Table of Contents

Dualboot with Xandros and Windows XP

I wanted to have Linux and Windows both an the SSD. Here is how I did that.

DISCLAIMER

When I did this, it worked, but it could easily be that it doesen't work every time. So I do not take any responsibilities for any loss of data.

What you need

  1. LiveCD with gparted (I used XUBUNTU)
  2. external CD/DVD-drive
  3. SD-CARD(>4Gb) or external Harddrive
  4. Windows CD

Preparations

  1. Backup your data!
  2. Make an ISO from a WindowsXP-CD with nLite (there is also a wiki-article)

Preparing Xandros

  1. Get rid of the Unionfs (there is a wiki-article). This is not mandatory but it is recommended.
  2. Plug in an external harddrive or an SD-Card with 4 Gb. All of the following commands are for a SD-Card which is /dev/sdb. So, if you use an external Harddrive you have to change that.
  3. Now, backup your Xandros: Open a console an type 
    sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Installing Windows

  1. Start the with nLite changed installdisk from Windows and delete all partitions in the setup
  2. Next, I created one partition for Windows with 1.3 Gb. This was enough space for my slimmed down installation.

Getting back Xandros

  1. Now start from the LiveCD
  2. Open a console and sudo it
    sudo bash
  3. Start gparted from the console and copy the backup from the Linux-partion (if you used the wiki-article for deleting Unionfs it should be sdb1) from the SD-Card after the Windows partition
  4. gparted had Problems with the other two partitions (sda3 & sda4), so I created (with gparted) two partions after the linux partion, each with 8 Mb
  5. I then copied from the console with dd the two partions
    dd if=/dev/sdb3 of=/dev/sda3
dd if=/dev/sdb4 of=/dev/sda4

Note: sda3 is for BIOS update and sda4 is for BIOS turbo boot.

Editing GRUB

  1. So, for now we have Windows and Xandros back on our SSD, the problem is, that we don't have Grub in the MBR. You have to write Grub again in the MBR. Do this by typing 
    grub

    in the console. You are now in the grub-console.

  2. Next type 
    find /boot/grub/stage1
  3. Now you see something like 
    hdX,Y

    where X is the harddisk and Y the partition where your Linux is installed (Note: Grub counts from 0!)

  4. Then type 
    root (X,Y)

    where X,Y is the output from find

  5. Next type 
    setup (X)

    where X is the output from find

  6. Remember the X,Y!
  7. This should now work, type 
    quit

Make a new Boot-Entry

  1. Now we have to make a new boot-entry in the startuplist from Grub
  2. Mount the linux-partion 
    mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

    if Linux is on sda2

  3. Now type 
    kwrite /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst

    to edit the startuplist

  4. You see now the different entries from the different kind of startups.
  5. I made a new entry after “Normal Boot”: 
    title Windows XP
      rootnoverify (X,Y)
      chainloader +1
      makeactive
  6. Now it is important that you change every “root (X,Y)” and sdaZ to the right entries. So I hope you remembered the X,Y above. Put it here now. In every entry should be a root- (except for the one of Windows) and a sda-entry
  7. You also have to replace every Z, where Z stands for the partion-number, which starts from 1. For example, if you only have one harddrive, and X,Y is “hd0,1” than Z is “2”.
  8. Put a ”#” in front of “hiddenmenu” to show the bootmenu. 
    #hiddenmenu
  9. I would recommend to put timeout to a higher value 
    timeout=3




So I hope it works.
Have fun,
LeChuck


P.S. The problems I had are solved, it was my special configuration

[NB. You can also refer to this article in PCMAG.com for how to dual boot Xandros and Windows XP while keeping the default union filesystem. ]