Mandrake 9.2 boot disk

[pedromdsantos]

I have my harddisk with Windows XP and Mandrake 9.2 in dual boot.
When i installed Mandrake i tried to create a boot disk but i always receive a error message. After the instalation i try again and receive a new error message, it seems that the boot disk is bigger than 1.44 Mb, and Mandrake doesn't ask for a second floopy disk.

Does anyone knows how can i create the Mandreke 9.2 boot disk ?

And how can i reinstall Lilo or Grub after a new Windows XP instalation, avoiding a new Mandrake's instalation ? I saw a lot of tutorials but none of them works.

Thanks.

[)BIG"B"Affleck]

Make a boot floppy under(in) Windows as follows:

• insert the CDROM, then open the icon "My Computer", right click on the CDROM drive icon and select "Open"
• go into the "dosutils" directory and double-click on the "rawwritewin" icon
• insert a blank floppy in the floppy drive
• select "D:\images\cdrom.img" in the "Image File" field (assuming that your CDROM drive is "D:", otherwise replace "D:" as needed)
• select "A:" in the "Floppy Drive" field then click on "Write".

To begin the installation:

insert the CDROM in the drive, as well as the boot floppy, then
restart the computer.
Good luck

[Epro]

Yeah, I need a floppy disk to start up Mandrake because I dont wanna use LILO and GRUB because I dont want to scare my family, theres no explainging it to them, I have LILO currently installed but it wont be long untill they find out, I wanna be able to use a floppy to boot up linux instaead of using a bootloader....I thank You!

[WEATHER CHANNEL]

You can always just turn down the boot-loader time to 2-3 seconds & make it boot into windows after it times out. That way, they would see the boot-loader for only 2-3 seconds or if you bought or used an old HDD, you could piggyback them. Then use your BIOS for a ghetto boot-loader .Thats hardcore & low-key.
Hey, try out the SuSE live-eval 8.1 www.LinuxISO.org

http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=2

[Epro]

How do I make Windows the default?

[TheOgre]

In lilo, to make Windows the default boot operating system, simply make Linux the last entry in /etc/lilo.conf

Depending on which editor you use, you can either copy/paste the lines, or retype them manually.

Another key element is to RUN LILO WHEN DONE MAKING CHANGES TO LILO.CONF. If you forget to do this, none of the changes you made to lilo.conf will take effect. It might help if you add a line to the bottom of lilo.conf reminding yourself to run lilo after saving any changes:

root@host# echo Run lilo when after saving changes >> /etc/lilo.conf

Anyway, to answer your question, here's one way you can make the change:

At the bottom of /etc/lilo.conf, look for something similar to:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  image = /boot/vmlinuz
    root = /dev/hda3
    label = Linux
    read-only
  # Linux bootable partition config ends
  # DOS bootable partition config begins
  other = /dev/hda1
    label = Windows
    table = /dev/hda
  # DOS bootable partition config ends

To make Windows the default booting operating system, simply move the Linux section to the end so it looks like this:

# DOS bootable partition config begins
  other = /dev/hda1
    label = Windows
    table = /dev/hda
  # DOS bootable partition config ends
  # Linux bootable partition config begins
  image = /boot/vmlinuz
    root = /dev/hda3
    label = Linux
    read-only
  # Linux bootable partition config ends

After you've done that, run lilo and check the stdout (standard output):

root@host# lilo
  Added Windows *
  Added Linux
  root@host#

(In Slackware, lilo is located in /sbin but you shouldn't have to specify the full path, since it should already be in root's $PATH.) If you try to runlilo and the system complains it can't find it, one way to locate it would be to use the which command:

root@host# which lilo
  /sbin/lilo
  root@host#

The asteric following Windows indicates the default operating system. On the next reboot, your system should boot into Windows.

You can also change the standard lilo text message by editing/boot/boot_message.txt (or whatever the boot message file is, as referenced in lilo.conf: message = /boot/boot_message.txt)

To change the timeout period, change the value for timeout = to something like 30, which would be roughly 3 seconds.

Let me know if any of this helps ...

[Epro]

well in my lilo.conf I had a string that said "default=linux" so I changed er to windows, still it booted up in linux, so then I selected GRUB and made it go to windows within two seconds! Thanks for you help, I can tell you went all out to help me, Now I got a modem (SmartPCI561 56K PCI) and a sound card (Norce2 audio codec Interface) to get to work with Mandrake Linux 9.2, any chances of hope? BTW OSS wont work for some reason

[NormanK]

I am having a problem. When I try to do the Mandrake boot floopy, it says it needs cdrom drivers. I put in the disk I make w/ rawritewin and the cdrom.img from the cd. But it gives me the message that it isn't an ext2 floppy, and I can pick yes no or cancel. Any suggestions?