WinXP + RH9 : Dual Boot : using Windows Bootloader
Assuming that you have two complete operating systems on your machine -an Xp which boots and runs, and Linux which is installed but not bootable. You now need to add Linux to the Xp boot options …
Start Linux in rescue mode from the install cd. This allows you to access the / file system. Set the root
of your file system to the hard disc installed Linux:
cd /mnt/sysimage
chroot /mnt/sysimage
Copy the boot sector of the / partition into a plain file
dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
(Change “hda3″ to the name of your raw disc slice; use df to find out if you’re not sure 
)
Save the file bootsect.lnx to some media that you can also read in Xp. Preferrebly in a Floppy disk.
may run “mcopy /bootsect.lnx a:” . If you don’t have mcopy, download the tools, it is in mtools ( http://mtools.linux.lu/)
Reboot into Xp. Log in as a user with admin rights, and start a command window.
cd c: load in the boot sectors via FTP (BINARY mode!!)
attrib -h -s -r \boot.ini
(You have now set the system file boot.ini so that you can get at it / edit it).
f) Edit boot.ini, adding the line
C:\BOOTSECT.LNX=linux
at the end, and rehide the file
attrib +h +s +r \boot.ini
The job is done; XP’s boot loader will now offer you Linux or
Xp whenever you reboot the machine!
Note: I have tested it 10 times and the booting gets freezed for atleast 5 times.
I always prefer GRUB in case you wish to have dual boot…
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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2004 at 1:48 pm and is filed under gnu/linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
