Re: Booting Linux from windows 2000
On Thu, 7 Nov 2002 16:45:40 -0500, Gleef <gleef@ybten.net> wrote:
>On Wed, Nov 06, 2002 at 03:56:48PM +0100, Bruno BEAUFILS wrote:
>>
>> I know that this question is not specially relevant to debian, but I
>> do not know where to ask it anywhere else :-(
>>
>> I want to boot a bunch of dual-boot stations which are running under
>> Windows 2000 to Linux. I tried loadlin but it does not work because
>> of protected mode.
>
>loadlin and syslinux both work from DOS, and won't work on
>Windows 2000 (Windows NT/2000/XP are not DOS-based).
>
>
>> I can modify lilo boot loader since those stations are oftenly
>> cloned by Ghost and that default boot options must stay Windows.
>
>Lilo can be set up to boot Windows 2000 by default, just be sure to
>install Linux *after* you install Windows. Grub can also be set up to
>boot Windows 2000 for you. Either can be set up so that they look
>innocuous to a person who might be afraid of a boot menu.
>
>Alternately, if you are not permitted to touch the MBR, you can make a
>very flexible boot floppy with grub. After installing the Debian grub
>package, you can make a grub boot floppy as simply as "grub-floppy
>/dev/fd0".
>
>Best of Luck,
>-Gleef
For people who may be afraid of boot menus, maybe you could have the
PC set up just to boot 2k, and make up a DOS boot floppy with
LOADLIN.EXE on it run from AUTOEXEC.BAT; remove the write-protect tab
and stick a big picture of Tux on it. Then you can tell people "put
the penguin in to use Linux, take it out for Windoze." I guess you
could make a grub floppy to do the same.
It is true that Windoze doesn't like changes to the MBR. To hack the
Win98 MBR I had to include code to put the original MBR back after the
hack had done its work, then make Windoze reinstall the hacked version
after it had done its check. That relied on having DOS available
underneath and probably would be much harder in 2k. It's not something
I would really recommend!
Pigeon
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