[HOWTO]: Dual-boot Knoppix with Windows NT/2000/XP

[audioaficionado]

XOSL boot manager and Ranish partition tools can do it all on several HDs but you have to make sure you read and understand the documentation thoroughly.

[jduff]

It's amazing how difficult people make things for themselves. Here you go, now pay attention.

1.) Partition with qtparted
2.) Install Knoppix but leave out that lilo thing
3.) Install GAG
4.) Drink beer

Now wasn't that easy? And I know you liked that beer part.

[audioaficionado]

It's amazing how difficult people make things for themselves. Here you go, now pay attention.

1.) Partition with qtparted
2.) Install Knoppix but leave out that lilo thing
3.) Install GAG
4.) Drink beer

Now wasn't that easy? And I know you liked that beer part.

You're going to have to elaborate some.

[softgun]

Where do we get qtparted on a Knoppix CD?
Install Knoopix but not the bootloader, right?
Install GAG and it will recognise the two OSs automatically?
Is the beer on you?

[Paradox]

Just added another YES to the Poll.

I had XP Pro on C:, along with another harddrive chock-full of Media file goodness.

Installed a 3rd Hard Drive in a 5.25 inch bay (out of normal HD bays), then followed your procedure step-by-step.

Worked flawlessly, and I'm now dual-booting XP and Knoppix with no problems.

Thanks!

[Mr Wonka]

Sorry to spoil the 100% you had but i could not get this procedure to work.

I'm a complete newb and so followed the procedure you had layed out exactly. It all went fine apart from the actual booting bit.
Turn computer on. Select operating system -> Knoppix. Hang there, with a flashing cursor, until the cows come home.

So I installed GAG (twas the only way) and it worked. So i'm happy nontheless.

Only problem is that now knoppix isn't regognising my hardware like the CD version does. No USB sound and no USB Cable modem.

Guess i better start fiquring out this module malarky.

Cheers
Mr Wonka

[Paradox]

Actually, my post was a tad hasty.

Following the procedure, my computer DOES display the windows bootloader with XP and Knoppix.

But if I select Knoppix, it just prints out half a screen of "01 01 01" and hangs.

Any advice?

Edit: haven't had time to confirm this yet, but I think the above was just a symptom of my BIOS hiccuping and not recognizing the new harddrive (this has since been fixed).

Still booted from floppy, but running Evolution, MPlayer, and Mozilla. I'm set.

Final Edit: Yup, just a BIOS hiccup. Procedure worked perfectly.[/b]

[BNutzer]

If you want poorman's install(FAT only), follow the instruction in the doc on this site on how to extract the big file as well as the boot.img from the ISO and follow the followin procedure

1. get memdisk from syslinux site and put in c:\boot
2. put the boot.img(from the ISO) to c:\boot
2. add the following to c:\boot\grub\menu.lst

title Poor man's KNOPPIX
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/boot.img

with XP's bootloader you don't even need memdisk for poor man's install either.

i have extracted vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from boot.img (which can be done easily by creating the floppy from boot.img) and use those two in menu.lst as well. one big advantage in my view is that you can then append syslinux.cfg parameters in the "kernel" line of menu.lst and thus also provide different preconfigured ways to boot knoppix like e.g. different "desktop=" entries.

[garyng]

If you want poorman's install(FAT only), follow the instruction in the doc on this site on how to extract the big file as well as the boot.img from the ISO and follow the followin procedure

1. get memdisk from syslinux site and put in c:\boot
2. put the boot.img(from the ISO) to c:\boot
2. add the following to c:\boot\grub\menu.lst

title Poor man's KNOPPIX
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/boot.img

with XP's bootloader you don't even need memdisk for poor man's install either.

i have extracted vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from boot.img (which can be done easily by creating the floppy from boot.img) and use those two in menu.lst as well. one big advantage in my view is that you can then append syslinux.cfg parameters in the "kernel" line of menu.lst and thus also provide different preconfigured ways to boot knoppix like e.g. different "desktop=" entries.

True. Except that putting yourself in a situation where you are running Window, how are you going to get vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from boot.img ? I outlined the procedure in a way such that everything can be done from within the evil OS, without burning CD or making floppy. There are lots of tools under Windows to manipulate ISO9660 file on disk, but none I can find that can read the ext2 file on disk.

For an experienced user like you, of course booting directly from GRUB is a much better option as different kernel can be specified as well as booting parameters tailor made as you mentioned.

[panther]

Hey guys!

I've got a problem here that I think only you guys could help me out?

The thing is that my WINDOWS hddisk is partitioned in 2
C: for all the program files,etc...
and D: for MY DOCUMENTS

so when I did a "attrib -h -r -s boot.ini" in C:
It wasn't able to find a boot.ini
So I searched for it and found it in D:

so I did everything the same, except I did them in D:
So my bootsect.knx is in C: but my boot.ini is in D:

When I restart I can "see" Knoppix on the NT bootloader but
when I select it I get a error as so:

Bla bla bla FAILED:
<Windows Folder>/system32/Hal.dll not found!
Wasnot able to load.

So I checked this so called "Hal.dll" and it exists always in my c:Windows/system32 folder?

What should I do?
Do I need a specific line in my boot.ini?
Or something like that?

Thanks a lot!

P.S. I installed Knoppix 3.3 on a seperate Harddrive