dual boot - winxp pro and fedora 16

[mprabhu]

hi,i m trying to dual boot win xp and fedora 16. i have installed grub2 boot loader in linux /boot partition as i don't want to do any change to win xp environment.

I am not able to boot into fedora. pls help

[nonamedotc]

What "error" are you seeing? Please provide more information.

[bob]

This MAY work: http://fedorasolved.org/Members/rask...-vista-already F16 has Grub2, so it may not work, but worth a try. Otherwise, try googling 'dual booting XP and grub2' for ideas.

[mprabhu]

after fedora installation i did reboot.
but the machine boots direct to xp.
so i am not able to boot to fedora nor able to see linux partions (/, /boot,swap) under windows

---------- Post added at 01:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:48 AM ----------

Originally Posted by bob

This MAY work: http://fedorasolved.org/Members/rask...-vista-already F16 has Grub2, so it may not work, but worth a try. Otherwise, try googling 'dual booting XP and grub2' for ideas.

hi.i tried that article option..once i do all that settings with grub4dos..i m getting intial boot screen with xp and grub4dos..but once i choose grub4dos..it just takes to one command line page..fedora not loading..

then..regarding googling..all articles talk about dual boot with vista/win7 only..so that they use easy bcd to configure windows boot loader..but easybcd option not working with xp..

pls help

[bob]

WinXP can't recognize linux partitions. It only can understand NTFS and FAT32, so it's not going to see your Fedora install. Fedora 16 uses Grub2, which is different from the legacy Grub that's mentioned in most articles. That's why you're having so many problems.

I'm sure that someone will be able to give you a good suggestion, like putting grub on a removable drive to handle it when you want to boot Fedora, but personally I'd suggest you simply allow Grub2 to install on the mbr and handle the dual-boot, the way it's intended to do. It's pretty easy to reinstall Windows NTDLR if you need to, should you ever decide to delete Fedora: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixthe...drntdetect.htm

[mprabhu]

Originally Posted by bob

Fedora 16 uses Grub2, which is different from the legacy Grub that's mentioned in most articles. That's why you're having so many problems.

I'm sure that someone will be able to give you a good suggestion, like putting grub on a removable drive to handle it when you want to boot Fedora, but personally I'd suggest you simply allow Grub2 to install on the mbr and handle the dual-boot, the way it's intended to do. It's pretty easy to reinstall Windows NTDLR if you need to, should you ever decide to delete Fedora: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixthe...drntdetect.htm

i am new to fedora so i don't want windows stuff to get altered until i am comfortable with fedora.
Let me see if someone have idea to achieve dual boot fedora16 and xp by installing grub2 in /boot linux partition without affecting mbr

if this works i will be able to move from xp to fedora and avoid moving towards vista/win7

[mwesten]

You need to create a text file called menu.lst in C:\ with the following lines:

title Fedora 16
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

If /boot is in the second primary partition on the disk, that should do it.
If not, we'll need to find out where that partition is and adjust the middle line to point at it.

[mprabhu]

my /boot partition is as "/dev/sda9"
this is my drive structure - as per windows disk management tool

c: primary partition
d,e,f,g (logical partion)== part of extended partion

and then i have free space for fedora which is also part of extended partition..where i have installed fedora which created /boot,/,swap

and i seen /boot is considered as /dev/sds9 when i installed by fedora..

i hope it give you a view about drive structure..

pls help

[mwesten]

Make the middle line "root (hd0,8)".

[mprabhu]

whether i have to edit "boot.ini" or any other changes i have to make in addition to creating the menu.lst file with code

title Fedora 16
root (hd0,8)
chainloader +1

[mprabhu]

any help to dual boot xp and fedora16..

[stoat]

Okay, okay.

You said you installed Fedora and chose to install the GRUB boot loader in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition.
You said you rebooted and only XP booted.
You said you tried GRUB for DOS and saw it in the XP boot menu, but choosing it led to a command line prompt.

IMO, the steps you followed in that fedoraunity.org article did not work because it was for booting older versions of Fedora that used legacy GRUB, and it depends upon GRUB for DOS searching for Fedora's menu.lst file (a symlink to grub.conf). You have Fedora 16 which uses GRUB 2, so GRUB for DOS will not find a menu.lst file. That would make any kind of GRUB (including GRUB for DOS) stop at a command prompt (what you described).

If Fedora 16's GRUB is still in the boot sector of the Fedora boot partition (important), and if you still want to proceed with GRUB for DOS, then here is what you need to do...

1. grldr should be in the XP root directory (same place as boot.ini which usually is hidden).
2. menu.lst should be in the XP root directory. Copy the one that came with GRUB for DOS and edit it to add this at the bottom...

   title Fedora
   chainloader (hd0,8)+1

3. Edit XP's boot.ini file to add this line at the bottom... C:\grldr="GRUB for DOS". For example...

   [boot loader]
   timeout=3
   default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
   [operating systems]
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
   C:\grldr="GRUB for DOS"

When you have those things in place, then you should reboot and choose "GRUB for DOS" in the XP menu. See the ridiculously colored GRUB for DOS menu. Before you go blind from looking at that menu, find Fedora at the bottom of the list and click it. See if Fedora boots.

No promises. But this method is an old and well-known method to boot Fedora from the XP boot loader. Since GRUB for DOS is using chainloader in the suggested example, it still will work to launch Fedora 16's GRUB 2 boot loader (if, and only if, GRUB 2 is installed in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition). If it worked, you can further edit the GRUB for DOS menu to remove many of those extraneous menu entries and tone down the colors.

[mprabhu]

thanks a lot stoat..it worked..
during 1st trial it didn't worked when i selected fedora from grub loader menu..
the machine restarted and took me to again intial windows loader menu..but it worked this time(on 2nd instance)

thanks a lot