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[Nigel Henry]

On Monday 04 August 2008 17:34, Derek Broughton wrote:
> norman wrote:
> >> > On Mon, 2008-08-04 at 03:28 -0400, Jake wrote:
> >> >> I have Ubuntu 8.04 and I installed it to work "with" Windows XP, and
> >> >> now I can't get to Windows XP anymore, it automatically boots into
> >> >> Ubuntu, I need help on how to either UNINSTALL Ubuntu or INSTRUCTIONS
> >> >> on how to get to Windows XP, all your help will be appreciated..
> >> >
> >> > Try this link.  It explains all about dual booting XP with linux.
>
> http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_linux_xp_installed_first.
>htm
>
> >> Actually, it doesn't.  It's a nice tutorial for installing Linux onto a
> >> Windows machine, but it doesn't tell you anything about getting Grub
> >> configured - it just assumes that the installer gets that right.
> >
> > You are absolutely correct in your assumption. I have set up several
> > machines with dual boot of Windows XP and Ubuntu and, in every case, the
> > installer got it correct.
>
> Fine - but that's not much help if you (as Jake has) have already installed
> both OS's and you don't have a grub menu.  In my case, the installer got it
> right with every install since Warty - except the time I installed to an
> external drive, but there's enough anecdotal evidence that, even if there
> isn't anything actually wrong with the installer, it's not too difficult
> for a user to complete the install without getting grub properly set up.
>
> That said, I think Nils probably got it right, with the menu just being
> hidden.
> --
> derek

It has to be said also that the default timeout of 5secs before Grub boots the 
default kernel passes very quickly when you perhaps are a bit confused, and 
you can find yourself being booted into Ubuntu, rather than having the time 
to think of what to do to get the menu, and stop the countdown.

Judging from my latest Install "Fedora 9", pressing any old key stops the 
countdown, and IIRC also brings up Grubs menu.

The first thing I do with a new install is to go into /boot/grub/grub.conf (or 
menu.lst, if thats the only file there), and change the default timeout to 
30secs, and comment out the hiddenmenu line.

Talking about Ubuntu/Kubuntu's Grub picking up other OS's on the system, it 
finds every OS that it can that are on your drives, and adds them to Grubs 
menu. I have one drive sda, which has all the distros on it, and another 
drive sdb, which is just for data. The first 2 partitions on sdb are vfat 
(FAT32). Grub always picks these up, and creates a chainloader to them, even 
though no operating system exists on these partitions. Grub is obviously 
assuming that these are Windows OS's on these partitions, which is why I 
think that the OP already has a chainloader entry in his /boot/grub/menu.lst 
for his XP install, but the speedy timeout, along with the hidden menu, has 
prevented him seeing the option to boot XP under the "Other" menu entry.

I mean "Other" is a bit obscure as well, but Grub is doing it's best here, and 
in my case, if I chose that option, would try to boot a drive with just data 
on it, although perhaps looking like a Windows OS, as it's FAT32.

5¢ worth of Monday evening ramblings.

Nigel.