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Dual boot with Win XP as default


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I have a dual boot system with Win XP and Mandrake 9.1 that boot by default into Linux. I changed the default to Windows in the Lilo Boot Manager but it still default to Linux when I boot. How can I make Windows to boot by default?

 

Regards

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I can't think of why the gui would not work, but /etc/lilo.conf runs then in the order they are in, with the first location being default. (I think) So, edit the file and move the windex section to the first position. (I would make a back up before you edit.) Don't forget to run lilo after editing.(Type "lilo" at the command prompt.)

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The only change I made was setting Windows as default in the Lilo Boot Manager. I did not run anything and also, I am not familiar with /etc/lilo.conf. Can you tell me more about it?

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Open a console and run:

$ su

<Enter Root Password>

# kedit /etc/lilo.conf

 

Lilo.conf is text configuration file for the boot loader, lilo. The above will bring up lilo.conf in a gui text editor called kedit. It works just like a word processor. About the fourth line down you'll see a line that begins with "default" and it probably says:

 

default="linux"

 

Change that to:

 

default="windows"

 

 

Save the changes and close kedit. Open another console and run:

$ su

<Enter Root Password>

# lilo -v

 

That writes your new cnfiguration to the mbr. That should do it.

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Just to expand on this...

 

After you open the /etc/lilo.conf text file, look at it. You will see a group of lines for linux and another group of lines for windows. Each group has a label entry. The label entry for windows, by default, is 'windows'. It doesn't have to be though. So look at it and then edit the

 

default=

 

line to equal the label. You can also change the label yourself. Would you prefer to see WindowsXP in the boot manager? Change the label to

 

label=WindowsXP

 

No spaces allowed.. and then change the default = to match the new label.

 

As mentioned, after you save the text file, you have to type

 

lilo

 

and examine the messages. Should be simple..

 

Adding Windows

Adding Linux

 

something like that..

 

Any error message, then DO NOT REBOOT! YOu have to resolve them. Another suggestion is to backup the /etc/lilo.conf file before you edit so you can replace it if you can't figure out what you might have done wrong.

 

cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.bkup

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“Kedit /etc/lilo.conf” gives the following information:

 

 

boot="/dev/hda"

map=/boot/map

keytable=/boot/us.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout="100"

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

default=windows

 

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="linux"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

vga=788

read-only

 

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="linux-nonfb"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=nomount acpi=off failsafe"

read-only

 

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

image="/dev/hda1"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

 

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

image="/dev/fd0"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

 

As you can see it is already default to Windows. Now when I run “lilo –v” I get the following message: “Fatal: Kernel doesn’t support initial Ram disks.

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Mcc has screwed up your lilo.conf something bad which is why lilo -v won't work and why your still using the old config file. There's a bunch of quotation marks that don't belong there and the windows entry is complete nonsense. I did a quick edit myself:

 

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

vga=normal

default="windows"

keytable=/boot/us.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout=100

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

 

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

vga=788

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux-nonfb"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=nomount acpi=off failsafe"

read-only

 

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

 

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

image=/dev/fd0

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

 

From what I see, that's the way it should look. Before you do anything, I would recommend that you first download all the updates to correct the bugs in mcc. If you have broadband, download all of them;if not, download all the ones dealing with drakconf or drakx. After that, go into mcc>boot and make a boot floppy. Test the floppy to make sure you can boot off it. Reason - your going to have to do some extensive editing of lilo.conf which is now pretty screwed up. You can probably just delete all the text in lilo conf and cut and paste what I gave you, but I'm not at your box so I can't be 100% sure that everything is OK. I can guarantee you that what you have will never boot windows which is why lilo is refusing to write it to the mbr and is using your old lilo.conf. At any rate, it is possible, though unlikely to screw up lilo.conf but lilo -v will still write it to the mbr. This could leave your system unbootable without a boot floppy.

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Also, unless you plan to use them, you can remove these entries

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux-nonfb"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=nomount acpi=off failsafe"

read-only

 

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

image=/dev/fd0

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

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I downloaded the upgrades for Drakconf and Drakx. After the installation I checked the Kedit /etc/lilo.conf and it was changed to the following which looks quite similar, except for the quotation marks, to what you gave me yesterday. Lilo –v still doesn’t accept it. I created a boot disk and now, should I try to replace the text with the one you gave me?

 

boot="/dev/hda"

map=/boot/map

vga=normal

default="windows"

keytable=/boot/us.klt

nowarn

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="linux"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="quiet devfs=mount acpi=off"

vga=788

read-only

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="linux-nonfb"

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="failsafe devfs=nomount acpi=off"

read-only

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

image="/dev/hda1"

label=""

root="/dev/hdb3"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="quiet devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

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Your windows entry is still screwed up. Windows never has an image line; that's just for linux. It also created an empty entry with a label"". The lilo.conf that mcc is trying to edit is so screwed up that it's having a hard time dealing with it. Make a boot floppy and test it. Delete everything in lilo.conf and copy and paste in what I posted then run lilo -v. If your not comfortable with that, you can do an "upgrade" reinstall by booting off install cd1 and selecting upgrade as the install option. Don't select any new packages and the install routine will quickly go through everything and reinstall lilo for you with a proper lilo.conf. Then you can do the kedit thing and set your default OS to windows.

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I pasted your text in lilo.conf. Lilo –v doesn’t take it so, I upgraded the system as you told me and this is what I get after the upgrade. Lilo –v still doesn’t take it and it keeps on booting with Linux as default.

 

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

vga=normal

default="windows"

keytable=/boot/us.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout=100

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off quiet"

vga=788

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux-nonfb"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

image=/dev/fd0

label=""

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img

append="quiet devfs=mount acpi=off"

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk

label="old_linux"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img

append="quiet devfs=mount acpi=off"

vga=788

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hdb3

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=nomount acpi=off failsafe"

read-only

other=/dev/hdb1

label="windows2"

table=/dev/hdb

map-drive=0x80

to=0x81

map-drive=0x81

to=0x80

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