[Regicide]

I just found a Windows driver that lets Windows use Ext2 and Ext3 filesystems. It seems to be working perfectly so far. Highly recommend it to anyone using Linux: http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html.

[I Fix 4 U]

OMG Yay, just what I needed.

[saikee]

Regicide,

That is brilliant! Tried it and it works like magic.

Now I can edit Grub and Lilo boot files in XP. Tremendous tool for multibooting.

Well done !

[I Fix 4 U]

You put grub in /boot partition? 50 mb i guess?

[BlazingWolf]

You can also get NTFS driverss with read support for linux so you can go both ways.

[I Fix 4 U]

And captiveNTFS claims it can write if you own windows. Anyone tried it?

[tsunam]

http://p-nand-q.com/download/rfstool.html <--for those with reiserfs's

[I Fix 4 U]

read only.

[saikee]

ixneonxi,

No my grub is the standard bootloader with nothing fancy.

All I did was to put the bootloader of every Linux in its root partition. Every partition, both primary and logical, has its first section reserved for the bootloader. The one in the first primary is called MBR. It is a characteristic of both Lilo and Grub to chain load each other. The nth Linux when installed will automatically scan n-1 partitions and build up the nth bootable systems in the menu. No need to do any work.

The messy bit is to cheat several Windows OS in thinking each one is in a "C" drive when being booted. It is pretty pathetic that all the MS products cannot live unless they are in the first primary partition of the first bootable drive.

[I Fix 4 U]

Yah you gave me that story already
But access to ext2/ext3 won't allow you to modify grub in the MBR, just the grub in the "/" partitions for linux. Am I correct?

[saikee]

The Grub in the MBR cannot be changed. No body changes it except the people who wrote it and they give it a new version number each time they do. The multiboot is controlled by /boot/grub/menu.lst. If Lilo is used it is /etc/lilo.conf. Both are text files.

Many Linux users follow the traditional way of putting /, /boot, /home etc in different partitions. There is nothing wrong to lump all of them in the same partition. It does mean a guy multiboot say 20 Linux will have all of them repeated 20 times but the modern way is much easier to control as multibooting is done automatically by the Linux themselves, not me. The only necessary step I need to take is to replicate the bootloadrer of each Linux in its own root partition. But as this is the way I install each of them the extra effort is really to repair it when an odd one goes astray, as some Linux installers like to reboot while the others don't.

I have never mixed my data with the OS partitions so my data partition is always in a neutral ground (own FAT32 partition) accessible by all the OSs.

[I Fix 4 U]

I just choose to install it into MBR and use the config in /boot (partition) as my base. That way I will always have grub on my system regardless.

[saikee]

Bearing in mind a Linux can change root (chroot command), thus there is nothing to stop from you booting up the PC with a Live CD and chroot to any of the installed Linux should it beomes unbootable.

Why place Grub in a designated partition when you can access it at any time? Every Grub-based distro stores Grub in /boot/Grub and Lilo in /etc.

Don't you ever fancy a change to see the boot screen of a Lilo or a Grub from another Lilo?

This thread on Windows access to Ext2 and Ext3 partitions means we can modify both Grub and Lilo boot menu without the need to boot up a Linux!

Lilo is of course is more difficult to cope as it need a revalidation, by issuing "lilo" in the root terminal, every time its boot menu has been altered. Grub has no such need.

Grub's /boot/grub/menu.lst text file is truly amazing. I have a hdd divided up into 43 partitions. I just edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst with 3-line entry for each empty partition (using hda40 as example)

title Just another Linux in @ hda40
root (hd0,39)
chainloader +1

When a new Linux arrives I just install it into hda40 (not all Linux can cope high partition!) and tell its installer to place its bootloader, which can be a lilo, in its root partition. This is equivalent to placing its bootloader in the reserved boot sector of hda40. The new Linux will boot first time as a new addition. Never fails.

Thus one can create a booting entry in Grub even before that Linux has been installed.

The above entry doesn't do any harm. If the partition is empty Grub can't boot it and will automatically return back to the beginning of booting choices.

Time to come out to play.

[jiml8]

Originally Posted by iXneonXi

And captiveNTFS claims it can write if you own windows. Anyone tried it?

CaptiveNTFS works OK with the 2.4 kernel, but has issues when you use 2.6. It hasn't been updated in quite a while.

[I Fix 4 U]

Ok i'm just gonna have to laugh saikee because you told me that on MSN awhile ago, but thanx for refreshing my memory