> -----Original Message-----
> From: KENT WALLACE
>
> I repartition my machine, loaded XP in the first 8 gig.
>
> Used RED HAT 7.0 to partition the next 8 gig.  Linux loaded
> fine.  The machine now boots to XP.
>
> Anyone know how to get to the Linux???

There are two places a PC can boot from: the "master boot record" (MBR)
which is the very first sector of the disk, and from a partitions
"superblock", essentially the same as the MBR but relegated to the
particular partition.

When you install MS products, the MBR they supply has code to read the
partition table, and from that it looks for a (mutually exclusive) "flag" to
indicate which partition is "active".  The MBR code then reads the code from
the superblock of the partition to continue booting.

When you install Linux, you have an option or two

   1) create one or two "floppy" disks to boot from
   2) use LOADLIN from a DOS prompt
   3) load LILO or equivalent (GRUB) in the /boot partition's superblock
   4) load LILO in the MBR

Since you are asking the question, I'm presuming you didn't choose option
4 -- you probably chose option 3 which looks very similar, but only works if
the /boot partition is marked as "active" according to the partition table
(which, of course, it isn't if XP is loading)

Ways to fix this:

   1) use the install disks to boot into "emergency" or "recovery" mode
(whatever they call it -- slackware even offers a boot/run from CD-rom
version which would do what you want)  From there you are "in linux" and can
reconfigure LILO (via /etc/lilo.conf) to boot via the MBR instead of the
superblock.  As root issue the command "lilo" to re-read the lilo.conf file
and install into the MBR [use the commands "man lilo" and "man lilo.conf" to
read the instructions on how to do this]
   1a) alternate: simply re-install linux over itself and choose the option
to place lilo in the MBR instead of the superblock -- useful if you haven't
actually "done" anything in linux yet...

   2) from XP, get to a DOS prompt and run FDISK [err, I'm hoping/presuming
MS hasn't removed those utilities yet] and make the partition that holds
/boot "active".  The next time you boot, you will be in Linux
   2a) if you installed lilo in the superblock, it SHOULD have the
information needed to chain to the original DOS/XP partition; if not refer
to the man pages on how to add a "foreign" OS to the lilo.conf file and use
the command/keyword "prompt" [and possibly timeout=] so that you get a menu
at boot time.
   2b) if you don't want to reconfigure lilo, you can use linux's fdisk to
re-select the "dos" partition as the active partition so that the next boot
is DOS/XP

   3) if "FDISK.COM" (exe?) has been removed from DOS/XP, [but command.com
still exists] you can use the program LOADLIN.EXE [available on the CD] to
get into linux from XP

   4) if you want to spend a few dollars [about 30, I think...] you can get
a program called System Commander which allows you to set up a menu of
operating systems to boot into [it even has tools to help the installation
of the "other" systems]
   4a) alternate: buy OS/2 -- IBM's boot manager does the same thing ;)
   4a-a) really old versions of Powerquest's "partition commander" had IBM's
boot manager as a standalone product [current versions have system-commander
"lite", I think...]

Tom

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