Dual Boot Linpus and XP - Idiots' Guide

Alright, i've almost lost it lol.

I've created the ntfs partition as sda2 and set the flag as 'boot' for it. The option Apply is greyed out. However, when I reboot, it keeps booting into Linpus when I don't press F12. When I do press F12 and select my DVD Drive to try to install Windows XP, it boots into Linpus anyway.

I don't really know how to go from here.

 

Hi there & thx for this great guide !

I'm however in need of help for i am in situation 12A aka If you get to the first reboot under XP (once it has copied some stuff from CD to the hard disk) and it errors on the reboot with an hal.dll error then the chances are that your partitions were confusing XP. Follow the instructions at the end of this article called "Changing the partition numbers".

So i rebooted with gparted, put linpus partition on boot... but it does not boot...i get this sad message :

"windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. plz check the windows configuration documentation....."

When windows partition is on boot i just get the Hal can't be found message. Well i'm lost, wife is screaming at me it's her aao :/

Help ?!

edit : is my answer here ?

http://jargongeneration.com/AcerAspire/ ... otmenu.php

 

Are you absolutely sure your CD/DVD is bootable? Normally you will see "Press any key to boot from CD..." if it is.

 

What version of XP are you installing? Must be SP2 or higher (see previous thread from this evening).

I believe my guide also says not to do this under stressful circumstances!!! You need peace and quiet and time (and not have to wait for further assistance tomorrow because I'm going to watch telly now, sorry!)

If you are loading XP SP2 then, yes, the answer is in the Guide but it's fiddly. You need time, patience and possibly help...tomorrow.

 

yes xp sp2

i'm exagerating, my wife is just sad... but confident
I'll take my time, i can always restore if all fails !

edit : i'm doing a guide mix... your's for multi booting and another for usb key, but that should not be the issues since my usb key is bootable (other guide : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8151&start=0)
I know your guide was dedicated to dvd installation, don't flame me, i can always restore to factory settings if what i had in mind is plainly impossible, but i don't see why it could be... impossible, and no guide covers multi booting with usb key install

cheers

 

HAHAHA OH SHI-

I had a Windows Service Pack 2 CD in there instead of the Windows XP Streamlined CD.

umm, i'm installing windows now, no hal.dll error because i deleted the linux-swap partition because I already have 1.5gb of RAM in here. Hope all goes well if my dumb brain doesn't interfere again.
_____________

Ok, a little bump i encountered to help other users who may have gotten stuck at this point. It says in your guide:

Code:

Ed: Ditto for prompt about handling key maps and preferred language. Just hit Enter to choose the default.

When it asked me about handling key maps, i pressed the second selection: "Don't Change Key Mapping". It gave me a list of about 50 different languages. Whenever I tried to enter in 0, it would press / instead (A lot of the other keys on my keyboard mapped to strange characters too). I found if I press Function+0, it would only then enter in 0.

So therefore, if you're encountering problems when trying to type in your language preference when on the Key Mapping bit, there's your solution.

 

Doh!!! See, that sort of thing happens when you do this late in the day...

I didn't have this error (on any occasion) so I can only assume you chose a different option to me. You say you pressed the "second option". What was the first (default) option if you had just pressed Enter?

Encouraging that you have progressed thus far...what would life be like without a challenge or six?

 

Well, I'm tempted to say "You're on your own boy" because the issue(s) you're describing are not related to my Idiots' Guide (necessarily) but being the affable chap I am I'll try and help as best I can.

Just answer me the simple question: Why? Why in God's name are you turning a tricky install into a downright convoluted install? Why not just hook up an external CD/DVD drive to your AAO and make life a lot easier for yourself (and me!)? :shock:

I should point out that Windows cannot boot and run from an external USB anything. Not without some severe tweaking. This is because, although Windows will initially boot from a USB whatever, the first thing it then does is RESET the USB interface. That's a bit like sawing off the branch you're currently sitting on. Instant BSOD or other Windows error (like "I can't find the device any more that I was just reading...where is it?").

Oh well, each to their own challenges. Post back if you get stuck/still are stuck.

 

Thanks you for your time Aresby !

Why well i do not want to invest 30€ on an external drive, the two how-to i used should be compatible since installing winxp from usb key works, a lot of people have done it with success. You method works too so why not combine them and in the end help all the fellows out there that would want to do it ?!

