Dual boot

Hello,

I am a new member and i like your forum very much

I 've just purchased an ACER ASPIRE ONE 532H-2223 netbook and i am very happy with it

Since i am a Linux user and i cannot stand the Win7 starter, i would like to install Linux.

I am familiar with all the partitioning methods in Linux but i dont 've much experience in Windows.

So i believe i need to create a new partition using GParted or Partition magic for Linux, then install my Linux Distro from a pen drive, but when it is asking me where the grub should be installed ?

I choose MBR ?, does it cause any problem to the recovery partition, because i 've read in the forum that Acer has its own boot manager other than windows ?

Please help because i dont want to mess my 2 days netbook!!!!

 

I wouldn't recommend messing about with partitions unless you really really know what you are doing!

Not meant to put you off, just be careful!

I originally posted in the Windows forum, currently when I get a chance I'm trying to set up my AAO 150 to dual boot:

- The original Linpus partition
- An XP partition

I found that I had to boot from a live USB (in my case I used the GParted live iso but had to use the command line parted tool).

I originally posted the progress so far on the Windows section of the forum:



My AAO 150 120GB came with Linpus. This may have been a UK option, but that's the way it is.

While this is lightweight and built on Fedora, I wanted to dabble in putting XP on as I keep getting asked to rebuild netbooks and I haven't yet invested in an external USB drive.

I wanted to keep Linpus though as I like Linux, it has quite a few applications that I have installed, I have it set up the way I want it and it is quick and easy. It is a shame that most people are actually scared of it, as the Windows licence price is pushing up the price of netbooks. I digress.

Firstly, I booted the machine, in Linpus installed and ran Gnome Partition Editor. Unfortunately as I was using the current partition it was unresizable.

I downloaded a GParted live USB boot image, and booted of it (F12 on startup, 2nd option).

The X server from the GParted boot would not start, so I entered the parted text mode.

Warning - Resizing partitions is not for the inexperienced or the faint hearted

In parted, after an e2fsck I was able to resize the 120GB into 2 60GB drives.

After this was complete, I rebooted the machine back into linpus to make sure all was well. It was. The drive was now 60GB, GParted confirmed the existence of an extra 60GB partition.

I followed the instructions from here http://komku.blogspot.com/2009/09/winto ... ws-xp.html to make a wintoflash bootable XP CD using the CD drive on my other PC.

Booted into text mode as the guide said, ran the XP installer.

Then, on booting into the GUI mode, I was getting all sorts of HAL.DLL errors / the hard drive could not be found errors.

Rebooted and selected the debug -> parition[2] option (Linpus main was partition 1, partition 2 was now NTFS XP, partition 3 is swap).

Once finished, rebooted, did the same to boot into partition 2 and XP booted.

To do:
- If my extra 1GB RAM ever arrives, install it.
- Fix the c:\boot.ini to point XP to partition 2 so I don't have to boot into the USB pen to get to partition 2.
- Downloaded the drivers from http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/no ... e_150.html , to be installed.
- Fix the grub loader. I will try Auto Super Grub Disk for this http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/AutoSuperGrubDisk
- Install BURG loader. This will cause the machine to boot into a graphical startup similar to this - http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/ ... iginal.png

From which I can select to boot Linpus, XP, and possibly in the future OSX.

 

so where are you installing grub in the MBR or somewhere else ?

 

Grub is usually installed in the MBR yes. Windows ntldr overwrites this, this is why I am going to try AutoSuperGrubDisk to get Grub back.

Grub can boot Windows and Linux.

Burg is effectively a graphical menu for grub

 

Hi,

Thanks for your help

what about the boot manager of Acer is it going to be affected if grub is installed in the MBR ?

Thanks

 

To the best of my knowledge the Acer Linpus boot is a variant of Grub.

Unfortunately Auto Super Grub Boot disk didn't work, so tonight I am going to boot off the gparted live USB and rebuild my grub.

Grub info here

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

 

As a follow up:


http://jargongeneration.com/AcerAspire/ ... ubboot.php is a tremendous help!

Hasn't arrived yet. :evil:

Done. XP booted.

Done. Everything works, resolution is correct.

AutoSuperGrubDisk didn't work. I followed the instructions from here, however:

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

Used the GParted USB boot to fix Grub, went into Linpus, installed the *new* Grub, so now have a functioning boot menu.

3 choices:
- Fedora (just seems to boot Linpus which is based on Fedora, so might hide this entry)
- Linpus
- Windows XP

That guide is fantastic, would suggest anyone attempting this to follow that guide.

Last time I installed Burg was a Mint / 7 machine. As mint was Ubuntu based it was easier to install. Will investigate installing on the Fedora based Linpus over the weekend to get my graphical boot menu.