Seting up multiple boot

[Titan12022]

is it possible to set up for a multiple OS boot with out installing extras, I was thinking of the bott.ini file but I was not sure what the syntax would be, I made some guesses but they did not work

 

[Titan12022]

the second OS is OpenLinux 2.2 on the 3rd partition of the first drive on the primary controler

 

[bcastner]

You could have used LiLo or GRUB, and still could.

I would use boot-us, which is freeware for non-commercial uses, where the OS images are on a single hard disk drive, such as in your case:

http://www.boot-us.com/

 

[Titan12022]

cComputers is primaraly using XP Pro

 

[bcastner]

Any of the boot loaders (GRUB, Lilo, or boot-us mentioned above) will give you a menu of OS choices, and allow you to select which one to boot.

XP's boot.ini file is not going to accomodate your Linux boot selection. The Linux boot loaders will accomodate a Windows boot, as will boot-us.

 

[wolluf]

as bcastner says - lilo or grub. If XP is installed first, the linux install should detect it and add it to its boot menu (usually linux or grub). If you use boot-us, you will need lilo or grub installed in linux partition's boot sector (otherwise the linux partition will not be bootable - and boot-us only boots bootable partitions - getting a 'b' complex here!).

You can use XP's boot loader, but need to create an image of the linux boot sector for boot.ini to read from. Boot.ini entry something like:-

C:\bootsect.lnx="OpenLinux 2.2" (with file C:\bootsect.lnx containing the image) - but I think other options are better (Google for help on how to create this image file if you want to try - its not something I've actually done).

 

[Titan12022]

Linux was installed second but it did not put XP into the boot loader I will see If a can get one of the other boot loaders

 

[wolluf]

When you installed linux did the install have a separate bit asking how you wanted the boot loader installed? I've tried many linux distributions (unfortunately not very impressed as a desktop system yet), and most if not all of them have offered boot options. usually ask if you want the boot loader installed in the mbr (so becomes boot loader for machine) or in the linux partition (so depends on being active partition or on another boot manager to boot linux. Also usually shows selection of any other o/s it can boot for you to include.

As I said, to use boot-us (and I suspect any boot manager), the linux partition needs to be bootable - which means it needs lilo/grub (or whatever it uses) to be installed in the linux boot sector (rather than mbr). If your machine is now booting straight into linux, lilo/grub could be in either place - but if you made the XP partition active and tried booting, if XP boots, means lilo/grub is in the linux boot sector, not the mbr.

 

[Titan12022]

I know it installs lilo in the Linux sector so I will try to get a boot manager.