Re: Dual XP/Suse: grub iin MBR or Suse boot sector?
From: davidl (nospam_at_nospam.com)
Date: 12/26/03
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Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 00:53:30 GMT
Jim Kroger wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 19:17:20 GMT, Tim Prince
> <timothyprince@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
>>
>>Just as with grub, in boot.ini you can set any of the selections as
>>default. With NTLDR starting from MBR, you don't see the grub menu until
>>it is
>>selected from boot.ini. The main advantage is that you can repair either
>>Windows or linux independently, without breaking the boot setup. While
>>I've seen Windows versions which can be repaired without breaking a SuSE
>>grub on MBR, it's certainly not the expected behavior. YaST supports just
>>the grub on MBR option, it's the most straightforward for YaST to deal
>>with.
>>I'm not sure what you mean by your last question. With a running grub on
>>MBR installation, you should be able to make a bootsect file for NTLDR and
>>set it up on boot.ini, then restore the original Windows MBR, if you want
>>to use that route to give dual boot control to Windows. If you simply
>>restore Windows MBR, without taking the additional steps, you will need
>>your SuSE CD to get back into linux.
>
>
> Thanks Tim (and everyone else),
>
> YaST gives one the option to install the boot loader in the MBR
> (default) or in the boot partition. Do you mean that YaST supports
> the boot loader in the MBR but not the boot sector of Suse in some
> other way? Maybe you're refering to the fact that if I put it in the
> boot sector (I mean in the Suse / partition), I have to do all that
> other stuff and YaST doesn't help with that...
>
> I presume your second paragraph is referring to a method to set up
> GRUB in the boot sector instead of MBR. I don't really understand
> it but will assume it's similar to the method David suggested (please
> let me know if I'm wrong).
>
> One last question: everyone keeps referring to NT, but I'm running XP.
> Do the instructions, such as Dave noted, need to be changed to
> work with XP?
>
> I am leaning towards putting GRUB in the boot sector instead of the
> MBR because it seems like it would be best to keep the WinXP boot
> loader and the Suse loader separate, so if I need to reinstall one of
> the operating systems it will be easier.
>
> Unfortunately I have to go buy a floppy drive for my computer before
> I can proceed :-).
>
> Thanks again,
> Jim
Jim,
its starts to sound overly complicated - which really isn't. You can put
GRUB(or LILO) either into:
1/MBR; in which case Linux will take care about booting both operating
systems
or
2/boot sector of your Linux boot partition; in which case you'll need other
means to start Linux, such as suggested NTloader; or a CDROM, or a floppy ,
or use other boot manager as someone above suggested already.
3/floppy (I had errors with this option last time due to kernel update)
(BTW, NT/XP terms can be considered identical in this particular case, no
worry)
I vote for NTloader, since if something happens to you boot system, you can
always (or almost) access your Linux installation by booting from Linux
installation CDROM; on the other hand, you can't boot installed XP OS from
WinXP CDROM or floppy (at least I'm not aware of), and would have to fix
booting from HDD first before accessing the XP installation.... generally I
find NTloader easier to handle, but it's really subjective.
You can get by without the floppy if you already either have FAT32 partition
(or would create a small one for Linux-to-Windows easy file transfers;
Linux can't write to NTFS but can to FAT/FAT32); in this case you would
copy the exported boot sector file there. You could also email the file to
yourself, send it over the LAN, use your imagination) In case your SUSE
install needs to reboot in order to finish the install, you can boot from
the installation CDROM to complete the install)...
If you can look into the chapter 4 in SUSE 9.0 Pro hardcopy AdminGuide (page
72 an up), everything is pretty good explained, including recovery/repairs
of MBR and related tasks.
Hope it gets more clear; pls someone correct me if any above is too wrong or
confusing....
Good luck again.
Dave
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