Multi-booting Win98SE, Win2k, Mandriva

Summary:

Section index - KB index

So you wish to install Win98SE, Win2000 Pro, and Mandriva 8.0, all on one hard drive. Well, this is how you do it.

(tom:

• If you want to boot an existing Mandriva system from the Win2k boot loader, just skip steps 1-4 and 5.7.
• This description also applies to Windows XP.
• You have to repeat steps 5.2 - 5.5 every time you change your kernel.)

• Install Win98SE (Personally, I used 3GB of 15GB)(note: this is your primary DOS partition ('drive C')).
• Just to save your sanity, I recommend using 'fdisk' and create an extended partition (for the rest of the drive) and create a 3GB logical drive.
  Otherwise, when you install Win2000 your boot partition will be something other than 'D:'.
• Install Win2000 (all you need is the upgrade version). Install it in the 'D:' drive formatted NTFS. Yes I know you can use Fat32; however, I don't recommend it so Win98SE can't screw up Win2000.
• Install Mandriva. If you wish to have any more Fat32 partitions, this is the place to do it. Use Mandriva's partition utility and add them (mount to '/mnt/win_{x}').
  Couple of notes:
  The 'create boot disk' during installation is broken. The created disk does not work.
  A partition suggestion:
• 7MB /boot
• 256MB swap
• 200MB /var
• auto allocate the rest with /usr

• Login to Linux and create the boot disk (do this NOW).
  Fix LILO:
• As 'root', edit '/etc/lilo.conf': the first line of lilo.conf reads

  boot=hda

  , change the 'hda' to where ever the '/boot' partition is located (find out with

  mount

  ).
• Run

  lilo

• Make a copy of the new boot sector with
  

  dd if=/dev/hda{x} bs=512 count=1 of=linux.lnx

  
  Note: 'hda{x}' is whatever the '/boot' partition is.
• Copy linux.lnx to the windows 'C: drive'
  

  cp linux.lnx /mnt/windows_c

• Modify the 'boot.ini' on the 'C: drive' by appending a line for Mandrake pointing to the location of the copied LILO boot sector:

{boot loader}<br> timeout=5<br> default=C:<br> {operating systems}<br> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Pro" /fastdetect<br> C:= "Microsoft Windows 98se"<br> C:Linux.lnx="Mandriva 8.0"

• Reboot.
• Login to Win98SE. Open a command line window and run:
  

  fdisk /mbr

  
  to restore the Windows boot sector.

Mandrakelinux user Kevin prefers another way:

I've noticed there have been a lot of articles on multi-booting. They all seem to revolve around editing files, or using a boot floppy.
My problem is that my floppy drive broke, and I'm lazy. I wanted a simple fix. What I did was install Linux first. Then I installed Win XP on another partition. After doing so only Win XP is recognized. To get GRUB to take over I used the 'Update' feature on the Mandrake 8.1 disk, and made the boot loader overwrite the master boot record. Resulting in a multi-boot system.

Mandriva 10.0 Official:

I had Windows XP installed on my computer. I installed Mandriva Linux 10.0 Off. I selected to manage my own partitions to create the partitions for Linux (very careful in this stage not to delete the Windows partition1.1 ) and selected Lilo with Graphics as a started. After rebooting the computer it appeared the menu where I could choose between windows and various linux options. Good luck1.1

section index

Related Resources:

Booting Linux with the Win 2k Boot Loader
Linux + NT-Loader mini-HOWTO

Revision / Modified: Sep. 14, 2001 / Feb. 01, 2002
Author: Scott Hanak

Legal: This page is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License . Standard disclaimers of warranty apply. Copyright LSTB and Mandriva, SA.