Guess I have to say good bye.

[bobwrit]

theres always been a compatibility issue between windows and linux. the main one is that windows xp home and pro dosn't see the linux file systems(ext2,ext3,reiser).

[richard.a]

I should have added an important point about the advantages of using the WinNT FIXMBR command in preference to the Win98 FDISK /MBR command.

The FDISK command, afaik, merely deletes the bad MBR and substitutes the spare one. If that is corrupt, or goes bad, in plain language, you are "stuffed". You cannot boot any longer without creating a new partition table, mbr, the lot - in Windows' way of doing this, it means wiping the drive (not just the first partition).

I've been caught that way.

Hence my discussion with my friend ratty which I posted above.

When you run the Windows2000 or WindowsXP installer in repair mode, you actually recreate the MBR in this way, along with the spare one.

It is very much safer that way

I suspect there are also tools around you can use if you know of them and where to find them. But there are few actually provided with the Windows OS unless you subscribe to their Tech-Net - which I did back in the Windows95 era.

Hope this addendum is useful. I remember getting into a war on another forum about how unwise it is to use the FDISK /MBR command as a matter of course because you end up with no MBR at all at the second try.

Richard

[Bruce B]

How did you get 98 (hosted byLinux on QEMU [whatever that is]) to work for?

Bunny the fiberflinger

Friend, I wish I could tell you in a post. It is soo darn easy once you figure it out.

It would probably take me two web pages to walk someone through it step by step.

Tell you what. If I make the pages, I'll PM you. It really is fun to be able to run native windows in Linux and then go back to Linux without rebooting.

(complete with internet connection, sound, and true color display)

[Bruce B]

:

[Bruce B]

On the subject of MBRs and boot sectors, its a good idea to save them in case you need them again. I think its the best way and with boot sectors, the way to fix an infected one without data loss or risk.

Save an mbr example:

# dd if=/dev/hda of=hda.mbr bs=512 count=1

Save a dos / windows boot sector example:

# dd if=/dev/hda1 of=hda1.bts bs=512 count=1

Store them on a device such as floppy or usbflash for when needed.

An MBR should be re-saved any time there's a change in partitioning

[Fiberflinger]

Gosh am I learning a lot. I learned today not to remove the boot file from hda1. But then It wasn't working much anyway. Got kernel panic and tried puppy several more times before typing pfix=ram. that worked. At least I could get into puppy.

What I got on a black screen was the word GRUB. I could not type after that. . . . locked up. The directions someone gave me on the LinNwin newB project was clear as mud. My question on that is why would I have to download grub if its in puppy? Can't I reinstall grub thru puppy into the mbr?

Oh, I don't have a start up disc for win98, only an install cd. Maybe I should check that out in puppy. ....

Bunnythe fiber flinger

[37fleetwood]

very interesting post. I just used the "fixmbr" on my win xp disk to fix a drive I haven't been able to use for years. the mbr got screwed up while I was playing with BestCrypt and foolishly formatted the drive thinking it would be ok, well they use the mbr to store their own boot stuff. I tried to restore the mbr with the Maxtor disk but somehow it put in the wrong values. I got 0 sectors 1 head and 2 cylinders. anyway fixmbr worked very well. also I would like to propose a very efficient dual boot system which works super for me. I went and got a cheap hot swap tray and installed it as primary master with my winblows drive in it then put a small inexpensive drive in as secondary master with whatever flavor of linux you want. with the key on it boots windows and with the key off it boots linux. no grub no lilo no problems! Puppy works especially well since it doesnt require a big drive. I have mine installed on an 80gig Maxtor and I don't think I have used even 1 gig yet. I'm thinking about moving it to the little 20 gig that I just fixed with fixmbr. be sure to leave a small fat32 partition on the small drive for transfering things between the two.
I am having one problem with my install however, it is failing the drive when booting Puppy. if I hit F1 to continue it boots like regular into Puppy but if I boot to windows it can't see the drive at all. also the drive can't be seen from the Puppy live cd. something grub did to my mbr. I think if I figure this out next time I won't let Puppy install grub in the mbr!!! has anyone experienced this? what do I do? thanx in advance.
Scott

[raffy]

why would I have to download grub if it's in puppy?

