(closed) Grub4Dos (on XP partition) or Extlinux (on Linux-partition)?

[floppy]

Hello.
I was checking linux installation on a lenovo netbook with a colleague today.
Slitaz, PartedMagic, knoppix, puppyLinux and ..TCL Booted.
We started Gparted and modified the HDD partitioning.
So, we made 2 new ext4 partitions at the "end" of the previous sda1 = NTFS partition after reducing it (1st for boot with TCL = sda2; 2nd for TCE/Home =sda4.. the sda3 is a FAT partition which we did not understand why it was there).

Should I install the Grub4Dos on the ntfs partition
or install extlinux on the linux  boot partition with TC-install?
What is the recommendation?
how should look the menu.lst (or extlinux.cfg) for booting both XP and TCL? (with the drive names given above).
It would be great if somebody could post its menu.lst or extlinux.cfg for dual booting xp (sda1) and tcl (sda2).

[gerald_clark]

The wiki is full of useful information.
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:install_with_windows

[Rich]

Hi floppy

the sda3 is a FAT partition which we did not understand why it was there).

It's not uncommon for manufacturers to set up a small partition containing utilities and possibly
drivers for a particular machine.

[tikbalang]

if you need to have XP, it would be better to chainload Grub4DOS by adding this line [c:\grldr="Grub4DOS"] to boot.ini, (see last line):

boot.ini
[/code]

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grldr="Grub4DOS"

[/code]

then copy GRLDR and MENU.LST to where boot.ini exists, usually c:\.

menu.lst

Code: [Select]


title TinyCore
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /tce/boot/tinycore.gz
kernel /tce/boot/bzimage
initrd /tce/boot/tinycore.gz


make sure you use the correct paths and parameters for your own menu.lst.

[floppy]

if you need to have XP, it would be better to chainload Grub4DOS by adding this line [c:\grldr="Grub4DOS"] to boot.ini, (see last line):

boot.ini
[/code]

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grldr="Grub4DOS"

[/code]

then copy GRLDR and MENU.LST to where boot.ini exists, usually c:\.

menu.lst

Code: [Select]


title TinyCore
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /tce/boot/tinycore.gz
kernel /tce/boot/bzimage
initrd /tce/boot/tinycore.gz


make sure you use the correct paths and parameters for your own menu.lst.

we have done it according this advice (from the windows XP; no USB boot was possible with TCL because we had no bootable USB adapter for my CF and no CD reader was available for booting TCL).
The menu XP/Grub4Dos appear. Good.
We have created following menu.lst

timeout 60
default 0
#
    title TinyCoreLinux
    root (hd0,3)
    kernel /tcl/bzImage vga=788 mydata=mydata noacpi showapps tce=hda2 kmap=qwertz/de-latin1 printk.time=1 
    initrd /tcl/tinycore.gz
#
    title knoppix
    root (hd0,3)
    kernel /knoppix/linux ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en nowheelmouse dma noswap noeject xmodule=mga desktop=fluxbox vt.default_utf8=0 apm=power-off vga=0x311 nomce quiet loglevel=0 tz=Europe/Berlin
     initrd /knoppix/minirt.gz
#
    title slitaz 3.0
    root (hd0,3)
    kernel /slitaz/bzImage rw root=/dev/null quiet kmap=de-latin1 vga=791 sound=no modprobe=mga lang=en acpi=off tz=localtime
    initrd /slitaz/rootfs.gz
#
    title PartedMagic kbd_US
    root (hd0,3)
    kernel /partedmagic/bzImage directory=partedmagic edd=off load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw loglevel=9 max_loop=256
    initrd /partedmagic/initramfs

boot

.. but whenwe choose the grub4dos in the menu xp/windows, no further menu appear; no prompt 60 works; only the grub prompt appear.
Any idea what happens there? Is perhaps this menu.lst structure not correct for a chainloaded grub4dos?
Perhaps a multiboot is not possible with the chainloaded grub4dos?

Next time, we will use a bootable USB and boot TCL for installing TCL with the grub4dos install if we dont make progress with a chainloaded grub4dos.

[tikbalang]

then copy GRLDR and MENU.LST to where boot.ini exists, usually c:\.

c:\grldr
c:\menu.lst
c:\boot.ini

are the three files listed above in the proper location? (c:\ in this example.)

[tikbalang]

to make any usb disks bootable, use BOOTICE (win32) to install your preferred bootloader.
edit the configfile (menu.lst for grub4dos) accordingly.

http://bbs.wuyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=57675
http://www.ipauly.com/bbs/index.asp?boardid=2
http://www.ipauly.com/bootice/bootice_0.9.rar

[floppy]

@tikbalang
we checked again your manual install advice and found out.. the menu.lst after creation was memorized as menu.lst.txt with the window programm. We changed the name to menu.lst and everything runs well now.
THANKS.
Now, my colleague is playing around with TCL,Slitaz,Knoppix,Puppy,PartedMagic on his lenovo netbook during his holidays for the next 2 weeks (lets see if his wife is going mad ..;-).
I will make his TCL setup for 3G, Openoffice, Flash/Webbrowser next time.
Topic closed.

[Rich]

Hi floppy
If you insist on editing Linux text files using Windows, especially config files, you should run
  dos2unix   on them to strip out the carriage returns Windows adds to them.

[floppy]

@rich
you are right. I forgot to write that after renaming menu.lst.txt into menu.lst (in windows), we booted the netbook with TCL and a CF+USB adapter. Then we edited the menu.lst (with fluff editor) and deleted the carriage-return before we booted again the netbook with grub4dos. Perhaps leaving the carriage-return would have ennoyed the grub4dos + menu.lst. In any case my colleague is totally wondering the whole linux OSs. I think we have now somebody in this world, who is changing the side of the road.