[dham]

Hi,

I don't know a lot of linux, but i am running in to a problem in dualbooting XP with FC3 on Dell Dimension 3000(with XP-HOME), which i very recently bought.

H/W:
Dell Dimension 3000
Pentium IV 2.99Ghz Processor
256MB PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
80 Gig Harddrive

After reading on forums and net, the took the following steps:
- Cleaned all the partitions.
- With QtParted, created a 100MB(/dev/hda1) partition and left the rest unused.
- Pointed Windows XP to create three partitions from the free space during its setup-process:
* 10GB - to install XP
* 50GB - as logical partion
* Rest to be used for when fedora asks for space.
- Windows XP installs fine. - This is a Dell CD.

Now Fedora core 3
- choose the manual partions option and indicate to use the free space.
- Pointed /boot to the initial 100MB(/dev/hda1)
- Created Swap and / partition in unused space.
- Modified advanced bootloader option to install it in /boot (/dev/hda1) instead of MBR.

Now after everything goes through, when i see bootup the system, I DON'T SEE THE GRUB screen, instead it boots directly in Win-XP. After getting frustrated with this, i indicate the FC3 install process to overwrite the MBR. NOW, ONLY FC3 is there in the system and bootloader won't see Windows XP!!!

During bootup, if i press F2, i see dell boot menu...

Am i missing something? Please help..

Thanks,
Dham

[LinuxCrusader]

You should've initially said to install Grub to the MBR, but that's OK. Don't worry it's just a matter of telling grub where windows is and adding it to the grub file.

Could you post your grub file. I was using FC3 last year and I think I was using Lilo, but when you open up the grub file, you'll see there that FC3 option is listed there with its approprite kernel number, so you have to add windows there. I can't remember the exact lines, but let's first start with how your Grub looks like right now.

Edited:

Ok, It should look something like this:

title Windoz
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

<hd1> is the partion where your Windows is installed, so make sure you put the correct one in there.

Read This thread for more info on a similar problem with Fedora and Grub.

[dham]

LInuxCrusader:

Your tip was very helpful. Installing Grub on MBR and modifying the grub.conf with the following worked for me.

title Windoz
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Thanks for your help,
Dham

[LinuxCrusader]

Glad I could help.

title Windoz (<-you know this line can be Windows, right? )
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I'm sure you know.