making a bootable partition for windows after installing ubuntu

Tue Jul 26 22:43:17 UTC 2005

>>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.

The above is what happens with older BIOSes. It generally is an indication
that only Linux should be allowed access to any part of the disk beyond
what DOS fdisk sees. You can safely give Windows up to 40GB, but no more,
using the partition layout I described before. It is perfectly possible to
install Linux first and then Windows if you know what you're doing, but
since you'll have to reinstall both anyway, you might as well install
Windows first because it's easier. You still have to use Linux to do the
partitioning, though. Don't use the Windows rescue floppy anymore. Also,
according to the vendor's website, P4VM8 BIOSes prior to June 30 of this
year (4 weeks ago) would make Win98SE behave strangely when the Parallel
Port Mode was set to Normal or Bi-Directional (I always recommend the ECP
setting). If your BIOS is version 1.00 or 1.10, I recommend reflashing it
with: http://www.asrock.com/support/bios/P4VM8_1.20.zip
The instructions for doing this are at:
http://www.asrock.com/support/index_BIOS_INS.htm
This probably won't solve the problem, but there is the chance that it
might.

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:58:20 -0400, Kussh wrote:

> 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"
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>