Re: advanced dualboot linux+win with grub

From: CBFalconer (cbfalconer_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 08/02/05 

Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 12:42:36 GMT

peter pilsl wrote:
>
> My system is setup for dualboot linux and windows with grub and
> works perfectly fine.
>
> grub is the mainbootloader and includes windows as bootoption.
>
> now grub - of course - has only defaultboot-option which is linux.
> So when I want/need to reboot windows (or it reboots itself) I
> need to manually interact with grub to make windows boot again.
>
> so what I want is a environment where windows per default reboots
> into windows, linux per default reboots into linux and - optionally
> - a way to change this behaviour when choosing reboot.
>
> so - in my dreams - the windows-logout button should have an
> additional option "reboot to linux" and vice versa.
>
> The minimal setting would be to keep two grub-configs. one with
> linux as default and one with windows as default. and then write two
> logout-wrappers in linux that apply the reboot-to-windows-script and
> reboot-to-linux-script.
> Thats fine, but I'd like to know if someone has come to a better
> solution or even found a way to alter grub under windows.

I don't know about grub, but I imagine the fundamentals are similar
to lilo, in that the initial default and options are written into
the MBR. After all, when the machine boots that is all the
information available. So any such flipping of the default would
involve rewriting the MBR. This would mean that any fault could
easily write an invalid MBR and result in an unbootable machine.

I think you are stuck with a single default. 

-- 
Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
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