Linux Help Please

[Johnny]

Right, I now have windows XP and Linux 9.2 installed on my PC. I just installed Linux there the now.

The installation was all done and succesful etc. But when I boot up the computer and it gets to the OS selection screen. It only has 2 choices,


XP
XP (bootscreen)

XP bootscreen is just my jolly roger loading screen for windows, so it's only really one choice, XP.


So how do I boot up into Linux? On my Dads PC, it has linux as a choice at the OS selection screen.


Help?

[WarmToast]

Odd, linux came up automatically after installing it on mines. You may need to boot from a distro on CD (such as damnsmalllinux) and acess lilo.config (or what ever loader you use) from /boot/ after mounting your hard drive, a bit of a pain in the arse really!

Im not a linux guru tho so there might be a simplar solution.

(btw, which distro of linux are you actually using?)

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by WarmToast

You may need to boot from a distro on CD (such as damnsmalllinux) and acess lilo.config (or what ever loader you use) from /boot/ after mounting your hard drive, a bit of a pain in the arse really!

See.. I have no idea what you said there.

When I try to boot with the Linux CD, it just tries to reinstall Linux. When I don't boot with the Linux CD, it takes me to my choices of XP or XP.


I don't know much about this kind of thing.

[humndislocation]

Right, it depends on how you installed linux. If you installed the linux boot sector to the secondary partition, rather than on the master boot thingummybob then you will need to boot linux from cd, copy the boot sector to a floppy, copy the boot sector to a file on c:\, then edit boot.ini to have an option for the linux.

That way is the best, because if you ever decide to get rid of linux, you're not stuck with the linux boot sector.

What distro of linux is it by the way? Redhat, suse, mandrake, etc?

I will give you a better reply tommorow or sometime in f uture when I am more sober.

[humndislocation]

but in answer to your question, the boot menu that comes up gets its info from a file called boot.ini on your windows partition. You need to copy your linux boot partition to a file (I will detail how to do this in the morning), and then edit boot.ini to have an option to boot from it

[WarmToast]

Which version of linux are you using? (etc, is it mandrake, gentoo, suse?)
I know mandrake quite well but not so much any others.

What you might be best doing is just wiping your extended partition via windows and downloading one of the ISOs for a more desktop friendly version (such as mandrake) and installing that. I dont know anyone isntalling that with problems.

Either that or get the iso from here for damn small linux http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/, stick it on CD and boot it, then see if theres a configuration tool for your booter in it.

Heres a deal, you come thru to glasgow the now and sort out the "daddy long legs" in my room thats keeping me up and ill fix your computer :P

[Johnny]

It's Mandrake Linux.
I installed it to the secondary partition ( I think )

It had a choice or 3 bars. The first one was windows, then a wee one, then an unused one.
Like this:


[ windows ][ ][ empty ] <--- I put Linux here.

At lease I think thats what it was.

Could I just reinstall Linux in another partition or something to get it to work. My floppy disc drive is fucked (and I never got it fixes since I've not had to use a floppy in the 7 months I've had this PC), so I can't make a floppy of anything.

[WarmToast]

ok, i think the problem could be that you installed it on a partition. the best thing to do is delete the partition so that it would just be unused space, not a partition. and then install linux. (Even im struggling here to type what i mean; what im trying to say is that instead of having a C drive for windows and a D you want linux to be on, you would just have C and the rest would be unmounted, unused space).

So itll be
[windows][empty]

Heres a screen shot of how mines is set up if it helps.

[Johnny]

I'm pretty lost here.


What I'm gonna do is just leave it for today. I've emailed my Dad, he built the computer, and supplied me with the Linux discs. So hopefully he'll know what to do.

Then I'll just reinstall.


Cheers for the help anyway, if I was smarter it probably would've worked

[WarmToast]

the offers still here if u can kill the daddy-long-legs

Probably the best idea though if he knows what he's up to. Enjoy it once youve got it!

[humndislocation]

No, no. no.

What you want is to have a windows partition, a linux partition, and a fat32 partition to share data between operation systems. The boot sector for linux is on the linux partition.

Then you boot into linux, either using a floppy disk, or an appropriate boot cd, and make a copy of your boot sector to a file, somewhere windows can get access to it. (on a fat32 partition or on a floppy)

Then you edit your boot.ini file to boot from the boot file you just made

[humndislocation]

Originally Posted by WarmToast

ok, i think the problem could be that you installed it on a partition. the best thing to do is delete the partition so that it would just be unused space, not a partition

You have to install it on a partition, you can't install it on unused space, and no you don't need to reinstall, you just need a boot disk, and to copy your boot sector to a file.

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by humndislocation

No, no. no.

What you want is to have a windows partition, a linux partition, and a fat32 partition to share data between operation systems. The boot sector for linux is on the linux partition.

Then you boot into linux, either using a floppy disk, or an appropriate boot cd, and make a copy of your boot sector to a file, somewhere windows can get access to it. (on a fat32 partition or on a floppy)

Then you edit your boot.ini file to boot from the boot file you just made

Translation into what I read that as:





I'm what they call a n00b.