Quick linux dual-boot question

Factual Questions
1

I have a windows (Me) computer, and a disc with linux-mandrake on it. I want to install linux today, but only if you guys can tell me this: Could I have linux, and only be able to boot it up with a floppy, and it would automatically boot to windows if the mandrake boot floppy isn’t in?

Wow, that was a long sentence.

I don’t want linux to appear on the bootmagic screen.

I already have the linux partition made.

Thanks, everybody.

2

It is quite simple, just skip installing LILO on your hard drive and definitely make a boot floppy during install. (Which you want anyway.)

Note: You’ll probably get a boot floppy which boots from the floppy and not the hard drive. (Practical matter: boots very slowly.)

I don’t know about your distro, but under RedHat 7.1 I can specify to install LILO on the floppy and configure LILO to boot from the Linux partition. (Very fast.)

It really is a lot easier than it sounds (despite LILO being involved).

3

thanks, ftg. So, i just install the OS, make the boot disc, and when I want to boot up Mandrake I put it in?

4

You can certainly boot Linux from floppy as described, but I don’t understand why you want to do this. Besides being slow, that floppy will eventually fail from use. If just you want to boot to Windows by default, without having to go through a boot menu, you can certainly set up LILO to do that. Then to boot into Linux, just press Shift while booting to get to the boot prompt.

5

I have to agree with Terminus Est. Unless you hold your current boot sector to be somehow sacred and untouchable, using lilo (or your boot manager of choice) will be the better option. To make Windows your primary boot option, just edit /etc/lilo.conf and change default=linux to default=dos. Here is an example:
My current config (truncated so you don’t have to see a long kernel history):


boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.12
	label=linux
	read-only
	root=/dev/hda5

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.19-6.2.10
	label=linux.redhat
	read-only
	root=/dev/hda5

other=/dev/hda1
	label=dos

You would then change the default=linux line (line 6) to default=dos. Then run /sbin/lilo to update everything. If you go this route, be sure to backup /etc/lilo.conf, just in case you should make a mistake, and have a boot disk handy, because if lilo is screwed up neither Windows nor Linux will boot.

(On preview, I notice that the things inside the “code” tag are double-spaced. In the actual lilo.conf itself, they are not.)