Can linux boot if the primary partition is NTFS?

[BigToque]

My partition structure is like this because I figured that linux could not boot if the primary partition was not FAT/FAT32/EXT(2/3). This way, when I wanted to boot into either Windows or Linux I would have to change the active primary partition.

1. NTFS (Primary - active)
2. EXT3 (Primary)
3. Logical
-> Linux Swap
-> NTFS

Can I set the partition structure like this and then use either the Windows or Linux bootloader on NTFS?

1. NTFS (Primary - active)
2. Logical
-> EXT3
-> Linux Swap
-> NTFS

 

[n0cmonkey]

I'm pretty sure Linux can exist on an extended partition. I've always just used primary partitions, IIRC (it's been a long time since I wasted time and resources with multiboots). You can even use Windows' boot manager to boot into Linux.

 

[Hyperblaze]

In my experience...i don't think it can....

I think you absolutely need to use free space for it....

What you Could do though is use a program like partition magic and resize your extended partition.

Shouldn't have a problem there.

 

[Kibbo]

wouldn't you just have to overwright the MBR with a boot loader? Doesn't that format the MBR?

 

[Nothinman]

Linux will boot fine from pretty much anywhere, the problem you'll have is that you'll need to either setup a Linux bootloader like Grub or LILO on the MBR or setup the NTLOADER to boot Linux. Neither are terribly hard, but you need to pick which one you want to do.

wouldn't you just have to overwright the MBR with a boot loader? Doesn't that format the MBR?

The MBR has a bootloader (atleast it should) and there's no such thing as "formatting" the MBR.

 

[djdrastic]

Things You Need
1)Your XP / W2K Cdrom
2) Flash Drive / Floppy
3)Linux Recovery CD [ More often than not your first Linux install cd , and specify recover in the bootup options if there are any]

To set up a bootloader(grub) from the linux partition by going to start run then /sbin/grub-install /dev/hdax
or if your cd doesn't support this try


if you run lilo

/sbin/lilo


then get the boot image file NTLDR will need by typing this
Make sure your hard disks boot loader /boot/grub/grub.conf or if you use lilo /etc/lilo.conf are correct


dd if=/dev/hdax of=dev/fd0/bootsect.Lnx bs=512 count =1 [The x being the drive where it writes the mbr]

This will copy the file to your floppy drive

If you dont have a floppy, you should be able to to a dmesg | grep sda and look for your flash drive and then just make a dir for it and mount it]

mkdir /mnt/flash
mount /dev/sdax /mnt/flash

And replace the string of=dev/fd0/bootsect.Lnx bs=512 count =1 with of=/mnt/flash


then goin to windows and puttin the bootsect.Lnx in the root and adding c:\bootsect.Lnx="RedHat" in the boot.ini