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Re: dual boot win2k as boot loader




Well the problem ended up being that the hard disk had a bad sector right in the area of the /boot partition (before the 1024K) point. So there for lilo was spitting out all those 01 01 01 01. Using Loadlin from with in win2k sounds also like a pretty good idea once the HD gets replaced. Leave it to MS to make a rule that says you can't use their boot loader to load non MS software.


Donald R. Spoon wrote:

Barney Wrightson wrote:

Quenten Griffith wrote:

Well that is good to know that lilo can and backs up the org. MBR, but basically there seems no way to boot Debian with the WIN2k Boot loader. I don't have a problem with that but my friend may be leary.


I believe it is actually possible to get the W2K boot loader to boot other OSs like linux and solaris x86, but I haven't done it myself. You would probably need lilo installed on the linux boot partition rather than in MBR and then modify the c:\boot.ini in W2K to point to your linux install. You will need to google for the details though.

Be warned though, I believe it contravenes the MS EULA to boot any non-MS OS using their boot loader. (as if that would stop people dual booting, actually it seems more like a challenge to me :))

HTH
Barney.



I don't have Win2K here, so this is speculation at best, BUT I recall a very nice "Mini HOWTO" on using the WinNT bootloader to boot linux. Maybe M$ hasn't changed how their boot-loader works since NT?? The mini-HOWTO can be found at the LDP at: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader.html#toc6. Maybe you can get some ideas there.

Incidently, I have an old DEC Alpha XLT-300 that was primarily made to run WinNT. I have Debian Woody running on it, and the boot-up schema is quite unique. Basically it uses the boot-loader to call loadlin.exe which then runs the kernel. (It is a little more complicated than that <grin>). If you can boot Linux from within Win2K using loadlin.exe, then you "should" be able to automate this with the bootloader.

As a last resort, booting from within Win2K using loadlin.exe seems to also "fit the bill" for your friend. It might be a bit tedious to first boot into Win2k then run the linload script, but he would have the comfort of knowing Win2K still boots!!

Cheers,
-Don Spoon-








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