Can't you just feel the love Aaron has for Micro$haft :-)<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 10:00 PM, aaron <<a href="mailto:aaron@pd.org">aaron@pd.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
A possible solution that worked for me when Mafia$oft<br>
and their corporate minions screwed me over a couple<br>
of weeks back... (** below for the short version)<br>
<br>
I had just finished my second ever Ubuntu 7.10 dual<br>
boot install. The first had worked perfectly and painlessly<br>
with a custom built workstation that had been installed with<br>
a fresh dump of Xcrement Pile Pro(blems). This second<br>
install was a favor to a friend with an HP consumer laptop.<br>
It was good fun spending a couple hours fine tuning the<br>
Linux side and installing oodles of Open Source software,<br>
but wasting several hours trying to pull the stink out of an<br>
pre-installed Xcrement Pile Harm Edition? ...not so much.<br>
<br>
When my friend and I got together for an unveiling of her<br>
new laptop I decided to boot into windblows just to show<br>
her that I had made it semi-functional. At this point, the<br>
HP / Compaq re-crapify program proceeded to totally<br>
fSCk us over by blowing away Grub and the linux install<br>
partition. Furious doesn't begin to approach a hint of a<br>
whisper of a description of my state of mind.<br>
<br>
I consulted with the windblows weenie wise guy at the<br>
neighborhood PC quarantine shop (where the slogan is<br>
"Don't let the vista blind you with rage: upgrade to a<br>
fresh disk of Xcrement Pile!"). Not surprising, but he<br>
couldn't provide any new avenues for restoring the<br>
partitions so I just went back to square one.<br>
<br>
**<br>
I rebooted to the Ubuntu Live CD and re-ran the install.<br>
THIS TIME I chose to manually repartition the drive. I left<br>
the existing (previously resized and still in tact) windblows<br>
partition alone, but REMOVED the special "re-crapify"<br>
partition and expanded the Linux Ext 3 allocation to<br>
include that previously wasted disk space. I believe<br>
the re-recapify partition also holds the (re-crapifying<br>
software).<br>
<br>
After proceeding with the rest of the Ubuntu installation, I<br>
had a new /boot and Grub config where both systems would<br>
start up without problems. I repeated the fun part of fine<br>
tuning the Linux side and installing oodles of freedom friendly<br>
software and delivered the machine to my friend.<br>
**<br>
<br>
The lesson is that, when installing Linux as a Dual Boot on a<br>
consumer machine that has been pre-installed with Mafia$oft,<br>
you should manually partition the drive and OVERWRITE ANY<br>
KIND OF RE-CRAPIFY PARTITION as a critical early step in<br>
the install.<br>
<br>
My friend has had the machine for week a now. We had to<br>
forgo the Linux training until we find time, but she told me she<br>
still hasn't wanted or needed to boot into windoze yet. For any<br>
future shared install of Ubuntu or Linux I want to constrict<br>
Mafia$oft to strictly being accessable as a virtual machine<br>
under the Linux boot -- provide some REAL virus protection.<br>
<br>
To that end, I noticed that the commercial Parallels product<br>
that's become popular for setting up both Linux and M$ VM's<br>
on Intel Mac's is now promoting a dedicated Linux version<br>
-- a 30 day trial install is available from the Ubuntu Software<br>
repositories, but purchase cost is about $70. There is also<br>
a free virtualization package available in the Ubuntu repository,<br>
and I'd be curious if anyone here has explored that with Gutsy.<br>
<br>
peace<br>
<font color="#888888">aaron<br>
.<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Tuesday 08 April 2008 21:00, Daniel Howard wrote:<br>
> Well, I tried to do my first dual boot install tonite on my dad's Win XP<br>
> machine, and although the GRUB loader works fine and boots into Ubuntu<br>
> just fine, and sees the Win XP and HP Recovery partitions just fine,<br>
> when I select Windows XP to boot to, it reports Disk Error, hit<br>
> CTL-ALT-DEL to reboot. I can boot into the HP recovery partition, and<br>
> can run the recovery, but it then wipes out the GRUB loader and still<br>
> won't boot into windows. I reinstalled Ubuntu, and I'm back to square<br>
> one: I can boot Ubuntu and see Windows partitions, but can't boot into XP.<br>
><br>
> Could my repartitioning of my drive during Ubuntu install have altered<br>
> the hd(0,0) location specified for Windows XP, and hence the GRUB loader<br>
> can't find the location of XP? How can I find where Ubuntu's<br>
> repartitioner put it and then do I change the boot.ini file in the<br>
> Windows XP partition (seen just fine by Ubuntu) or the menu.lst file of<br>
> the GRUB loader?<br>
><br>
> TIA,<br>
> Daniel<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Daniel Howard<br>
> President and CEO<br>
> Georgia Open Source Education Foundation<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III <br>