Grub entry for boot.ini(dualboot)

Hi, I've loaded Debain to my slave w/ Grub to its boot record. Is there a 'simple' entry for my boot.ini (xp on master primary) that will redirect the boot loader to grub (i.e. load debian)??? ~tia

There are actually two ways to do this. Write Grub to the MBR (since you are booting from the primary drive) and add XP to grub or add Debian to the boot.ini. Did you do a floppy boot disk as well?

I'll look up the link for the boot.ini file edit later, if you would like.

Originally posted by danleff:


I was hoping for the latter, however, I've since blown that install and the one that followed (removing Grub from the MBR is not as easy as some would imply

I've spent the time, since then, rebuilding and finishing web work due today. Sooo, now I'm ready for another run at it. I'm thinking I'd like to go with the latest beta and 2.6 (reiser on / and ext2 on /home) so that I might become familiar enough that I can 'roll-my-own' w/ Progeny..



Thank you for your time and effort. I assume the boot floppy (which I was not able to download seperately for some reason) has a file or two on it that I can load to my xp,,, and have that point to Debian by way of my boot.ini?? Will the 'linux26' entry to the install dialog request eventually offer to create a boot floppy??

Thank you again for you time ~regards

I would stay away from the beta 2.6 kernel until you get the basic system down.

What flavor of Debian are you running, woody, Sarge or Sid?

Synaptic or apt-get can install the latest 2.6.6 kernel image for you, but there are some dependency issues that need to be resolved, too get it up and working properly. And no, a kernel install does not ask you to make a boot floppy, but adds the new required files to /boot, then you can add them to the Grub menu file in /boot/grub. If Grub is installed onto the hard drive, it should add the boot entry for you.

The stock 2.4.XX kernel should give you what you need to get started. You can add other entries to 2.6 later on to Grub when you get comfortable with everything and install the image.

The link to the dual boot with boot.ini on 2000 or XP systems is here.

You may want to take a look at it before you decide what to do.

Debian generally is a bit more complicated than the recent distros, such as Mandrake and Fedora, which offer you a quick easy GUI interface that allow you to add other Linux distros and Windows to the Grub bootloader with little effort, if this is the way that you choose to go.

Originally posted by danleff:


Thank you for your thoughful response. The sense of it is clear and sound.. obvious, now, even to me



Excellent,,, I've printed out this page,,, great info.



I'm done with quick and easy I'm going w/ the installer I got a taste of the apt-get (w/ synaptic), having built the system of choice (just missed finishing it properly).

I havn't been so enthused w/ my OS since I figured out how to have my Win95 handle a dial-up script and tcp/ip config, thereby, obviating the 'isp' software bundle ;))

Having, finally, mastered Win*, I'm ready to move up to a real OS and feel free to fit others w/ the software tools they need to learn/work w/out fear of MSFT looking over their shoulders or the high costs of joing MSFT's interpretation of the information age ~thank you, again