Knoppix installation...

[Stealth870]

It seems I've installed Knoppix on a hdd partition correctly, but for some reason, the boot floppy made by the process never works! And now I have the install on the parition, but I can't boot it! I tried GAG, but it doesn't detect a boot sector or something. I installed LILO on the partition so I didnt replace the MBR. So whats up?

[bob58]

Just an idea.....boot from the CD to completion, bring up console, type "sudo su" [without quotes] and run cfdisk. Look at your primary LINUX partition and make sure it is set to bootable. That is the first choice in the several choices at bottom of screen. You could use qtparted, but i am not too familiar with that program. But cfdisk is pretty simple to use. Just look for your PRIMARY LINUX PARTITION......on that same line you should see the word 'boot'. If not, look at bottom of screen. bootable is the first choice. Just hit "enter" then press right arrow key to "write", press enter....then press right arrow key all the way round till you come to QUIT or EXIT. Reboot and cross your fingers! Hope this helps.

[Stealth870]

And this will allow me to use it in GAG? Or the NT bootloader?

[bob58]

Hi....Unfortunatly I am not familiar with GAG or the NT bootloader as far as a dual boot with LINUX. I know, just from my experiance with KNOPPIX, if you just use the regular installer, knx2hd, you will be prompted to setup LILO, but you have to configure it later by using KWRITE, or any editor to recognize and show you your boot options, as far as choices between Windows, Linux etc. Anyway thats how I did mine.

[Markus]

If you want to use NTldr you can:
- Boot cd
- open a terminal
- type: mount /dev/hdXY /mnt/hdXY (where X is the disk and Y partition for root)
- type: chroot /mnt/hdXY/ /sbin/lilo -v (to change root to and run lilo on the hdinstall)
- type: cd /
- type: dd if=/dev/hdXY of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
- copy the file from / to C:\ if it's fat, via floppy or some other if it's ntfs
- type: ctrl-d (to exit from chroot)
- reboot to windows
- add the line C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux" to C:\boot.ini
- reboot again and hope for the best

[Stealth870]

Markus, I tried your method and it didn't work, do I have to do what bob suggested first?

[Markus]

About the partitions? Yes, you should do it first.
Did you check if you got the file bootsect.lnx in your root partition?

[Stealth870]

Ok, when I do the cfdisk thing, it only looks at my first hdd. hda2 has the boot flag on. But my linux install is on hdb5! And I can't seem to check it. I type cfdisk /mnt/hdb5 and it says its in read only, even though I mounted the drive, and changed the read-write access. I see my knoppix install in there and everything but it doesnt work. I tried the knoppix bootfromhd thing and it can't find something. And yes, I found the bootsect thing, copied it to a floppy, pasted in C: of windows and put in boot.ini your thing. It just gives me a black screen with the flashing underscore...

Is there something inside bootsect? I opened it in notepad and its empty...

Also, if this doesnt work, how do I dual boot with LILO? Without completely killing my MBR...

[tonylmiller]

Hi....Unfortunatly I am not familiar with GAG or the NT bootloader as far as a dual boot with LINUX. I know, just from my experiance with KNOPPIX, if you just use the regular installer, knx2hd, you will be prompted to setup LILO, but you have to configure it later by using KWRITE, or any editor to recognize and show you your boot options, as far as choices between Windows, Linux etc. Anyway thats how I did mine.

Bob:

I just did the "sudo knx2hd" install (after installing Win 98SE first, on its own partition on the same drive) and lilo came up with the windows option for booting. I went ahead and edited the lilo config file to remove some undesirable options (and to rename some of them), but it recognized the Windows partition and booted to it just fine. I was impressed.

Your mileage may vary. . .

[Markus]

Have you read the sticky on top of this Hdd Install section: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3311
I don't think notepad will show any characters in bootsect.lnx, haven't checked though.
Try with cfdisk /dev/hdb (notice dev instead of mnt)
Still I believe the easiest way to partition for linux is to pop in a Mandrake install CD, prepare the partitions and abort the installation just to continue with the distro of choise. (oh am I going to get flamed for that one )

Dual-booting with Lilo in the MBR isn't usually a problem, if it borks up you can restore your MBR. All in the sticky.