Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[paullecorde]

Has anyone has success with setting up dual-booting with Vista? I just bought a new laptop with Vista preinstalled. I have created an NTFS partition and done a frugal install of Puppy 4.0 on it. I have been searching the forums for threads related to setting up the boot manager. I found threads about XP but not Vista. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks for you help and suggestions.

Paul

[rcrsn51]

Read here.

However, to make this work, you need to format your Puppy partition as ext3 and reinstall Puppy. Then do a GRUB bootloader install, but put GRUB in the partition boot sector, NOT on the MBR of the hard drive.

Finally, run EasyBCD and let it create a link to your Puppy partition.

When doing all this, you need to exercise some caution that you are not accidentally touching your Vista partition.

[YASKY]

A .use gparted to format the vista partition to ext2
B .start over using just gnu/linux
C enjoy your newfound freedom--it may be painful at first
BUT in the end it may be even better than you thougjht

[raffy]

[Lobster]

[ICPUG]

Paullecorde,

It IS possible to dual boot Puppy and Vista and, unlike the method suggested by rcrsn51, it is possible to do it without creating new ext2, ext3 partitions.

So far I have avoided Vista so my Lin'N'WinNewB project instructions have not been updated for Vista. However, Jonyo has used them in conjunction with EasyBCD (and neogrub?) to dual boot Puppy and Vista.

If Jonyo does not pass by here, maybe it would be good to send him a pm.

Before Jonyo there was another successful attempt by BlackAdder on this thread:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23234

Hope that helps.

ICPUG

[bvjones59]

In my experience, as long as you install Linux and Grub LAST, it finds the windows bootloader and adds it to your boot list automatically. No EBCD needed. At least, it has done so successfully with Ubuntu installs, which use Grub. I confess I haven't tried it with Puppy on my triple-boot (Vista, XP, Ubuntu) -- I only use Puppy on my older laptop or from live CD. The key is to install oldest Windows first, then newer, then finally Linux.

Isn't Grub the same across the various linux platforms? Or does it get some tweaks along the way?
B

[slvrldy17]

Hi Paul,

I'm also working with a machine that has Vista on it - in this case it is based on the new Intel "Little Falls" mini ITX board and I didn't want to complicate things by trying to make a dual boot with Puppy - What I have done is to set up a separate partition using the tools in the Vistas "Disk Management" to shrink an existing partition and then format it to FAT32 and have the save file and any other needed Puppy files there - when I want to run Puppy I boot from the CD - its simple and unlikely to cause any problems with the Vista install. It may not be as slick as playing with GRUB or other boot loaders but if you need Vista to work it is the safe alternative. Another way to safely run Puppy would be to install it to a USB key and boot from that if your laptop will allow it - check your boot options in BIOS - my brother does that with a laptop which is set up with Windows XP since we need to retain compatibility with software used at work.

[cthisbear]

" format it to FAT32 and have the save file and any other needed
Puppy files there - when I want to run Puppy I boot from the CD -
its simple and unlikely to cause any problems with the Vista install.

It may not be as slick as playing with GRUB or other boot loaders but if you need Vista to work it is the safe alternative. "

Yes! I read enough on Whirlpool forums about the delightful Vista.

:::::::::::::::::::::::;
You should make a backup whilst it still works.

Clean it out as well.
It should be similar to my XP tuneup.

Puppy answer:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=131413#131413

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Whirlpool answer for trojans etc.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=998716

Chris.

[nooby]

Paul you have already done it?

[bvjones59]

A frugal install doesn't include a boot loader, so the computer doesn't "see" Puppy on boot-up. Hence, it is not YET a dual-boot. He could probably install Grub to the Puppy partition... supposedly that would get a menu showing up at boot time?

[nooby]

Yes sorry I missed the implication of these words.

[paullecorde]

WOW! This post got a lot of responses. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I followed the advise from rcrsn51 after the first response. I downloaded EasyBCD and installed then reformatted the partition that I had installed Puppy on. I installed frugal puppy and grub on the partition and used EasyBCD to add grub to Vista's boot list. I initially tried formatting the partition as ext2 but I kept getting a corrupted drive error at boot up. I reformatted the partition as ext3 and installed puppy and grub again. After that I was able to choose between Vista and Linux - Linux takes me to the normal grub list from which I can choose puppy.

So thank you especially to rcrsn51. EasyBCD was a success for me. My next issue is the notebook pc has an Atheros AR5007 wifi card, which from what I have read on the forum doesn't play well with puppy. I will start a new thread for that question.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

[Bruce B]

[ICPUG]

Nooby,

Vista does NOT have boot.ini - so that kinda negates your post a bit. This is where EasyBCD comes in.

QUOTE
Why else would not Lin'nWin not include a description?
UNQUOTE

Well, the lack of boot.ini is one reason.

The other is that I don't have Vista, which means I cannot test.

If someone writes some nice newbie friendly TESTED instructions (like Lin'N'Win) for dual booting Puppy and Vista without repartitioning or altering the MBR I will happily add them to the project.

ICPUG