vistabooboo....

I have multibooted XP with various flavors of linuxes many times..... but
vista has another way for the bootloader... I believe I saw a program that
helps you edit the bootloader...



the general rule with xp, was that you had to make the linux boot loader to
take over...

so first you installed windows, then linux... or if you did it the other way
around you had to start the linux installation again and select an option to
fix the bootloader....


"Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
news:OIpP5AQtGHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> It had to happen...I've been using Vista for a few weeks and everything
> had been pretty smooth until about 20 minutes ago.
>
> There are two drives. One is a dedicated data drive and the other has four
> partitions; XP, Vista, Ubuntu and a linux swap.
>
> Everything was completely fine until I installed Ubuntu. When the
> installation completed I rebooted and first thought I'd check that the
> Windows installations were still okay. I rebooted and got to the Linux
> boot manager and selected the Windows option which took me to the regular
> Windows boot manager and I selected to boot to Vista. Vista started up
> fine and everything looked good so I rebooted to have a look at XP....
>
> But the machine can no longer get to the Linux boot manager. After POST it
> sort of looks at it and decides to restart instead and just continues to
> cycle through POST to fail to load Linux boot manager to restart again.
>
> Now this is a test machine and I'm not worried about losing data but I
> don't want to wipe it all out and start again if it can be avoided. It has
> taken a while to get the settings in XP and Vista just the way I like
> them.
>
> But I know very little about Linux and it's boot manager. Presumably I
> could boot from the Linux CD (Ubuntu desktop for x86) and find a tool
> somewhere to fix it.
>
> If I have to go to a Linux group to ask I think I'll just wipe and start
> again.
>
> So Linux freaks now is your chance to shine....

It had to happen...I've been using Vista for a few weeks and everything
had been pretty smooth until about 20 minutes ago.

There are two drives. One is a dedicated data drive and the other has
four partitions; XP, Vista, Ubuntu and a linux swap.

Everything was completely fine until I installed Ubuntu. When the
installation completed I rebooted and first thought I'd check that the
Windows installations were still okay. I rebooted and got to the Linux
boot manager and selected the Windows option which took me to the
regular Windows boot manager and I selected to boot to Vista. Vista
started up fine and everything looked good so I rebooted to have a look
at XP....

But the machine can no longer get to the Linux boot manager. After POST
it sort of looks at it and decides to restart instead and just continues
to cycle through POST to fail to load Linux boot manager to restart again.

Now this is a test machine and I'm not worried about losing data but I
don't want to wipe it all out and start again if it can be avoided. It
has taken a while to get the settings in XP and Vista just the way I
like them.

But I know very little about Linux and it's boot manager. Presumably I
could boot from the Linux CD (Ubuntu desktop for x86) and find a tool
somewhere to fix it.

If I have to go to a Linux group to ask I think I'll just wipe and start
again.

So Linux freaks now is your chance to shine....

I don't mind the vistabooboo but I don't want it to turn into a vistabooHoo!

I know I can just boot with the XP CD and get to the recovery console
and just do fixmbr but that would bugger up the Vista boot thing too.
Fortunately I did use the Vista super boot thingy and backed up the boot
settings but I'm not too sure where I put the backup :-) I don't mind
losing the Linux boot option for now as it was only just installed so
there isn't anything to lose anyway. But I would like to get back to the
dual boot option with XP and Vista.



John Jay Smith wrote:
> vistabooboo....
>
> I have multibooted XP with various flavors of linuxes many times..... but
> vista has another way for the bootloader... I believe I saw a program that
> helps you edit the bootloader...
>
> the general rule with xp, was that you had to make the linux boot loader to
> take over...
>
> so first you installed windows, then linux... or if you did it the other way
> around you had to start the linux installation again and select an option to
> fix the bootloader....
>
>
> "Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
> news:OIpP5AQtGHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> It had to happen...I've been using Vista for a few weeks and everything
>> had been pretty smooth until about 20 minutes ago.
>>
>> There are two drives. One is a dedicated data drive and the other has four
>> partitions; XP, Vista, Ubuntu and a linux swap.
>>
>> Everything was completely fine until I installed Ubuntu. When the
>> installation completed I rebooted and first thought I'd check that the
>> Windows installations were still okay. I rebooted and got to the Linux
>> boot manager and selected the Windows option which took me to the regular
>> Windows boot manager and I selected to boot to Vista. Vista started up
>> fine and everything looked good so I rebooted to have a look at XP....
>>
>> But the machine can no longer get to the Linux boot manager. After POST it
>> sort of looks at it and decides to restart instead and just continues to
>> cycle through POST to fail to load Linux boot manager to restart again.
>>
>> Now this is a test machine and I'm not worried about losing data but I
>> don't want to wipe it all out and start again if it can be avoided. It has
>> taken a while to get the settings in XP and Vista just the way I like
>> them.
>>
>> But I know very little about Linux and it's boot manager. Presumably I
>> could boot from the Linux CD (Ubuntu desktop for x86) and find a tool
>> somewhere to fix it.
>>
>> If I have to go to a Linux group to ask I think I'll just wipe and start
>> again.
>>
>> So Linux freaks now is your chance to shine....
>
>

I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
adding Ubuntu.

