DUAL BOOT HELP

terminal

HI TECHS,

I'VE INSTALLED TWO OS IN REDHAT AND WINDOWS XP PRO. HOWEVER, WHEN I TURN ON THE PC IT AUTOMATICALLY BOOTS TO XP WHICH I CAN UNDERSTAND SINCE I MADE IT THE DEFAULT OS WHEN I INSTALLED LINUX. ANYWAYZ, JUST WONDERING HOW I CAN BE ABLE TO SWITCH BETWEEN THE TWO?

THANKS

Sie

Would be down to bootloader or unactive partition i bet.

dual boot redhat xp at Google provides lots and lots of guides. (for the sarcastic answer)

www.redhat.com is a good bet

Try this link:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/ch-x86-dualboot.html

coldbug

did you install Linux on the second partition?
did you configure in MBR, for boot loader as XP?
are both OSs on the same disk?
did you let GRUB control over the Dual boot installation?

I have encountered a question on one of the practice question just like your situation, and answer was due to incorrect MBR Boot loader configuration.
Thats all i remember.

dynamik

Yea, you should get the option to boot XP or Linux if configured correctly. If I remember correctly, you need to hand over the MBR to Linux, so it can let you choose between OSes. MS's boot loader will only let you choose between MS operating systems. If you want XP to maintain control over the MBR, I believe you can create a boot disk to start Linux. It's been awhile since I've ran a dual-boot machine, so things may have changed. That's just what I remember. If you just want to play around with Linux, download the VMWare player and download the Ubuntu application or other Linux distro. I'd go that route over dual-booting any day.

terminal

hi techs,
Thanks for your contributions. I decided on re-installing the linux os and changed some boot options-not exactly sure what i done but i now given the option of both. It's wierd though as this option is on screen for a very short time(5 seconds) before it defaults to xp. Thanks Guys

rstainforth

terminal wrote:

hi techs,
Thanks for your contributions. I decided on re-installing the linux os and changed some boot options-not exactly sure what i done but i now given the option of both. It's wierd though as this option is on screen for a very short time(5 seconds) before it defaults to xp. Thanks Guys

you can change the display time for the boot screen in my computer>properties>advanced>settings>system startup

sprkymrk

rstainforth wrote:

terminal wrote:

hi techs,
Thanks for your contributions. I decided on re-installing the linux os and changed some boot options-not exactly sure what i done but i now given the option of both. It's wierd though as this option is on screen for a very short time(5 seconds) before it defaults to xp. Thanks Guys

you can change the display time for the boot screen in my computer>properties>advanced>settings>system startup

I think he is seeing the linux bootloader, probably grub.

Sie

Boot into linux and locate the grub menu file

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Edit this file and locate a line starting with timeout

The number following this is the time it waits before choosing the main OS and thus allows you longer than 5 seconds to choose.

You should also be able to edit the order the OS's are in from there and set a new default.

Hope this helps.

tcp/udp

I did install Fedora and XP recently on the same disk. It worked perfectly! I installed XP first. However, before I installed Fedora, I partitioned the disk from within the XP, as to have the bootloader, kernel, and swap partitions already set up for a custom Linux installation. In this case, grub bootloader pretty much auto-detected the Win OS.

Also, grub has a timer; if it is set to 0 then the default OS will boot without you having a chance to select an OS. However, it is unlikely that the default value for the timer would be "0", unless you manually made changes.

I am quite sure that the order in which you install the OSs matters very much. Ntldr is not "friendly" sometimes.