"Sorin Srbu" <sorin.srbu at orgfarm.uu.se> wrote: > Hi all, > > I'd like to deploy a solution with dual-booting systems where CentOS 5.3 is > already installed and WinXP will be installed to a separate disk. > > I found > http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linux_and_windows_xp_linux_installed_first.htm?page=1 > and it seems straight forward enough, although the description is for Ubuntu. > > The problem as I see it, is that the how-to differs from how CentOS looks in > /etc/grub.conf and the boot-loader in Ubuntu with respect to making grub work > again after the Windows install. > > I found Tldp.org mentioning dual-boot plenty, but most or all articles listed > are using lilo as a boot-loader, which seems a bit obsolete and besides I > can't quite translate the instructions from lilo to grub. 8-/ > > Basically, what would I need to change in the how-to from apcmag.com above?? > Thanks for any pointers. As noted in other replies, Windows not not play well with anything else. Your best bet would be to disable/remove/disconnect the drive with CentOS and then do the Windows install to the other drive. Once Windows is installed, you can reconnect the CentOS drive and then easily edit grub.conf to boot Windows using the "chainloader" directive. This approach will only work if there are no primary partitions on the CentOS drive that Windows recognizes. Windows (just like DOS) assigns drive letters to partitions in drive number order starting with the primary partitions and then moving on to the extended partitions. The bottom line is that you want the first Windows partition on the non-CentOS drive to get assigned drive letter C: when Windows boots. As long as Windows doesn't recognize the partition type (e.g., ext3), no drive letter gets assigned. The problem with suggestions to just install Windows and then either use another boot loader or repair the grub installation is that you are stuck doing that work through Windows. My experience has been that Windows isn't as easy to work with for making changes to the boot loader and any approach that overwrites the Windows boot loader may leave you with Windows not being bootable. The approach I described above leaves the Windows boot loader in place although you may need to edit C:\boot.ini to make sure it can still find Windows when both disks are "present." Here is the grub.conf that I use on my laptop. The internal drive boots to either CentOS or Windows while Fedora 10 and Ubuntu are on an external USB drive. # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd0,2) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda6 # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/hda default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz hiddenmenu title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.22.el5) root (hd0,2) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.22.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb initrd /initrd-2.6.18-92.1.22.el5.img title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.18.el5) root (hd0,2) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.18.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb initrd /initrd-2.6.18-92.1.18.el5.img title Fedora (2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.x86_64) root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.x86_64 ro root=UUID=232029fe-c524-47b4-a5d6-d45c0ce7e56b rhgb nomodeset initrd /initrd-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.x86_64.img title Ubuntu (2.6.27-7 x86_64) root (hd1,4) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic ro root=LABEL=uSlash initrd /initrd-2.6.27-7-generic title Windoze rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 My grub.conf points to Windows on a partition on the internal drive. Yours would point to Windows on the "second" drive (probably hd1). Likewise, your boot.ini will need to point to Windows with something like: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" changing to: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" Note the change -----^ I'm assuming your Windows disk would end up being /dev/hdb in a Linux world. If your system is using SATA drives or the Windows drive would be something other than /dev/hdb, you may need to make some adjustments to what I have suggested. Cheers, Dave -- Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. -- Ambrose Bierce