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
LiveCD with gparted (I used XUBUNTU)
external CD/DVD-drive
SD-CARD(>4Gb) or external Harddrive
Windows CD
Preparations
Backup your data!
Make an
ISO from a WindowsXP-CD with nLite (there is also a wiki-article)
Preparing Xandros
Get rid of the Unionfs (there is a wiki-article). This is not mandatory but it is recommended.
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.
Now, backup your Xandros: Open a console an type
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
Installing Windows
Start the with nLite changed installdisk from Windows and delete all partitions in the setup
Next, I created one partition for Windows with 1.3 Gb. This was enough space for my slimmed down installation.
Getting back Xandros
Now start from the LiveCD
Open a console and sudo it
sudo bash
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
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
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
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.
Next type
find /boot/grub/stage1
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!)
Then type
root (X,Y)
where X,Y is the output from find
Next type
setup (X)
where X is the output from find
Remember the X,Y!
This should now work, type
quit
Make a new Boot-Entry
Now we have to make a new boot-entry in the startuplist from Grub
Mount the linux-partion
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
if Linux is on sda2
Now type
kwrite /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
to edit the startuplist
You see now the different entries from the different kind of startups.
I made a new entry after “Normal Boot”:
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (X,Y)
chainloader +1
makeactive
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
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”.
Put a ”#” in front of “hiddenmenu” to show the bootmenu.
#hiddenmenu
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. ]
dualboot_with_xandros_and_windowsxp.txt · Last modified: 2009/11/08 11:25 by albkwan