Re: dualboot linux and NT?

[fpage@ntrulez.oche.de (Frederick Page)]

Hi Tom,

you wrote on: 18 Jan 99 at 15:30 (received 19.01.99)
about       : _Re: dualboot linux and NT?_

>WinNT can not boot directly from a slave disk, as far as I know.

Well, it *can* boot from any disk and any partition, no matter what.

>It needs to have it's boot files on the active partition on the master
>drive.

That's exactly the problem, you need to have a FAT16-partition within the  
first 1024 cylinders of the first harddrive. The so-called C: (speaking in  
DOS-/Win-terms).

Daryl made several mistakes. Win NT needs a (small) FAT16-partition (C:)  
in order to boot, this partition has to carry the NTLDR.EXE, boot.ini and  
other hidden files.

I triple-boot my machine with Win 95, Win NT and Linux, no problem at all.  
linux is on the second hard-disk (the first is completely occupied by both  
Wins).

Here's what to do: create a small FAT16-Partition at the beginning of the  
drive (Partition Magic, e.g.), put NTLDR and other NT-files there (rescue  
installation). Boot Linux and create a boot-floppy (if you haven't already  
got one).

Boot Linux and enter

        dd if=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1 of=/boot/bootsec.lin

this copies the bootblock from your hd (you might need to change hda1 to  
hda2 since hda1 is your fat16-partition) to /boot/bootsec.lin

Create/modifiy /etc/lilo.conf

        boot=/boot/bootsec.lin
        root=/dev/hda1
        compact
        install=/boot/boot.b
        map=/boot/map
        vga=normal
        delay=3
        image=/vmlinuz
              root=/dev/hda1
              label=linux
              read-only

now run

        lilo -v -v

Now copy the bootsector to your first fat16-partition (whereever you  
mounted it)

        cp /boot/bootsec.lin /mnt/drivec/bootsec.lin

Now rescue the NT-system (with your NT-CD) restore boot-loader, etc. etc.

Edit the boot.ini (on fat16) and add the following line

        c:\bootsec.lin=linux

(remember this file has attributes r s h!)

You'll have to re-run lilo and copy the bootsec.lin after kernel-changes  
(another distribution, re-compile, etc.)


Kind regards

Frederick