Dual Boot Windows/Linpus using Backup Image (Download Here)

I am getting my 160g windows XP AA1 tonight. So I will be working through all of this. I want to respond to some posts in this thread and eventually offer some sound advice.

There was a question about ext2 and ext3. EXT2 is a linux file system. It is pretty robust, much like NTFS in windows. EXT3 is a linux file system that is really EXT2 with journaling loaded on top of it. Journaling means data is committed to journal as it is written to a drive. If there was a problem, random reboot, etc the journal file is recovered to put the drive back into a clean state. Meaning ext3 is better than ext2 or ntfs. The thing with any linux is you can only boot to a file system that the linux kernel understands at boot time. ext2 is always a safe bet. If ext3 is not compiled into the kernel, you can boot from ext2 and once linux is loaded an ext3 kernel module may be available to allow access to ext3 partitions. ext2 can be converted into ext3 by adding a journal file and ext3 can be converted to ext2 by removing the journal file. tune2fs does this for UNMOUNTED file systems.

I do not know if ext3 is built into the linpus kernel (it probably built in but I can not verify that yet). If it is, you can get the benefits of ext3 by 1) running tune2fs to convert ext2 to ext3. 2) edit the /etc/fstab file and change the description of the partition from ext2 to ext3.

As far as partitions and Windows goes. Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and 98 can only be installed in the first primary partition of a hard drive. Any other partition, primary or logical is a no go. NT 3.1, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista, must be installed on a primary partition, but it does not have to be the first one. However, you can not swap these partitions around. With linux you can install to partition 3 and them copy it to partition 1, modify /etc/fstab and it will boot fine. If you move Windows from on partition to another, it does not boot correctly and you are unable to boot Windows to tell it that the partition it is installed on has changed.

From what I can tell so far, this backup image is of linpus linux formated as ext2 configured so that it expects to be on ext6 and ext5 to be set up as a swap partition. The grub boot loader was loaded into the boot sector of the linpus partition (hda6).

What I am going to do and eventually post a walk through on is the following.

• A 200meg windows.exe file that will do the following. Rename c:\ntldr.dll to c:\ntldrxp.dll, drop in the grub.dll named to c:\ntldr.dll, creates a c:\menu.lst and creates a C:\slax folder. And puts the slax linux files into that folder.[/*:v2ql4qpp]
• At that point you can reboot and you will be prompted with 3 boot options WindowsXP, Linpus and Slax. Linupus will not be working yet. Slax is a boot to slax running from ram. It will work but no wireless service and the windows drive unmounted.[/*:v2ql4qpp]
• From there you can run gparted, resize the windows partition, create an extended partition 2, a swap file in partition 5 and an ext2 partition 6.[/*:v2ql4qpp]
• Reboot back to windows and run macrium to copy mercado79's image into partition 6.[/*:v2ql4qpp]
• Reboot and select Linux from the boot menu to enjoy the goodness of Linpus.[/*:v2ql4qpp]

Most "Live" CD distros can have the files from the live CD dropped into a folder on the windows hard drive and booted from wingrub via an entry in the c:\menu.lst file. All my computers at work (8 locations in 3 states) Have Windows XP and slax that runs from RAM on them. If a computer has an issue, I can remotely reboot the computer to slax, and reimage the drive with partimage. I also have a memory stick with the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows and 4 versions of linux on it that boots with this method.

 

Sorry, I'm n00b: where do I get these files?
Bootpart doesn"t work for me...

EDIT: read the thread again and worked fine using Grub. Thanks to all

 

Please, can you or someonelse, upload this files!? I deleted when I try myself.

 

Here are the four Linpus boot files you requested.

http://lifeisasketch.com/files/boot_files.zip

Also, TNT, I've added your WinGrub steps to my website along with these files. Thanks for your help!

 

Dear Mr. Mercado79:

Hope your wrist is healing up! And I for one appreciate all the work you are putting into this.

I swapped out my hard drive for a 250-Gigger. Then using GParted, I partitioned as follows:
--WinXP Restore partition (left untouched): 4.88 Gigs
--WinXP working partition: 173.48 Gigs

Then a logical drive, divided as follows:
--Swap: 2.07 Gigs
--Linpus: 4.01 Gigs
--Ubuntu: 48.45 Gigs (not installed yet)

Unfortunately, when I run the Macrium Reflect, the ONLY option I am shown for installing your Linpus image is the WinXP working partiton! :? What am I doing wrong?

I am not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but I have been playing with Linux for a very long time, and am pretty good with Ubuntu.

Thanks in advance!

Dr. Steve, central old Mexico

 

When I tried restoring from the Macrium Reflect bootable image, the same thing happened. It didn't seem to see the Linux partitions. However, from within XP, the partition was visible. Also, I'm not sure if it was visible because the program can see the Linux filesystems by default or because I had installed the ifs Ext2 Windows driver. You might want to try that too. Good luck!

And thanks for your comment about my wrist! It is all healed up perfectly. I lucked out and was referred to doctor I later found out is one of the top hand surgeons in the country. No problems at all...

