Hello all. Newbie here.

I'm trying to create a dualboot setup of Windows 2000 Pro and Mandrake 10 Official (3cd download edition), booting from the Windows NTLDR. I've read a ton of tutorials on the web that all make it sound so easy, yet I can't get the darn thing to work.

The problem I'm having is that the tutorials all say to install the LILO bootloader to the first Linux extension (hda5 for me), not the MBR. Then you are supposed to create a bootdisk near the end of the Linux install that will allow you to boot into Linux, where you copy the Linux boot sector onto a floppy. Finally, you copy this boot sector file to the C: and edit the Windows boot.ini file to include an option for booting to Linux.

The PROBLEM I am having with all of this is that at no point during the Mandrake install do I see the option to create the boot disk. Am I missing something?

The way my partitions are setup is like so (on one 200gb drive):

Primary
C: - 8GB - FAT32 - Windows 2000 Pro
Extended
hda5 - 100MB - Linux Ext3 - /boot
hda6 - 512MB - Linux Swap - swap
hda7 - 5GB - Linux Ext3 - / (root)
hda8 - 30GB - Linux Ext3 - /home

The remaining 146GB is unallocated. I'm testing on this 200GB drive to get it all working before I do it on the 80GB one I plan to finally have all my OSes and programs on. The 200 will then be used just for data.

Thanks!

It's either available in the expert installation mode or when time comes to setup lilo, there may be an advanced button. I'm sorry I can't remember exactly where.
IIRC, that's where you can change the labels, the default and other options. I think it's towards the end of the installation process.

The boot floppy comes up at the end. Look for it in the summary section, although it should come up after installing lilo.

I came from a windows background several years ago. When I tried linux, I realized that I was quite ignorant about how windows worked. I have since found that windows is a limited os, at best, and a pathetic attempt at dominating something that I own, at worse. I would recommend trying a boot loader that is available from somewhere other than windows. That is just my opinion.

Thanks for the replies. I finally got it to work yesterday by trying things many different ways and scouring the internet for info. I'll post my experience here in the case it might help someone else out trying to do the same thing.

It's very unclear where you're supposed to create a boot disk in the expert installation (I had the same problem in the basic install). The only screen in the installation that I was able to do this in was the Summary step near the end. I was unable to set it at any point before this. The last entry in the Summary has to do with the boot options. Clicking on that opened a window where I could change some settings. Mandrake was automatically trying to install itself to my /dev/hda where my MBR is for Windows. I changed the Boot Device setting to /dev/fd0 for it to boot from a floppy (a very unclear choice for someone not familiar with Linux terms). The first floppy I tried wouldn't work, got an error that said: FATAL: Filesystem would be destroyed by lilo bootsector: /dev/fd0. My guess is that it didn't like a freshly formatted floppy from Windows. Mandrake didn't give me another chance with another disk, and acted like it had setup just fine. Not so. Couldn't boot into Mandrake at all.

So, the next step was to boot from the Mandrake installation cd again, and choose F1 for options, and to type in Repair to repair the installation. Choosing the Create Boot Record Again option, I used a different floppy (that I had created previously in windows as a Mandrake install boot disk using the Mandrake CD), and it wrote the boot record to the floppy.

I was then able to get into Mandrake by booting with the floppy. Lilo appeared and I chose the first option. Once in Linux, I went from the menu bar to System/Configuration/Configure your Computer, and entered my root password. Chose Boot, then Boot Loader. In here, I was able to change the boot device from /dev/fd0 to /dev/hb6 (where I had set up my Linux root, my partition and disk setup changed from what I had written above).

The next step was to write the boot record to a floppy using the Terminal. Typed:
to do so on a new floppy. Rebooted into windows, copied the bootsect.lnx file from the floppy to my C:\. Edited the boot.ini file (also found in C:\) to include on the last line:

Now, upon rebooting I was faced with Windows own NTLDR with an option for Linux added. Mission accomplished. This was a long and daunting task, but still much quicker than getting Windows setup with all of it's updates and crap. Maybe one day I'll be able to move all the way over to Linux, but not quite yet. Not too comfortable in there yet.

One problem with this though... Selecting Linux brings me to Lilo first, which I don't quite like. I was hoping for it to boot me straight into Mandrake. If anyone knows how to fix that, I would love to hear it.

Ixthusdan,

The reason I am liking Windows NTLDR is that it loads up much faster than Linux's lilo. It seems to come up directly after the BIOS post. Lilo, on the other hand, only comes up after a ton of text goes by loading up linux. If Linux was the thing I was booting into most often, then it wouldn't matter. But it seems a waste of time to wait so long to boot into Windows.

Any other booters (grub?) work differently?

You can go into MCC -> boot (I think) and set the lilo wait time to 0 seconds before it boots to the default.

Thanks LiquidZoo!

That worked great. I had to rewrite the bootsect.lnx file and put the newer version in c:\ for the changes to take place. Thanks for the help.

One other thing, one choice in lilo that I don't understand is this one, which is set as my default. Just want to make sure it should be:
linux-i686-up-4GB

Thats the kernel used for machines with over 1 gig memory. Its also compiled for the i686 prossessors. Pent4 and up. It should be pretty stable for you.