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HotrodJP99
Asked: 2012-03-26 14:57:46 +0800 CST

How to add Ubuntu to the Windows XP boot.ini file? [duplicate]

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Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to boot Ubuntu using the Windows bootloader?

I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 Alpha 2 on a partition separate partition from Windows and was wanting to know how to add the OS to the boot.ini so I can boot into Ubuntu.

dual-boot windows-xp 12.04

3 Answers

  1. Windows XP? Well...

    This has been working since the early days of NT4:

    • boot into your linux
    • mount your Windows boot drive R/W to /media/fat
    • perform dd if=/dev/sdxY of=/media/fat/linux.bin bs=512 count=1 as root, replace sdxY with your linux partition
    • edit your boot.ini to look like mine:
    [boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Safe mode)" /BASEVIDEO /SOS
c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP recovery console" /CMDCONS
c:\linux.bin="Grub (loader)"

    Your results may vary: Grub2 might need downgrading to Grub 1.x for this to work.

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  2. You don't add Ubuntu to boot.ini. You add a windows partition to grub.

    If you must do it, it is described here for implementations with bitlocker and TPM.

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  3. I use EasyBCD (because i have trouble installing GRUB on a EFI motherboard with fakeraid). There is a free version for noncommercial use at the bottom of the page.

    As far as I remember, i set up the windows boot loader to chainload grub. There is a automatic method in EasyBCD, but it didn't work for me.

    Instead I made it boot into a legacy GRUB with the following menu.lst:

    # NeoSmart NeoGrub Bootloader Configuration File
#
# This is the NeoGrub configuration file, and should be located at C:\NST\menu.lst
# Please see the EasyBCD Documentation for information on how to create/modify entries:
# http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/

# Boot automatically after 0 secs.
timeout 0

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

title (hd0,4)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz root=UUID=5827fd40-9b04-4f8a-bb0f-df1612670d89 ro
initrd /initrd.img

    Note: (hd0,4) means that my root partition is on /dev/sda5. UUID=X is the uuid of this volume. You can find this with sudo blkid.

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