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Marcus Lim's Help Desk, February 10, 2002:

Dual-Booting Linux and Windows 2000/XP

Summary:
If you're using Linux as a secondary operating system and want to keep it under a low profile, you might want to use NTLoader instead of LILO. NTLoader is often used in Windows NT/2000 environments where users are already familiar with NTLoader.

Before you can dual-boot Linux and Windows NT/2000 with NTLoader, you must ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

*    Windows NT/2000 must be installed on the first partition of the first disk. Here I assume that you are using an IDE disk and that Windows NT/2000 therefore is installed on /dev/hda1 (for SCSI, the equivalent is /dev/sda1).

*    Windows NT/2000 has installed the NTLoader in MBR, which is what the Windows NT/2000 installer does by default.

*    You have Windows NT/2000 recovery disk set.

*    Linux is installed on any partition of any disk other than the first partition of the first disk. Here I will assume that you have installed Linux on /dev/hda2. Note that you could also have Linux installed on a different hard disk partition, such as /dev/hdb1, the first partition of the second IDE hard disk, or wherever.

Caution

As mentioned before, it's extremely important that you do not install Linux on MBR. If you make a mistake and install Linux boot loader on MBR, then you must reboot the system with Window NT/2000 recovery disks or Windows NT/2000 bootable CD-ROM and select recover option and switch to recover console mode. Then, log on as Administrator and run the fixboot and fixmbr commands to reinstall Windows NT/2000 boot loader on MBR.

*    You must have a Linux boot disk or a bootable Linux CD-ROM that provides the rescue option, which is available in the official Red Hat Linux CD-ROM #1.

*    You need an MS-DOS formatted blank floppy disk. If you do not have a floppy drive, you will have to write access to a remote FTP site where you can temporarily keep a file. Or you'll need a valid e-mail account, to which you can send an attachment.

*    Make sure that you've installed Linux with the MS-DOS or Windows connectivity option so that the mcopy program is installed. Note that you can ignore this requirement if you don't plan on using a floppy disk.

After you've ensured that the above prerequisites are met, you can follow these steps to dual-boot Linux and Windows NT/2000 using NTLoader:

      1.    Because NTLoader is not yet configured to boot Linux, you have to use the Linux boot disk to boot the system to Linux. If you do not have a boot disk, you can use the bootable Linux CD in rescue mode by entering linux rescue at the LILO prompt.

      2.    Copy the boot sector of your Linux installation using dd if=/dev/linux_boot_device bs=512 count=1 of=linux_bs.bin command. For example, if you've installed Linux on /dev/hda2 then this command will be as follows:

dd if=/dev/hda2 bs=512 count=1 of=linux_bs.bin

The dd command allows you to copy the first 512 bytes from the /dev/hda2 device to a file called linux_bs.bin.

      3.    The linux_bs.bin file needs to be in the Windows NT/2000 partition of your hard disk. If you have a floppy drive and a blank, MS-DOS-formatted floppy you can mount it under Linux using the mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy command. After you have the floppy disk mounted, change to the directory where you saved the file and copy the linux_bs.bin file to the floppy using the mcopy linux_bs.bin a: command. Skip the next step if you have this file stored on a floppy.

      4.    If you do not have a floppy drive or a floppy disk, you can FTP or e-mail the linux_bs.bin file to a remote FTP site or your e-mail account. This assumes that you have networking or Internet connectivity set up under Linux.

      5.    Restart your machine using the shutdown -r now command in Linux and log on to Windows NT/2000 as Administrator user.

      6.    Copy the linux_bs.bin file in the C:\ directory of your Windows NT/2000 installation either from the floppy, by getting it from the remote FTP site, or by downloading it from an e-mail attachment.

      7.    Run Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) by clicking Start@@>Run and entering explorer in the open location. Once Explorer has started, choose Tools@@>Folder Options and then click on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog window. Enable the Show hidden files and folders option under the Hidden Files and Folders section and then click first Apply and then the OK button to activate your changes.

      8.    In the Explorer window, enter C:\ as the address location or use the folder navigation tree to locate your Windows NT/2000 hard disk. You should see a file called boot.ini in the C:\ directory. Double click this file to open it in your default text editor (Notepad), and the contents should be similar to the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows
2000 Professional" /fastdetect

The last two lines shown above are actually a single line that displays the Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional boot option.

      9.    Add a new line c:\linux_bs.bin="Red Hat Linux" in c:\boot.ini using the text editor and then save the file.

    10.    Using Windows Explorer, select the linux_bs.bin file and click the right mouse button and choose Properties from the context menu to view the file's properties. You can also click the file and then choose File@@>Properties in Explorer.

    11.    Turn the read-only flag on for the linux_bs.bin file in the file properties window by checking the appropriate check box under the attributes section of the file's Properties window.

    12.    Reboot Windows NT/2000 and you should see "Red Hat Linux" as a boot option in the boot menu displayed by NTLoader. Select that listing to boot Linux, or select the Windows option to boot Windows.

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP

The information here applies to:

 

SUMMARY

This article describes how to view and manually configure the Boot.ini file in Windows XP from within the startup environment variables.

In Windows XP, you can quickly and easily locate the boot.ini file to verify and/or edit the file configurations. In addition, you can add switches from within the Boot.ini file.

To view and edit the Boot.ini file:

  1. Right-click My Computer , and then click Properties .

    -or-

    In Control Panel, open the Performance and Maintenance tool, and then click System .
  2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery .
  3. Under System Startup , click Edit .

Note : Set the startup of the default operating system in a multiple-boot system by accessing the System and Recovery settings in the graphical user interface (GUI).

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