Installing dualboot (XP+Linux) systems

Hi all,

I'm trying to install dualboot on my PC. I have had the XP x64 installed. After that I installed the RHEL AS 4.0. The first time it worked ok, on startup I got the GRUB selection menu which let me choose which system I want to boot into. After that because of some hardware driver issue,I reinstalled (reformatted the disk) XP x64, right now I'm reinstalling RHEL AS 4.0. But no matter what I have done, the initial GRUB selection menu just wouldn't show up. Everytime I rebooted the computer, after the initial testing and some silent moment (with blank screen), the computer just booted right into XP. I think the disk partition is about the same as my first installation when the GRUB worked fine. My installation is as follows:

On the main disk (a WD SATA Raptor), the 1st 20GB is installed with XP system (NTFS), the next 80GB is installed with RHEL (1st 50MB allocated to /boot, 2nd 9GB to swap, others to /). Another disk (WD IDE) 1st 100GB allocated to windows (NTFS), the other 150GB to RHEL /home). For the bootloader, I selected to install the GRUB bootloader, and (to my memory) boot from /dev/sda6 (which was the location where the /boot was located).

I did some research on Google, one point they say is that the the boot sector (/boot) need to be located within the 1st 1024 sector (8.4GB) of the disk. I don't know if that's the problem. But I'm pretty sure the first time when I got the GRUB selection menu successfully loaded, I didn't install the /boot into the 1st 1024 sector.

Please help me to figure this out with a little bit detail. I have some knowledge about this bootloader stuff, but only at entry level.

Thanx in advance!

所有跟帖： 

• 道行不深的還是玩VM吧. -SunOfBeach- ♂ (0 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 14:22:56

• Thanks for the reply -德州扒雞- ♀ (680 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 15:02:44

• apparently vm is official software for google engineer -SunOfBeach- ♂ (113 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 20:17:22

• Official software for google engineer doesn't mean -德州扒雞- ♀ (421 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 20:38:42

• there are two possibilities: first, you are more superior and -SunOfBeach- ♂ (113 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 20:59:23

• Guys, no need to get personal, pls stick to the point -redman- ♂ (166 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 21:22:26

• Yes, I don't know why this guy went that far on my original ques -德州扒雞- ♀ (113 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 21:34:12

• i dont think i am the one get personal first. obviously someone -SunOfBeach- ♂ (251 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 07:20:13

• Programmers needs to test apps in various platforms -redman- ♂ (179 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 17:59:40

• 用CD啟動然後從新裝grub -流言蜚語- ♂ (317 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 15:49:07

• Thanks 流言蜚語 -德州扒雞- ♀ (661 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 21:28:57

• try check the menu.lst -流言蜚語- ♂ (39 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 23:51:46

• common n00b issue, read "grub rescue" -butdie- ♂ (1217 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 09:15:36

• typo -butdie- ♂ (82 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 09:34:09

• 嗯，不錯，但忘了一步。：） -ohlalala- ♀ (518 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 10:03:20

• Thanks for the above responses -德州扒雞- ♀ (144 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 10:42:15

• use swapfile instead of swap partition -butdie- ♂ (135 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 12:18:02

• try GAG -煙圈- ♂ (46 bytes) () 08/21/2007 postreply 20:54:16

• try grldr -吳雨- ♂ (396 bytes) () 08/22/2007 postreply 09:43:38