Arch Linux

AdamskiAirsoft

Member

Registered: 2006-07-24

Posts: 33

Installation of a multiboot system

Hullo,

I just got an Arch 0.7.2 CD in the mail today, and I wouldn't mind trying Linux out, for about the eight time. Last time I tried this I had mounted an .ISO on a CD and installed like that. Well, installation went fine, until I got to the boot loader. I had a Windows 2000 partition, and a new Arch Linux partition. I wasn't sure what to do here, so I did a few things, restarted. And my computer was fucked. It might be in my post history, but basically I could not go my computer to boot, so I was forced to use Knoppix STD until I could purchase a new hard drive.

Now, I did just all of a sudden get infested with viruses and stuff the day of the install, so they might have been the cause, but in either case, I don't want to perform this installation again, screw up my boot, and have to purchase another harddrive.

I was wondering if there were any specific articles for Arch on how to do this, what options to choose, etc. I currently have a full partition for Windows XP right now, but I'm not worried about losing data, or having to reinstall XP due to having to erase and repartition my drive, it's just getting a new hard drive.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,074

Re: Installation of a multiboot system

For multi boot you have these 3 options :

1 use MS bootloader
This leaves your current MBR in place, but it's very hard to get an ms bootloader to boot a non MS system

2 use grub or lilo from arch
This overwrites the MBR and you will need to add windows to the options.
See Grub_configure_examples
(I assume Lilo examples are also in the wiki )

3 use a third party bootloader like bootmagic (included with Partition Magic , previously from powersoft now from Symantec)
This also will overwrite the MBR , but has the advantage that you can install it before installing arch so you will be sure it works with windows.
The bootloader may have restrictions on what kind of filesystem you can use to boot arch.

Option 2 is usually the easiest to get working.

The MBR on the drive your system boots from (usually the first/primary harddisk) is the one that will need to be overwritten.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky