WinXP+RH7.2 Dual Boot Problem

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Ain't much action in the OS forum so I thought I'd try here.


I have a Laptop with a 20 gig hdd. I wiped it clean and install WinXP Pro to a partition on the first 15 gigs of the drive. I then Install RH7.2 to the last 5 gigs (256 swap, rest = /). I've been killing myself trying to get the system to dual boot correctly.

What I've Done:
Followed the Win2K OS loader FAQ (I'd assume same in winXP) to the 'T'. The linux option Didn't work at all. Then I realized lilo was yelling at me about being beyond the 1024 sector/cylinder thingy. so I added "lba32" and commented out "linear". It wrote, so I followed the FAQ through again, this time the linux option simply said "Boot Failed".

So then I tried installing lilo to the MBR and overwriting the XP loader, by changing boot=/dev/hda2 to dev/hda1. Well, now Linux would boot but XP wouldn't. Maybe it was my lilo.conf? What should it look like if I do this? Anyway, So I used the recover console and ran FIXMBR and FIXBOOT to get my XP loader back, so I'm back where I started.

I don't know anything about GRUB, but am more than willing to give that a try. Any suggestions? Frankly, I don't care what OS loader I use, I just want a working dual boot configuration. (Floppy for linux isn't an acceptable option in my case).

In summary:
HDD = 20 GB (WinXP on first 15, RH7.2 on last 5 (obviously over the 1024 limit)
Have not been able to get lilo or the XP loader to load the other's OS.
Want any possible way to get it to work.

I'm not a complete linux retard, but this is the first dual boot setup I've tried so I'm not very familiar with the lilo, GRUB lingo (like chain+1, what is that?)

Any help (besides "rtfm") would be very appreciated. Thx.


BTW: Would perhaps doing dd if=blahblah /dev/hda1 (instead of /dev/hda2), and have lilo try to use root=/bootsect.winxp, then write lilo to the MBR possibly work?

 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
sweet! it works now! I don't understand why it didn't before. I followed the bootsect.lnx to the 'T' again and it worked this time. I don't get it, "the 8th time's the charm"?

well whatever, I'm happy. THX!