• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Boot Select Question

J

Johnbear007

Diamond Member
Alright, I have finally decided to switch to linux and leave windows behind. This will be a long learning experience, but I am excited for it. I just ordered a 160GB hard drive for my linux install, and I will leave my XP install on my 120 GB for a few months while I learn linux enough to fully abandon windows.

My question is, what is an easy way to switch between boot drives rather than going into my bios everytime? I am installing on two seperate physical drives, not dual botting from one. I'm using a Soltek NV-400 motherboard.

Thanks!
 
Abandoning Windows? You must not like playing games and using everyday software because outside of hobby programming and OS tweaking, I don't use Linux. I'll just go ahead and say, IMHO, Linux is a toy. I was introduced to it in a college OS course and while it's fun to write your own kernel and hardware drivers, when I want to surf the net, burn MP3's, play games and just goof around, I went back to my Windows partition.

Anyways, most versions of Linux comes with a bootstrap program where you can choose the OS at boot-up. Most give you about 10 seconds until it boots to the default OS partition which you should be able to set. Have fun with Linux, you'll learn alot about operating systems.
 
Lots of ways to do this without touching the Bios.

This is probably the best.
------------------ excerpt from http://www.blackviper.com/Arti...ltiboot/multiboot1.htm



20) Create a Linux boot disk: (Image 1.20)
After all packages have been installed, create a Linux boot disk.

What this does for you is:

Allow you to have a "boot loader" that has no chance of messing up your existing OS installs.
Added "security" for those that choose not to have "others" access the Linux install. (Remember, Windows cannot see the Linux File tables).
Insert the boot disk and restart the computer to run Linux, keep the boot disk out of the floppy drive to boot Windows.

Personally I'd load the linux OS on the same hard drive as the xp and just dual boot with GRUB or LILO. It can help while you get everything working and you can set drives to fat32 that both OSes can see.


 
Originally posted by: MrControversial
Abandoning Windows? You must not like playing games and using everyday software because outside of hobby programming and OS tweaking, I don't use Linux. I'll just go ahead and say, IMHO, Linux is a toy. I was introduced to it in a college OS course and while it's fun to write your own kernel and hardware drivers, when I want to surf the net, burn MP3's, play games and just goof around, I went back to my Windows partition.

Anyways, most versions of Linux comes with a bootstrap program where you can choose the OS. Most give you about 10 seconds until it boots to the default OS partition which you should be able to set. Have fun with Linux, you'll learn alot about operating systems.
Click to expand...

Games is the only part of that that still holds true and maybe not even depending on the game.
Firefox is of course not only available but developed on the linux platform for net surfing.
The security for surfing is of course again at a much higher level on a linux box than it is on a win pc.

You can burn quite easily with k3b which is free and included on most distro's.

Linux has matured ALOT in the last 2 or 3 years.

I keep xp for games but use linux for virtually everything else.

If you go to linuxquestions.og and post what you want to be able to do on linux and blink three times then click refresh someone will tell you how🙂

 
What you can do with a bootloader like GRUB is have it boot from the boot sector of different hard drives. All you have to do in the BIOS initially is tell it to boot the hard drive with GRUB on it.
So what I would do is to do a complete Linux install onto the new hard drive, put GRUB on its MBR, and edit its config file to allow for Windows also. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but what you end up doing is flipping around how the machine will see the drives (Windows likes to be on the first drive in the box) then using the chainloader +1 command. GRUB's webpage has pretty good details. I'll get my grub.conf up here later for you.

And yes, Linux has matured a lot. I first tried it about three years ago and hated it. These days, even newer games are already ported for Linux and driver development is right up there with Windows or a release behind. But, anymore, I don't care for Windows treating me like an idiot so I only use it for my NetMD player. That's it.
 
Thanks for the answers, very much appreciated. I have no desire to mess around with a boot loader in the boot sector. Done it before, ended up with a bad MBR, and never want to di ti again. Since I am using to seperate physical drives I will go with the boot disk option thanks..

Also, as far as still needing windows, why? Open office is fine with me, I already use firefox, and I am sure I will figure out burning.

As for gaming, all I paly right now is WoW, and that runs fine using Cedega. So, what exactly do I need to pay for windows for?
 
No, it's honestly not that hard. Unplug every drive but the one you want to install onto. Do the install, use GRUB as your bootloader. Your /boot/grub/grub.conf will look like this:

default 4
timeout 10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=CK Sources 2.6.10
root(hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage-29 root=/dev/sda3 vga=794 hdc=ide-cd

title=Windows XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
root (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

You may have a different kernel or kernel options, but the basic idea is there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top