[tsunam]

I use nano ^.^

[Whiteskin]

Only problem there is that nano isnt on everything.

[rAz0r69]

Hey Everyone.. I'm new Here.. But anyway.. I have about the same problem as he did.. so i figured i wouldnt waste a new thread.. I had pretty bad luck with redhat linux9.. i recently installed it using the lilo boot loader first.. but i was new to partitions and bootloaders.. so i didnt install it right... and couldnt load windows.. but i could still use linux.. after i decided to remove linux.. i still had the bootloader.. but hadnt made a bootdisk for redhat.. my computer is getting old and i havent upgraded much of the hardware in a while.. so i had no A drive on it.. But i got an A Drive for it and with my luck... i had my plug n play cd rom on top of my box.. (my cd burner wont load autorun files) and guess what happened.. the cd rom fell and the first redhat cd got caught up.. and it scratched the hell out of the cd around the edge.. so now the cd wont even install anything.. much less let me make a bootdisk.. right now im using my cousins really terrible small hard drive as a substitute until i fix this... i just get a li- command on startup... and i cant reinstall linux.. which i dont have on their anymore.. so if anyone could send me the contents of the boot disk.. (if thatd work with a corrupt bootloader) or if you know any other fix.. plleeasse reply to this thread or contact me @ deprecatedcorpse@seductive.com Regards.. Rich

[liviu]

For rAz0r69:
Contact these guys:
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.c..._suse_linux_cd


They have really cheap Linux distros.

[rAz0r69]

No thanks.. id rather by a new hard drive if thats the case.. anyone have any better solutions?

[Whiteskin]

Just download http://www.toms.net/rb/ tomsrtbt

From there you can fix most any problem.

[rAz0r69]

Thanks Whiteskin.. Exactly what I Needed!! Thanks to Liviu too..

[I Fix 4 U]

LOL nuked mbr. Not good, best thing I can say is to reinstall bootloader on the MBR where you have linux, UNLESS IT IS THE SAME HD AS WINDOWS. If W!ndows is on the same HD as linux don't even mess with the mbr.

[Whiteskin]

Why not? most decent distros are going to find your windows partition, and add it to your boot menu wherever your put the boot loader. Besides, it's a blessing not having to deal with the windows boot loader at all.

[I Fix 4 U]

Not what I mean, if your bootloader is set to chainloader like its supposed to be, and the windows bootloader (boot.ini) is set to timeout=0, you don't even need to mess with or see the windows bootloader, but if you install grub on the mbr it will erase the windows bootloader. bad bad idea, i put grub on other harddrive, set my pc to boot from that harddrive, and added a grub entry for windows xp and it would boot xp without messing with xp's bootloader.

[Whiteskin]

If you want to keep windows boot loader, yes. But you don't need it.

[I Fix 4 U]

Ooh it seems that way doesnt it, but many distros add windows by what's called a chainloader command to (usually grub) which is used to boot the windows bootloader. They can't directly boot windows. Then you'd have to use a bootdisk or find some hard way to tweak it. You definetly need the windows bootloader for ez use. Like i said you won't even notice it if timeout=0, it will just go directly to loading windows.

[saikee]

Any Linux can boot Windows by chainloading it. It is a matter of editing the boot menu by 2 to 3 lines. In Grub the command that does it is "Chainloader +1" and in Lilo it is "other=/dev/hda1", assuming it sits at the first primary partition. The bootmenu is a text file called /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf as the case may be.

The Linux chainloader doesn't just do Windows it can do any other Linux, as many as you want (got 9 in mine and each can boot Windows too within its own menu).

There is no need to touch Windows MBR if one put Linux bootloader into the Extended partition, make it active and thereby deactivate Windows partition. The BIOS will go straight to load whatever in the extended parition making MBR completely redundant. Any time one wants Windows back as before just make its partition active again. There is nothing to mess around.

The extended partition has nothing in it except a collection of logical partitions each can be used to store a distro and its bootloader for chainloading.

If the Windows partition is not active the MBR title actually goes straight to this extended partition and that is how the other Linux systems see it.

At any one time after the installation one can instruct any Linux distro to occupy the extended partition which is always hda4 or hde4, as no hard disk has more than 4 primary partitions. In Grub it is done with the command "grub-install /dev/hda4" while in Lilo it is by "lilo -b /dev/hda4" while logged as the root user.

Every Linux will include Windows as a boot choice during installation and so Windows is always available as a booting alternative.

-----------------------------------------

I am sorry if I make people unhappy here by saying it so easy . I marked myself illiterate in Linux in my signature when I joined the Forum in 11 June and started my Linux adventure as a absolute beginner. This post started Mid April or 6 weeks earlier.

In the first 2 to 3 weeks I had 4 Linux systems booting with XP in the same drive. I don't seem to pick up the booting problems but I have restored the MBR a few times whenever I wanted.

The 9 Linux systems that haven't given me booting troubles are Knoppix 3.3/3.4, Fedora Core 2, Red Hat 9, Suse 9.1, Mandrake 9.2, Libranet 2.8, Debian 3 and Lycoris. I am still a Linux newbie of less than two months old.

[Whiteskin]

Not every linux... gentoo won't, and I don't believe slack will. Every "user-friendly" distro will, really.

[saikee]

I missed out Slackware 10 in my list. The Gentoo iso I got only does terminal mode or I haven't find a way to get into the X-Windows yet.

I still have display problems with my Lycoris and Debian and have to do termal mode but since I preserve and expand their boot menu I could chainload them just like the rest.

There is no problem to chainload to Slackware from any other distro or from Slackware to the outside, however this distro seems to stop at the command mode for the password. I could only get the X-Windows up by type startx.

-------------------------------------------

Only 2 to 3 lines are needed to do chainloading in both cases, say for a distro storing in hda9 with its bootloader inside its partition;-

In Grub's /boot/grub/menu.lst

label = Distro ABS
root (hd0,8)
chainloader +1

(in later version of Grub the last two lines can be combined to "chainloader=(hd0,7)+1". Also Grub counts from zero)

In Lilo's /etc/lilo.conf

other=/dev/hda9
label="Distro ABC"

Thus it is almost a child's play to multi-boot in Linux.