Arch Linux

PPeter

Member

Registered: 2012-08-21

Posts: 19

[SOLVED] Bootloader Installation Question

I've installed Arch Linux several times on a virtual machine (using syslinux as bootloader) without any problems, and now I've decided to have my laptop dual boot with Windows 7 and Arch.

My laptop came with Windows 7 pre-installed and so after I changed the boot location, Windows has 3 primary partitions on the HD. I plan on having a boot, swap, root, and home partitions (logical). The main Windows partition is the active partition currently.

My questions are:
1) Is it easier to do this with grub rather than with syslinux?
2) Do I need to change the Windows partition so that it is no longer active?

Thanks for reading, and any replies are much appreciated.

-Peter

Last edited by PPeter (2012-08-22 04:44:27)

Thiago H

Member

Registered: 2010-06-05

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Bootloader Installation Question

1) It's a matter of personal preference. You could try both and decide which you like the most.
2) No, you don't Linux can boot from non-active partitions since... forever?

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: [SOLVED] Bootloader Installation Question

Well, actually, Syslinux needs the partition that contains the Syslinux files to be active (with the boot flag). GRUB, on the other hand, doesn't need the boot flag. It stores its information in hidden sectors after the MBR (after the first 512 bytes). Either bootloader will have to be installed in the MBR (/dev/sdx, not /dev/sdxY).

If you're worried about Windows not booting any more, don't worry, it will.

If you currently have 3 primary partitions, with MBR-formatted drives you are limited to 4 primary partitions. But you can create one more, make it extended and add as many logical partitions as you need.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning

Last edited by DSpider (2012-08-21 22:18:38)

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jjacky

Member

Registered: 2011-11-09

Posts: 347

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Bootloader Installation Question

Well, actually, Syslinux needs the partition that contains the Syslinux files to be active (with the boot flag).

But, although I never tried it myself, I believe one can use syslinux and a logical boot partition, using the alternate MBR.

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blog - github

PPeter

Member

Registered: 2012-08-21

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] Bootloader Installation Question

I decided to stick with syslinux and finally got it working. I was worried because at the time of creating the thread, I had already tried 3 times to install dual boot arch linux. I would always get stuck on the bootloader and something wouldn't load correctly. So in turn, I would have to deal with the slow process of fixing Windows for another try.

Thanks for all the replies.