CentOS - Apr 2009 - Dual-boot with WinXP, CentOS already installed

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.
-- 
BW,
	Sorin
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
Behalf
>Of Sorin Srbu
>Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 2:09 PM
>To: 'CentOS mailing list'
>Subject: [CentOS] Dual-boot with WinXP, CentOS already installed
>
>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_fir
st.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.
Googled some more. Realised /boot/grub/menu.lst *is* /etc/grub.conf... Duh!

Also some people say it's better to have Windows installed to the first
harddrive and the first partition (so that C: is the where it should be on
1st hd/1st partition). 

Would I be better off disconnecting the drive containing CentOS and
reconnect it when I'm done installing Windows. Then boot with CentOS rescue
and reinstall grub to the Windows-hd MBR?
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Sorin Srbu wrote on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:08:57 +0200:
> Basically, what would I need to change in the how-to from apcmag.com
above??
It's like that tutorial says. Forget about backing up grub.conf. This is 
nonsense. You want to make a backup before changing it, just in case, but not 
because of the XP installation.
After the installation you have to reinstall grub with "grub-install"
(from a
live disk) and add the chainloader stuff to grub.conf.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/linux (if that is where you linux resides)
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/linux /dev/sda
(if you want to install it to the partition use sda2 instead of sda, then the 
partition has to be active, so that you can boot from it)

Instead of using grub-install you can backup the mbr before the installation 
and then restore it afterwards. You can easily get bad results from that if 
you mistype, though.


Kai

-- 
Kai Sch?tzl, Berlin, Germany
Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com

Sorin Srbu wrote on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:35:40 +0200:
> Googled some more. Realised /boot/grub/menu.lst *is* /etc/grub.conf... Duh!
You want to change /boot/grub/grub.conf, nothing else !
> 
> Also some people say it's better to have Windows installed to the first
> harddrive and the first partition (so that C: is the where it should be on
> 1st hd/1st partition). 
Doesn't matter.
> 
> Would I be better off disconnecting the drive containing CentOS and
> reconnect it when I'm done installing Windows. Then boot with CentOS
rescue
> and reinstall grub to the Windows-hd MBR?
Why? If you want to put them on separate *hardware* then you don't have to 
reinstall anything. Just make sure that the CentOS drive is the first boot 
drive.

Kai

-- 
Kai Sch?tzl, Berlin, Germany
Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com

"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

Sorin Srbu wrote on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:37:53 +0200:
> How do you mean broken?
Sorin, why do you think I replied to you? The person using the broken 
configuration is "David G. Miller".

Kai

-- 
Kai Sch?tzl, Berlin, Germany
Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com

Sorin Srbu wrote:
> 
> Apparantely Windows can bork up after a while if the system files
aren't on
> C:. I was thinking the Windows installer will see the linux partitions and
> try to name them C: and D: etc, thus Windows will be installed on E: or F:,
> which might not go down well with some programs.
> 
Unless you install Linux on FAT, Winblows won't see it.



Guy Boisvert, ing
IngTegration inc.

Sorin Srbu wrote:
> 
> Isn't reinstalling GAG the same thing as reinstalling grub. What's
the
> incentive so to speak? Is GAG so much better, or just easier to work with
> than grub?
> 
Easier.  GAG has its own boot media (diskette or cd).  It has a 
graphical interface and is very easy.



Guy Boisvert, ing.
IngTegration inc.

On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 14:08 +0200, Sorin Srbu 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.
----
Just one question for you.. What brand of mother board do you have?
There is a better way than trying to kill an OS via Grub or any boot
loader via software.

JohnStanley