[NMLUG] dual boot question

[Rutan Andy C Contr Det 4 AFC2TIG/SRC]

I have ahd the same problem with SuSE.  The secret is to boot the Linux via
the boot disk and reset the MBR for dual boot.

Andy Rutan

-----Original Message-----
From: starobin at cybermesa.com [mailto:starobin at cybermesa.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 12:40 PM
To: nmlug at nmlug.org
Subject: [NMLUG] dual boot question


Hi. After a couple of days of fighting with a dual boot (Linux/Win98)
setup I feel that I am ready for some help.

Here is my current partition table:
Device              Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1        13    104391   83  Linux
/dev/hda2            14      1288  10241437+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3          1289      1543   2048287+   c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4          1544      9729  65754045    f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5          1544      7000  43833321   83  Linux
/dev/hda6          7001      7032    257008+  82  Linux swap

and grub entry for linux boot:

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda2 hdc=ide-scsi
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img

I proceed by map(ping) the first sector of the win/dos partition
/dev/hda3 (grub device (hd0,2)) to the MBR for the drive (hd0).
A grub shell sequence at boot time is as follows:

map (hd0,1) (hd0,2)
map (hd0,2) (hd0,1)
chainloader (fd0)+1            ! this "chainloads" Win98 boot floppy

Incidentally, with my current setup I am not sure if MBR resides on the
first sector
of /dev/hda2, or /dev/hda1. /dev/hda1 does not even show in /etc/fstab

The Win98 floppy is read and prompts for the Installation CD which then
warns me
that it will modify MBR, which indeed it does killing my boot partition
and making
the system un-bootable. The only way to proceed at this point it to make
a
new RH7.3 install with the old partition table. Fortunately, no data is
affected, other
than the boot partition itself.

Q. What am I doing wrong and when?

Thanks.

-andrei

ps. I know by running fdisk off the Win98 floppy that the fat32
partition I've made while
installing linux, is recognized and appears as drive c:
For some reason however its format is reported as fat16 and not Win95
FAT32.
I also know that (hd0,2) is the correct grub device for this partition.

pps.  the Win98 floppy contains the following:
aspi2dos.sys  aspi8u2.sys   btcdrom.sys  config.sys   fdisk.exe
himem.sys   msdos.sys
aspi4dos.sys  aspicd.sys    btdosm.sys   ebd.cab      findcd.exe
io.sys      oakcdrom.sys
aspi8dos.sys  autoexec.bat  command.com  extract.exe  flashpt.sys
mscdex.exe
Does anyone know which .exe mounts the installation cdrom? and what
arguments should be
passed?



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