 

Great (about your wrist).

So what option INSTEAD of Macrium do we have? I can see the Linux partitions (I have installed the Ext2 driver). But I even tried formatting the Linpus partiton in Fat32, and it still wouldn´t allow me to restore to it. or can I just unzip all the files into that directory?

 

The image is in Macrium's own format (though I compressed the file in 7zip format). You'll need to make sure you extracted the image. Macrium should see it after that. Also, you definitely cannot restore the image onto a Fat32 partition. It has to be Ext2.

 

Hello
I have a 120Gb AAO Windows Xp version, I got it because for the price it was a ggod option, but I wanted to use Linpus. I got here and found mercado79 image and instructions. I want to thank you both mercado79 and encaputxat because putting together your posts I was able to dual boot. In my experiencience, I did as follows.
0. Defrag your disk, just in case to make sure there's enough room for the new partitions.
1. Shrink XP partition to 90Gb using Partition Magic. (I wanted to keep enough room to run iTunes on XP).
2. Creat 1.5Gb Linux Swap Partition and then all remaining space for an ext2 partition, both as logical partitions. I used Partition Magic to create both, and format them. How many primary partitions you have doesn't matter as the first logical will be always hd0,4 (sda5) and the second one hd0,5 (sda6)
3. Dawnload Macrium Reflect and install it, then download mercados's image.
4. Restore image on the ext2 partition. Macrium reflect let's you choose what partition to restore to, and follow mercado advise, do not replace the boot reccord using the image. This is because I don't know if it will replace the boot reccord on the ext2 partition or in the disk MBR, and I didn't want to lose my XP boot.
5. I agree to use the windows boot loader, so I tried bootpart, but it didn't worked for me either, I followed encaputxat recomendation and used WINGRUB. it's explained some posts over this, and mercado already updated his personal page with these instructions. If your ext2 partition is the second logical, it will be always (hd0,5).
And that is it, it should work, it worked for me the first time I booted using wingrub. So, grate job, go here and enjoy:
http://lifeisasketch.com/node/6/
Finally, I liked linpus so much, I edited my XP boot.ini and set Linpus as default, so I always start using linpus. I only switch to Windows to update my iPod, and run WMWare and Virtual PC, perhaps I'll try VMWare on Linpus and won't need XP anymore if I find iPod classic support, but that's another story.
Good luck

 

Thanks to mercado and tnt, I've got a Windows/Linpus dual-boot AA1. I do want to ask, however, if I should be seeing a splash screen when grub is loading Linpus. I see a screen-ful of text, which scrolls too fast for me to read, but no image.

 

Another question, File Manager in linpus states that I only have 1.5 GB free of 3.9 GB on My Disk. That can't be right? I allocated 8 GB to my linpus partition. But, according to GParted, 6.56 GB of those are used up already. That can't be right either!

Am I reading these numbers incorrectly?

 

To answer my own last post above, I am now getting the correct disk space info reported after I used GParted to get rid of the swap partition and merged the available free space with the linpus partition.

 

Hey thanks for all the info. I have a problem with getting my linpus back. I used WinGRUB but when i restart the computer and chose the Start GRUB option it keeps saying "Try (hd0,0): extended or non-MS: skip." WinGRUB said my linpus partition was hd 0,0 and i checked and its on the sda1 partition i think.

Could someone help! Thanks

 

I'm seeing some boot errors, but they don't stay on screen long enough for me to read. Is there a command in the grub config file that can pause the boot output until I press a key? I thought 'pause' does that. But, it's not working for me.

 

guys I got this to work but i'm wondering what happen to the rest of my hard drive sapce?? I allocated 8gb of hard drive space and it only show 4gb? how can I increase the size of hard it sees? sorry i'm new to linux.

 

timeout=10

 

Unetbootin w/ Fedora 8 LIVE works as making Linpus Lite boot from USB.

 

Same thing here.
Allocated 5 Gb for Swap (way too much, isn't it?) and 13 Gb for Linpus image (next to XP).
Restored the Linpus image (thanks Mercado79 !!) and all works well.
Only thing is my Linpus-disk seems to be approx. 4 Gb in stead of 13 Gb?
Can I solve this using Partition Magic (in XP) or GParted (in Linpus)?
What about the Swap-disk? Should I change it to (to 1 or 1,5 Gb ?).

Another thing... when I watch a movie using VLC:
- on XP -> sound is fine.
- on Linpus -> sound is like "over-modulated"?

 

I used GParted to get rid of the swap partition and merge the resulting free space with my Linpus partition. Once I did that, the correct partition size is displayed. Note: I have 1.5GB of RAM.

 

Hey thanks for all the awesome help and info.. I have a AA1 that i have converted from and SSD to 1.8 zif drive.. works great with XP and i have also installed the extra memory.. my question is i have already partitioned the hard drive with an 8Gb partition for the acer linpus.. at this point all i would have to do is reinstall the image from your download link and i should be able to dual boot.. But is the grub loader included with your image??

Is there more to this and should i create an additional partition on the drive for the swap file.. thanks Pete