Dual boot WinXP and Ubuntu 6.10 in desktop and laptop using NTLDR

[Zhengguo Xu]

Hi guys,



I've encountered some problems with dual-boot installation of WinXP and
Ubuntu in my desktop and laptop PCs. I searched a bit in internet and this
forum, haven't found any information useful yet so I really hope that you
guys can give me a hand on that.



I know, I know, why bother Windows at all as some of you might ask. No
offence to you "REAL LINUXERS" :-P , I'm a newbie and just started to learn
the way around, so I decide to use NTLDR as boot loader in case something
goes wrong then I done have to reinstall windows, which is a pain in the
ass.



I'll give the details below of how I did it and what the problems are. I
have to ask for your patience since it might be a tedious description. Any
suggestion is welcome. Many thanks in advance. :-)



1. Desktop



I've got 2 disks, 160G each, set as following:



First disk:



1st partition K: hidden partition in format FAT32, 3.6G, where recovery
files are located. Strangely enough, boot.ini is there too instead of in C:
disk. Default setting. I've changed nothing since I bought the PC.

2nd partition C: windows XP, NTF partition, 100G.

3rd partition D: NTF, 56G.  For data backup.



Second disk:



1st partition: 45G, ext3, as /

2nd partition: 25G, ext3, as /home

3th partition: 2G, as swap

4rd partition: 30G, FAT32, as /media/winlinux, for share files between these
2 systems.

5th partition: 45G, NTF. Extra space for windows.



I have windows in C and Ubuntu (6.10 DVD) installed in 2nd disk. During the
Grub installation, I changed default "hd (0)" to "hd(1)". Hope that's
correct. (or should I type "hd(1,0), hd(1,1) or /dev/sdb1" or something like
that? A little bit confused now. )



anyway, I boot into windows, use "bootpart" to make a "ubuntu.bin" and put
it into 1st partition K in 1st disk, then manually edit boot.ini, add
"K:\ubuntu.bin="Ubuntu 6.10"" at the end. (According to the guide I found in
internet, bootpart should do this job for me. But I checked my boot.ini, no
change, have to manually edit it. Don't know why. :-( )



Restart PC and I DO see the NTLDR screen and I'm able to choose Window or
Ubuntu.



However, when I choose Ubuntu, I got an error message saying that the
"hal.dll" file in system32 is missing or damaged and asked me to reinstall
it. I checked the file in windows\system32, it's there, safe and sound. By
the way, I don't think linux use *.dll file. So why is that?



I tried to locate ubuntu.bin in different places and edit
boot.iniaccordingly but none of them worked.



Have I done something wrong during installation? If so, Where? So how should
I do to solve this problem WITHOUT REINSTALL WINDOWS? By the way, I can boot
into window perfectly.



2. laptop.



Only 1 physical disks, 100G, in my Dell Inspiron 9300.



Disk set as:



1st partition C: winXP, 50G

2nd partition D: NTF, 20G,

3rd partition E: 10G, FAT32, for share files as /media/winlinux

4th partition: 15G, ext3 as /

5th partition: 3G, ext3 as /home

6th partition: 2G swap



Due to the problem I've had in desktop, I need to ask before I install
ubuntu into my laptop. During the installation step of Grub, default hd(0),
I guess that means Grub will be write into MBR, so what should I type
instead? Hd(0,4)? Or /dev/sda7? Guess 4th partition is sda7.



Once again, I'm open to any advice or suggestion. Thanks a lot, guys.
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