making a bootable partition for windows after installing ubuntu

Tue Jul 26 21:58:20 UTC 2005

Bios being old is strange because it supports a 2.4 ghz pentium 4 
processor and the motherboard is asrock P4VM8 with 2 bridge chipsets and 
a 512 mb ddr ram--i just bought it last week.

ubuntu 5.04 was easily installed via the iso installation CD without any 
thought for putting windows 98 later.

the windows98/me rescue floppy fdisk can detect around 40-45 GB of the 
120 GB hard drive. it detects the new partition table created by ubuntu 
but gives some absurd figures as well for the partitions.

I will just have to erase everything and start over again (for the 2nd 
time). Ubuntu does not have a method to create a windows bootable 
partition from ubuntu itself ie the installation has to be done with 
windows first and then install ubuntu from there. One can't install 
ubuntu/linux first and then install windows at present. Wish I had known 
this first on this brand new system.

Thank you for responding
Cheers,
Kussh

Daniel Gimpelevich wrote:
> The problem is that your BIOS is too old for your hard disk. While the
> Linux kernel overcomes that problem, neither LILO nor GRUB is able to do
> so. Do not make any changes using the DOS fdisk, but make a note of
> exactly how big it thinks your hard disk is (probably around 8GB). You
> must then use a Linux LiveCD to repartition your drive as follows. Note
> that you will have to reinstall both Windows and Linux from scratch
> because repartitioning will erase your disk.
> /dev/hda1 -- Primary partition, Linux native (ext3), 96MB or 128MB
> /dev/hda2 -- Primary partition, W95 LBA FAT-32, 7GB
> /dev/hda3 -- Primary partition, Linux swap, 128MB (or more)
> /dev/hda4 -- Extended partition, rest of the drive
> /dev/hda5 -- Logical partition, Linux native (ext3), some reasonable size
> Install Windows and then install Linux. Tell the Linux installer to use
> /dev/hda1 as /boot and /dev/hda5 as /, and do not change the position or
> size of the Windows partition from the above, or Windows will not work
> properly. If you do things this way, LILO and GRUB will both handle things
> perfectly, if configured properly. It's a little easier to make GRUB work
> with such a setup.
> 
> On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 15:45:00 -0400, Kussh wrote:
> 
> 
>>Hi,
>>
>>I have been unable to find any literature on installing lilo properly on
>>my 120 GB hard disk though the GRUB bootloader which came with hoary is 
>>automatically installed.
>>
>>I first created some partitions for ubuntu on the hard disk and then 
>>after installing it, am thinking of having a dual boot from windows too. 
>>have been able to create some fat 32 partitions for windows/dos but grub 
>>documentation says that it has some problems with fat32/ntfs 
>>partitions--therefore tried to setup lilo as the dual boot loader. But 
>>it gives an error at the stage where the master boot record is to be 
>>installed.
>>
>>How can i install windows on the windows partition and setup lilo also?
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>
>>The linux partitions are all on "extended" partition and i suppose 
>>dos/windows can only be loaded on a primary partition. I have used 
>>gparted for partitioning but the new dos partitions have not been 
>>mounted as gparted has no such options.
>>
>>I have also tried booting from a dos rescue disk but the dos fdisk 
>>command does not recognise the entire hard drive--only a small portion 
>>of it. I have not been able to format any dos partition with it.
>>
>>wiki.ubuntu forum does not have any documentation on why the install mbr 
>>fails or how it can be solved.
>>
>>the info lilo and info liloconfig details also do not shed any light on 
>>the problem.
>>etc/lilo.conf is as follows
>>
>>***************************
>># Generated by liloconfig
>>
>># This allows booting from any partition on disks with more than 1024
>># cylinders.
>>lba32
>>
>># Specifies the boot device
>>boot=/dev/hda7
>>
>># Specifies the device that should be mounted as root.
>># If the special name CURRENT is used, the root device is set to the
>># device on which the root file system is currently mounted. If the root
>># has been changed with  -r , the respective device is used. If the
>># variable ROOT is omitted, the root device setting contained in the
>># kernel image is used. It can be changed with the rdev program.
>>root=/dev/hda7
>>
>># Bitmap configuration for /boot/sarge.bmp
>>bitmap=/boot/sarge.bmp
>>bmp-colors=1,,0,2,,0
>>bmp-table=120p,173p,1,15,17
>>bmp-timer=254p,432p,1,0,0
>>
>># Enables map compaction:
>># Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
>># read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the map
>># smaller. Using COMPACT is especially recommended when booting from a
>># floppy disk.
>># compact
>>
>># Install the specified file as the new boot sector.
>># LILO supports built in boot sectory, you only need
>># to specify the type, choose one from 'text', 'menu' or 'bitmap'.
>># new: install=bmp      old: install=/boot/boot-bmp.b
>># new: install=text     old: install=/boot/boot-text.b
>># new: install=menu     old: install=/boot/boot-menu.b or boot.b
>># default: 'menu' is default, unless you have a bitmap= line
>># Note: install=bmp must be used to see the bitmap menu.
>># install=menu
>>install=menu
>>
>># Specifies the number of _tenths_ of a second LILO should
>># wait before booting the first image.  LILO
>># doesn't wait if DELAY is omitted or if DELAY is set to zero.
>># delay=20
>>
>># Prompt to use certaing image. If prompt is specified without timeout,
>># boot will not take place unless you hit RETURN
>>prompt
>>timeout=50
>>
>># Specifies the location of the map file. If MAP is
>># omitted, a file /boot/map is used.
>>map=/boot/map
>>
>># Specifies the VGA text mode that should be selected when
>># booting. The following values are recognized (case is ignored):
>>#   NORMAL  select normal 80x25 text mode.
>>#   EXTENDED  select 80x50 text mode. The word EXTENDED can be
>>#     abbreviated to EXT.
>>#   ASK  stop and ask for user input (at boot time).
>>#   <number>  use the corresponding text mode. A list of available modes
>>#     can be obtained by booting with  vga=ask  and pressing [Enter].
>>vga=normal
>>
>># These images were automagically added. You may need to edit something.
>>
>>image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386
>>	label="Linux 2.6.10-0"
>>	initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
>>	read-only
>>
>>image=/boot/memtest86+.bin
>>	label="Memory Test+"
>>	read-only
>>
>># If you have another OS on this machine (say DOS),
>># you can boot if by uncommenting the following lines
>># (Of course, change /dev/hda2 to wherever your DOS partition is.)
>># other=/dev/hda2
>>#   label="MS Windows"
> 
> 
> 
> 