[H-GEN] Boot selector for Debian

[Christopher Biggs]

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Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> moved upon the face of the 'Net and spake thusly:

> Unfortunately, I'm left without a boot selector.  I can boot
> Windows off the disk; I can boot Debian off a rescue floppy
> telling it to boot from /dev/hda2.  But I really want a little
> thing at boot that offers me a choice of OS to boot.  

First, try making the linux partition active to see if that helps.
(Using fdisk from either windows or linux).

(NB: You should always install your linux bootloader on the bootblock of
 the linux partition, never on the mbr, as the mbr gets clobbered by
 microsoft at every opportunity.)

Next, if the first step didn't help, boot debian from your floppy, and
do this: (the following assumes windows is hda1, linux is hda2. adjust
as necessary)

   # apt-get install grub lilo-
   # grub-install /dev/hda2 
   # cat >/boot/grub/menu.lst <<ENOUGHALREADY
   title linux
   root (hd0,1)
   kernel /vmlinuz ro 2

   title microsoft whatever
   root (hd0,0)
   chainloader +1
   ENOUGHALREADY

(If you have a separate /boot partition, you may need to change the
above slightly, more details on request).

You're done, you have the GRUB bootloader and (unlike LILO) you won't
have to reinstall it every time you change your kernel.

--cjb
   


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