Dual Boot Vista & Linux on separate HDDs

Outcast · 18 Feb 2008 at 11:53

I dont get why you have to alter the boot order in BIOS.

I have four hard drives in this machine (without extra partitioning). win98, WinXP-Pro and on another drive, Ubuntu.

The standard grub install sorted all that out.

Well... As long as it works for you thats all that matters.

FirebarUK · 18 Feb 2008 at 12:36

PS. I tried that with EasyBCD and it's didn't work! Not sure why though.

You must be doing something wrong. Don't forget EasyBCD puts entries into Vista's boot loader, not GRUB. So you'll need to configure it and save, then put your vista drive at the top of your boot order.

Alien18 · 18 Feb 2008 at 14:09

FirebarUK said:
You must be doing something wrong. Don't forget EasyBCD puts entries into Vista's boot loader, not GRUB. So you'll need to configure it and save, then put your vista drive at the top of your boot order.

I did that but when selecting Ubuntu in the Vista Boot Loader it came up with some strange error - don't know what it was now.

Once I've edited my Menu.lst file in GRUB, I should be able to use that, but at the moment it can't load Vista via GRUB, and I have to edit the root (hd1,1) to root (hd0,1) to get into Linux.

At least I have them working - I'll try and smooth it out as time goes by. I never planned to keep my dual boot system, I only wanted to learn the Linux basics before building me a media server.

Oh, btw, if I set this Ubuntu up the way I want my media server to work (or near enough), could I simply create my own Live CD from my version of Linux (I came across an article during my searches that told of a program that can do that).

Then I would have less to set up if I get the software I want/need installed and onto my own LiveCD/DVD.

FirebarUK · 18 Feb 2008 at 14:24

In which case it sounds like either you select the wrong partition using EasyBCD - to where GRUB should be. Or GRUB isn't where you think it is.

GarethDW · 18 Feb 2008 at 16:50

Alien18 said:
Oh, btw, if I set this Ubuntu up the way I want my media server to work (or near enough), could I simply create my own Live CD from my version of Linux (I came across an article during my searches that told of a program that can do that).

Then I would have less to set up if I get the software I want/need installed and onto my own LiveCD/DVD.

Yep, you can create your own LiveCD once you've configured your distro however you want to. It's not something I've ever felt the need to do myself, but it can be done.

Alien18 · 19 Feb 2008 at 08:15

OK I've been having a play with Linux now (tried out MediaTomb and Fuppes), got it to change to my nice 1680x1050 resolution (though not permanently yet! But it's not a big issue atm).

There's something seriously bothering me, the VERY first time I booted into Linux it took it's damn time (i thought it'd hung), but I left it be and it finally got there. But typing is SOOOOOOO slow, so I did a reboot, this time it booted much quicker than before and I could type normally and freely, nice and fast. I thought that it was a first run "glitch" and everything would be fine, but on every single boot up (or reboot up) since it's the same as the first time, takes ages to load and when it does typing is a painful task. I've done some reading and it's not the "Slow Keys" option or any other Accessibility options, they are all disabled. I find it odd that the one time worked perfectly but every other time it's slow booting and slow with the keyboard, everything else is fine and dandy (except slow internet should be in excess of 400kbps but only get 50-70kbps - but that's a separate issue, i'll get to in time - I've tried disabling the ipv6 thing - that didn't work).

Any way sorry for rambling on, but if someone could help me find my way to fixing the keyboard issue that'd be great.

Many thanks.