dual boot with suse 11

**diablo1** · 12-Jul-2008, 03:30

right now i have a dual boot, two hard drives on one IDE cable... one boots up with xp and the other with windows 2000... if i replace windows 2000 operating system with suse 11, will i be able to see suses harddrive from xp without doing anything else other than installing suse??? on windows 2000 i have important backup files which i access those files from xp when needed.
will it also dual boot? if i add a suse boot to the boot.ini file in windows xp will suse boot if i needed to
directly boot into suse?

my boot.ini right now
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Pro 250GB Master (Old)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 2000 160GB Slave (New)"

say for example, its only an example cause im not sure how the boot.ini would look for suse.. will this work to boot up on suse from a slave
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Pro 250GB Master (Old)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\suse="suse 11.0 slave (New)"

thanks

**gdelta9** · 12-Jul-2008, 04:30

For yor first question if xp will be able to see opensuse parition the aswer is "yes but..."
Assuming that u will format your opensuse parition with ext3.U see xp has no native support for filesystems other than ntfs and fat.There are some projects though like this one.After u install opensuse u can install this ext3/ext2 driver to exp and then u have access to opensuse form xp.I have tried it it is compeltely safe.
If u choose to use another file system for openuse like reiserfs or xfs do a bit googling there should be drivers for them as well.Havent searced it tbh.
As far as the dual boot part is concerned.
Why dont let grub do the job for u?When u install opensuse ,a boot loader will also be installed so that u can boot to opesuse or xp.

Hope i helped tell me if u need something else

**swerdna** · 12-Jul-2008, 05:07

You can boot Linux from boot.ini fairly easily. Read here:

Boot Multiboot openSUSE Windows (2000, XP, Vista - any mix) with Windows bootloader.

The method is to configure Grub in openSUSE to boot from the root partition, not from the Master Boot Record (MBR) which ios left for windows. You edit an extra menu item into boot.ini - an option to boot from a Linux file you have placed specially in the Windows bootloader partition. The Linux file contains Grub's instructions for booting from the root partition of the openSUSE installation and thus multibooting of openSUSE occurs when you select the option from windows' menu.

**CurvyTail** · 12-Jul-2008, 10:55

You can also use grub4dos.

Just copy 'grldr' to C

and add this line to the boot.ini file:
C

grldr="Linux"

Finally copy the menu.lst file to C

See here:
[SOLVED] Booting into an installed opensuse 11 system with grub4dos - Boot Land

That way, your MBR is safe.

You can also use explore2fs from WinXP to browse the linux partition and take the menu.lst file.
chrysocome.net

**diablo1** · 13-Jul-2008, 06:03

i cant find grub4dos? is it a software download... do i download it from somewhere ? i looked at opensuse
11 on my laptop and cant find grldr and menu.lst. is it installed on there?
i checked i have ext3 filesystem at /home/os and at /
all i checked is grub is install on laptop opensuse in software management

just checking things out on my laptop before i start messing with my boot harddrives in desktop
on laptop my boot loader setting is set for boot from root partition