it's easy enough to set back, once you get that far we'll give you a hand

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

Yep, you can set which OS will be the primary system and the length of time before it autoboots. It'll probably set Linux as the primary boot, but it's easy enough to set back, once you get that far we'll give you a hand

Thanks a lot, im starting the setup now. Would have liked to install of a DVD but I havent managed to sort that yet, I found my RedHat CD's I made a while back so im gonna install that.

[Richard M]

It would help you enormously is you learn a few basic shell (command line) commands because it's likely that you'll have to run the lilo program from there to update itself.
Here's a few:

Win32: dir
Linux: ls
Win32: cd
Linux: cd (to go to the root, type "cd /"
Win32: del
Linux: rm
Win32: cls
Linux: clear

Note that you can only run a program from the command line if you put "./" before it like this:
somebody@localhost # ./filename

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by Richard M

Note that you can only run a program from the command line if you put "./" before it like this:
somebody@localhost # ./filename

Unless you put . (for current directory) in the path

[ZrByte]

I ran into a slight snag last night and couldnt even get the damn thing installed.
It kept hanging my Laptop during the first screen of the installer. This was the media test.
heres what I did....
I put the CD in the drive and told the laptop to boot from CD, this was quick and shown no signs of having trouble reading the media. Then a screen loaded up with several options, the first was something like "Press enter to run linux graphically assisted installer" I selected this and everything seemed to run fine, then it reached a blue screen titled media test with 2 buttons in the center of the screen labeled 'OK' & 'SKIP' and some dialogue detailing that if this is the first time installing from these discs the test option should be selected (This was not the first time) so I tried to select skip, nothing happened. I thought that the arrow keys on my keyboard whernt beeing recognised by the program (a fault I used to get all the time on my old laptop) so I tried just pressing enter to commence the media test (I figured this would be easier in the longrun, still nothing happened.
This led me to believe that the whole keyboard wasnt working with the program so I rooted out my spare PS2 keyboard and put it in the laptop. I loaded all the steps I said earlier with the PS2 keyboard this time and everything worked fine until I hit the media test screen again, the whole thing was frozen, even the num lock key wasnt working (It had been just seconds before) the only button that worked properly was the power button (i.e. you didnt need to hold it down to switch of the laptop, just one press done the trick).

I know there is nothing wrong with the CD's as they work fine on my main PC, only problem is I dont have the space to put it on my main PC at the moment and im not willing to either until ive played around with Linux a bit. The problem seems to be with the laptop, Im sure I have installed it on the laptop before though, wich is wierd to say the least. The only change to my laptop is the BIOS version, wich allthough I suppose could be affecting it, does seem unlikeley to me.

Im gonna do a little googling in a minute to see if anybody else is having the problem with the same (Or similar) laptop.
Im just really hungry at the moment so im gonna get some food first

If anybody wants to have a look themselves its a presario 2100 (Specific model is a 2143EA and its AMD based not Intel) and the version of redhat is 9.

I downloaded my copy of redhat from Linuxiso.org http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7

[bonzoe]

AFAIK Linux doesn't work very well, if at all, on laptops. So I think you are on to a loser here, but others may know better!!!

[ZrByte]

ok, still got nowhere with my laptop, however, Today I decided to put the copy of RedHat 9 that I found on CD onto my main PC.
All installed smoothley, I only have a few questions.....
1.) How do I add NTFS support to the Kernel?? I have gone through trying to mount an NTFS partition using a tutorial I found online, only problem is when it comes to the final stage it says the NTFS is not supported in this kernel.

2.) Im pretty sure this one will come into play in question 1.) so its deffinatley worth asking now (I also need it for a driver install for my NForce NIC and other components)
what do you do with RPMS??? cant even really elaborate on this I just dont know what to do with them

EDIT: I know that if I add ntfs support I will need to keep it read only

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by bonzoe

AFAIK Linux doesn't work very well, if at all, on laptops. So I think you are on to a loser here, but others may know better!!!

It works just fine on mine

[ZrByte]

Wooohooo!! All sorted now, got my NTFS volumes mounted, got all my Nforce hardware installed aswel.
Guess I should have actually tried double clicking on an RPM before asking what to do with them here
Only snag I had was installing the RPM for my Nforce Hardware, I had to download the source and recompile the drivers into a correct RPM version for my Kernel wich is a hell of a lot easier than it sounds, it was things like what I just said that put me off using Linux for so long.

I am typing this from Linux right now , I know its no big deal to most people but its a biggy to me

Just have two more questions......
If I upgrade the Kernel will I have to get newer versions of the RPMs I have installed?? or will they be automatically updated??

How difficult is it to upgrade the kernel?? im using RedHat 9.0 2.4.20-8

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Just have two more questions......
If I upgrade the Kernel will I have to get newer versions of the RPMs I have installed?? or will they be automatically updated??

Not all of them, just the ones that specifically use parts of the kernel.

How difficult is it to upgrade the kernel?? im using RedHat 9.0 2.4.20-8

Probably not hard on RedHat if they distribute the kernel via rpm, following on from the above question, all the rpms that depend on that kernel should be upgraded automatically too. Also, contrary to popular belief, compiling your own kernel is quite easy.

Glad you got it all sorted anyway, welcome to the world of frustrating though ultimately rewarding linux use