there is one tool that claims it can work with 100 os!
I have used it pre-vista and it worked very well with win and lin

www.osloader.com


"Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
news:eJPTgKQtGHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I don't mind the vistabooboo but I don't want it to turn into a
>vistabooHoo!
>
> I know I can just boot with the XP CD and get to the recovery console and
> just do fixmbr but that would bugger up the Vista boot thing too.
> Fortunately I did use the Vista super boot thingy and backed up the boot
> settings but I'm not too sure where I put the backup :-) I don't mind
> losing the Linux boot option for now as it was only just installed so
> there isn't anything to lose anyway. But I would like to get back to the
> dual boot option with XP and Vista.
>
>
>
> John Jay Smith wrote:
>> vistabooboo....
>>
>> I have multibooted XP with various flavors of linuxes many times..... but
>> vista has another way for the bootloader... I believe I saw a program
>> that helps you edit the bootloader...
>>
>> the general rule with xp, was that you had to make the linux boot loader
>> to take over...
>>
>> so first you installed windows, then linux... or if you did it the other
>> way around you had to start the linux installation again and select an
>> option to fix the bootloader....
>>
>>
>> "Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
>> news:OIpP5AQtGHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> It had to happen...I've been using Vista for a few weeks and everything
>>> had been pretty smooth until about 20 minutes ago.
>>>
>>> There are two drives. One is a dedicated data drive and the other has
>>> four partitions; XP, Vista, Ubuntu and a linux swap.
>>>
>>> Everything was completely fine until I installed Ubuntu. When the
>>> installation completed I rebooted and first thought I'd check that the
>>> Windows installations were still okay. I rebooted and got to the Linux
>>> boot manager and selected the Windows option which took me to the
>>> regular Windows boot manager and I selected to boot to Vista. Vista
>>> started up fine and everything looked good so I rebooted to have a look
>>> at XP....
>>>
>>> But the machine can no longer get to the Linux boot manager. After POST
>>> it sort of looks at it and decides to restart instead and just continues
>>> to cycle through POST to fail to load Linux boot manager to restart
>>> again.
>>>
>>> Now this is a test machine and I'm not worried about losing data but I
>>> don't want to wipe it all out and start again if it can be avoided. It
>>> has taken a while to get the settings in XP and Vista just the way I
>>> like them.
>>>
>>> But I know very little about Linux and it's boot manager. Presumably I
>>> could boot from the Linux CD (Ubuntu desktop for x86) and find a tool
>>> somewhere to fix it.
>>>
>>> If I have to go to a Linux group to ask I think I'll just wipe and start
>>> again.
>>>
>>> So Linux freaks now is your chance to shine....
>>

Cheers John. I can't remember the thread but I thought of that a few
days ago and said there was a util that could detect all bootable O/Ses
on a system but couldn't remember the name of it. I used this a few
years ago and it works fine.

So unless anyone else comes up with a better suggestion I think the
solution is to boot from XP CD and go to recovery console and run
fixmbr. Then boot into XP and install this thing and that will detect
Vista and Ubuntu and create a new boot menu.... if it still works the
way I remember it and if I do actually remember it accurately.



John Jay Smith wrote:
> there is one tool that claims it can work with 100 os!
> I have used it pre-vista and it worked very well with win and lin
>
> www.osloader.com

"Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
news:e90y80QtGHA.4080@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
> adding Ubuntu.

There has to be a usable freeware boot manager out there somewhere.

"Mark D. VandenBeg" <mvan103@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%233tyRaRtGHA.4748@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>
> "Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
> news:e90y80QtGHA.4080@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
>> adding Ubuntu.
>
> There has to be a usable freeware boot manager out there somewhere.
Can you not use VistaBoot PRO? Link to it's forum:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=185

Regards,
Rasmus Bertelsen

"Rasmus Bertelsen" <rasbert@nowhere.dk> wrote in message
news:883173B0-0036-4242-A347-81954FF002A3@microsoft.com...
SNIP
> Can you not use VistaBoot PRO? Link to it's forum:
> http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=185
>
> Regards,
> Rasmus Bertelsen
My bad. It doesn't support inserts of non-Windows OS'es as Linux!
Sorry for that!

Regards,
Rasmus Bertelsen

Hello.. when I used osloader 2000

it detected everything automatically even if the normal boot loaders of the
programs were not working... As I remember also this was shareware, however
it did not stop functioning,
rather it only told you to register, and you could ignore that and continue
using it....

The way you installed it was using a win98 boot disk floopy that had the
program on it.. so you could install it from there. Of course
for those who do not have a floppy there are win98 boot cd images around
like here for example: http://www.bootdisk.com/

Since it now says it supports vista perhaps it is a solution.
To tell you the truth, I gave up multibooting because it was too much of a
hassle to set everything up... at one point I had 5 OS's on. After that I
just used virtual machines to do everything.. or had a separete test machine
that I didnt mind formating all the time.

I have now something like 10 virtual machines with various versions of
windows and linux. The only thing I must say about virtual machines
is that they are slower than a normal pc... and that the host must have at
least 1 gb or ram. I have 1 GB and it works, but I am thinking about
upgrading to 2 gb, so that I can give pleanty or ram to the client... I
believe that as hardware becomes faster virtual machines will be the
ultimate solution... vmware and microsoft see that coming and thats why they
are investing, and giving some of their programs out for free.

"Bernie" <bernie@nospam.org> wrote in message
news:e90y80QtGHA.4080@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
> adding Ubuntu.