dual boot linux?

[A LeDonne]

On 12/22/05, Eric Shubes <plug at shubes.net> wrote:

<snip>

> I came across a situation which I think is the same as your problem.
> Grub doesn't work when it's located on the HDD above where the native
> bios can access, in my case ~64M. There are several ways to remedy this
> problem (in order of preference):
>
> o If there is a bios update available that provides access to larger
> (enough) drives, install (flash) it.
>
> o When installing XP, leave some free space (~50-100M) at the beginning
> of the drive. Then use that space for a (separate) /boot partition when
> installing linux. Also be sure to install grub to the MBR, as Vic mentioned.
>
> o Make your XP partition small enough that the bios can access grub
>
> Using the XP boot loader might work as well, but I'd opt for one or both
> of the first two methods above.

One other possible solution (which worked for me):

- Try LILO as a bootloader instead of GRUB

This may be worth trying if you (future reader) have an XP
installation that you don't want to touch, but all your free disk
space is above your BIOS limit (in my case, 8G). In my case, I
_really_ didn't want to touch anything on the XP side (other users'
requirement), so I use the XP bootloader with the "hack" solution
above, installing LILO on a partition and creating the image file.

-Alex