So i managed to get linpus booting again using the workaround you have on your great guide hurray

to get to read boot.ini, i had to change the mouting command line you gave because i install winxp on a fat32 partition having read on this forum that windows xp run much faster on the aao with a fat32 partition than on a ntfs one.

mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 xpdisk (that did the work)

So here is my boot.ini :

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

My fat32 partition is on /dev/sda2, so the partition pointing seems correct, is it due to the rdisk(1) instead of rdisk(0) i see on your guide ? I only have one ssd drive so this is probably the problem but i'll wait for confirmation before doing anything as i only have one spare usb key and need to format and reinstall every thing on it (either the gparted boot or the bootable winxp install) every time.

another last question, my linux swap used to be /dev/sda2/ and is now /dev/sda3/ do i need to reconfigure linpus to mount it or is this automaticly done ? I installed gparted on linpus and it seems linux-swap partition is not mounted...

edit : mousepad fstab and i edited my swap partition ! so pb is solved

Thanks for everyones time

cheers

 

Well, as I say, everyone needs a challenge so this is quite brave of you to attempt it. Of course, the difference between 'brave' and 'foolhardy' is that the first one is applied if the attempt works, the second term applies if it all goes wrong!

Pleased to hear it!

Can't say I've heard about the speed difference between NTFS and FAT32 but what do I know! I do know that NTFS is a much more robust file system and can recover from a wide range of 'corruption'. In effect it's a huge database. Anyway, however you get it going, that's good.

So you are actually installing on the hard disk in your AAO then (I'm was a bit confused about the USB pen drive. I realise now that you are merely using this as an install device. Bit slow me.) If that IS the case, then, YES, the hard disk in your AAO is rdisk(0) otherwise it refers to the second hard disk (which is probably your USB stick it's detected).

And good that you solved the Linpus swap partition query all by yourself.

How far have you actually got now in installing XP onto that partition?

 

I will finish on the brave side i hope

You can find on this forum posts about the fat32 vs ntfs concerning winxp "speed" on the aao !

As for the instalation of winxp, i finished the first step, that is the text instalation that went smoothely, i was supposed to launch the guy instalation after the reboot when i got the hal error. So i boot gparted as you instructed and change sda1's flag to boot, and as you allready know it didn't work...

So now i need to set window's partition flag on boot, the reformat my usb key with the installation files of winxp... files that went through nlite let's hope i do not discover another unsuspected error

Thx again for your time

Installation should be finished in a few hours, no time atm i'm at work.

cheers

 

Well there is a strange thing i forgot to report !

When i set the boot flag on my fat32 partition, i still boot on linpus oO

Normal, it seems not, anyone has an idea why this happens, that might help my solve my pb for changing rdisk(0) did not change my missing hal.dll meaning windows does not find the fat32 partition...

When i mounted the fat32 partition i did check the windows/system32 folder, all is in there and so is my friend hal.dll so this is not a faulty installation issue....

 

Much earlier in this thread DJ_Steve solved this issue for another member. Check this thread and see what you find...

 

editing grub.conf as said did not change a thing....

but i will find, i will

 

Well Aresby, i've gotten everything done now. Got my AAO dual booting Linpus and XP SP3 with the new grub loader thanks to you and your tutorial!

p.s. check your inbox

 

:mrgreen: Excellent! :mrgreen:

 

Well XP is finishing it's installation )

I had to tweak a little, but i did it !

I'll a tutorial for the ones that would like to do the same thing, you will then be saving the cost a of usb cd/dvd drive that you would only use once...

cheers

 

There is a known problem with the Acer version of the boot routine (GRUB). You have to press TAB for a good second or two and then use the arrow keys. I think there is something on this very thread about this but no resolution as far as I know (apart from installing the proper version of GRUB which is described in my guide, which is allegedly very easy to do but I haven't done it).

You have two options for Windows because your Windows boot.ini has two entries in it. This can happen sometimes. You can easily edit the boot.ini from within Windows itself (its a HIDDEN file directly on the C:\ drive [or whatever drive is the default]). Look very carefully at the options and delete the erroneous one. You should make a backup of it first. Then it will only have one option and all will be well.

Congratulations on getting this far.

 

Thank you for everything ^^.

Well, I hope that my 1st post helps someone with my problem.
I solved problem n.3, by just copying exactly what someone posted in this thread (I entered some extra empty spaces, and just removing them now windows boots normally).

As for the n1 and n2, well, I've seen is a common problem, and well, given my null skills on linux (or programming, whatever), I'm not likely to change anything. Just maybe if someone were SO KIND to do an idiot's guide for this task (fixing the tab thing and autoboot by default of one of the partitions) I surely will try it ^^.

Isn't that bad for a 1st post hehe.
Btw, thank you to all people who made possible this guide and continue giving support for those who need it.


Pedro

 

Help !

I tried to do the dual boot guide , got Micro XP working ok, then Linpus wouldn't start so I did the steps in the guide regarding the /dev ....
Now when I try to boot, the caps look just flashes and that's it. I managed to add xp to grub.conf so I can boot into XP and noticed that /dev directory is EMPTY ! Should it be empty ? and if not, could someone upload the content, don't want to download the whole image and the rec DVD has no /dev directory on it. Thx

It's a AA1 with 8 GB SSD.