I guess it is because the (unmodified) Grub in Puppy is for booting Linux in its own partition. The grub.exe downloadable at LinNwin page
( http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/linnwin/step1-9x.htm )
is for installing Puppy in the Windows partition.

And what about menu.lst? This file has to be modified to suit the version of Puppy you're using, so there is a recommended menu.lst in that page. My own page about WinXP install of Puppy
( http://www.ph-islands.net/pupinstall/winxp.php )
has a menu.lst suited to version 1.x Puppies, which needs updating to version 2.x this way:

Code: Select all

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title Puppy installed in WinXP
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0
  initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

LinNwin's menu.lst gives you only one choice, as obviously that should be for loading only Puppy.

[Fiberflinger]

Well as far as I am concerned I am having nothing but problems with grub. I just reinstalled wind blows for the 3rd time this week, the whole hard drive system has been changed around and now my monitor is flashing yellow to white like there is a loose connection. Happened in puppy too and its on a completely separate drive. Oops there it just flashed blue. blast it. Back to grub. Windows completely blacked out again so I put gurb in the mbr. Now there are grubs all over the place and I am afraid to remove any of them.

Bunny the Fiber flinger

[Bruce B]

Gosh am I learning a lot. I learned today not to remove the boot file from hda1. But then It wasn't working much anyway. Got kernel panic and tried puppy several more times before typing pfix=ram. that worked. At least I could get into puppy.

What I got on a black screen was the word GRUB. I could not type after that. . . . locked up. The directions someone gave me on the LinNwin newB project was clear as mud. My question on that is why would I have to download grub if its in puppy? Can't I reinstall grub thru puppy into the mbr?

Oh, I don't have a start up disc for win98, only an install cd. Maybe I should check that out in puppy. ....

Bunnythe fiber flinger

If we are on the same page, hope so.

On my computer GRUB is on the MBR. It's the only place on can put it. I don't have any Microsoft filesystems.

If you have Win9x or some NT version you have the option of 'downloading' a completely different grub, which is a single DOS executable file. AND retain your Microsoft MBR.

Both are GRUB, but completely different in how they run and are installed. Yet accomplish the same result.

Does this clarify or confuse?

----------------

You can in Puppy install GRUB, if you do, you will want to install it on the MBR.

You can download the GRUB for DOS and install it according to instructions. (it won't be on the mbr rather on the DOS or Windows filesystem, somewhere on C:)

You can also download GRUB for Linux and install it, but no need because Puppy can do this.

----------------

PS I think life is simpler and more wholesome, if you can learn to say NO to Windows.

[Fiberflinger]

I guess my major confusion with grub is just what a mount point is. Duh. When you have three hard drives just where does it go?

I can't say no to windows, the only programs I use on it are unobtanium in linux. Premere 6.5 and DVD Lab. Right now puppy is just a maintenance program to move files around, with no internet capability at all (for at least 3 weeks now) so wind blows works on this one too.

I have xp, not those you mention. Don't know how to get rid of xp.

Bunny the Fiber Flinger

[raffy]

You can think of it as partition. The hassle-free location of Grub is in a Linux partition (usually referred to as "root", not MBR). As drives generally boot with the first partition of a drive, the experts suggest a 100MB Linux partition in the first partition, to put Grub in. Then the user is free to point to where Grub will find the other files (using menu.lst).

You know from the BIOS which drive your PC is booting first...

[purple_ghost]

The latest Microsoft Critical Update is several patches related to websites which corrupt home computers.

Fiberflinger. If you want. You can PM me your address and I can send you some system rescue CDs.' Like UBCD. Then you could get advice on people more knowledgable than myself. Like Raffy, if he has time, On how to use which option.

Best wishes.

[Fiberflinger]

I got the boot working right. Spent all day on it. You see we dumbies who do not know how to write the code don't know what the heck we are looking at in words, but pictures work. First I went to gparted. (only because I was going to partition a new drive and I noticed that my hda had the fat partition(hda2) as the one to boot and and hda1 with the boot file was locked. I changed that! Then with a blinding light bulb going off I deleted the old grubs and went to the grub loader and reinstalled it in the mbr and a linux partition. Walla there is doze, in all its radient goarry booting like its supposed to.

Now to win that new monitor on ebay so I won't have to look at chartruse screens.

Bunny the fiber flinger