I tried to dual boot (frugal) and now I want puppy off

[rameses]

I tried to do it with XP. I followed a guide. (I don't remember which one) It failed, but linux still shows up at start-up. It involved changing a file in windows to use windows loader instead of lilo or grub. But now I don't know what to take out of the start up file or even how to get to the file.

Please help, thanks.

(i'm trying to dual boot with xubuntu, and it might mess things up if i try w/ out getting rid of puppy)

[lapis]

(i'm trying to dual boot with xubuntu, and it might mess things up if i try w/ out getting rid of puppy)

I am not sure why that would be but without knowing how the windows bootloader was starting puppy then I can't say for certain. Did you use Grub4dos (specifically grldr) ?

If you did use grldr then you can run as many different Linux versions as you like. It is what I use and only takes a minute to setup and does not interfere with the Windows bootloader doing its thing.

If you are definitely still using the Windows XP bootloader (ntldr) then the file you need to look at is c:\boot.ini

Edit that in a text editor and remove the line that refers to puppy.

However, if you install Xubuntu be aware that it will replace your Windows bootloader never to be seen again without formatting and reinstalling Windows.

Why don't you like Puppy? It plays very nicely with Windows and will happily cohabit. Ubuntu won't be anywhere near as flexible.

[mikeb]

If you used standard grub then ahhhhhhhhhh, but not to worry.
Insert your windows cd...choose repair and recovery console....then run fixmbr and then fixboot for good measure...if ntldr/ntdetect.com and boot.ini are still present then your windows booting will be restored.

If you haven't then use grub4dos next time you want to try out linux...much simpler to revert

mike

[rameses]

If you did use grldr then you can run as many different Linux versions as you like. It is what I use and only takes a minute to setup and does not interfere with the Windows bootloader doing its thing.


If you are definitely still using the Windows XP bootloader (ntldr) then the file you need to look at is c:\boot.ini
--
yes.
--

Edit that in a text editor and remove the line that refers to puppy.

However, if you install Xubuntu be aware that it will replace your Windows bootloader never to be seen again without formatting and reinstalling Windows.

Why don't you like Puppy? It plays very nicely with Windows and will happily cohabit. Ubuntu won't be anywhere near as flexible.

--
Like I said, it failed. When I try to "start Linux" it talks about an error. And it's just a head ache. I've dual booted with regular ubuntu on another computer before and grub worked just fine. Plus, I'm just not completely happy with puppy.

[lapis]

Like I said, it failed. When I try to "start Linux" it talks about an error. And it's just a head ache. I've dual booted with regular ubuntu on another computer before and grub worked just fine.

Then grub will work just fine for Puppy. Do you realise that the cause of you headache is not Puppy or Ubuntu or whatever Linux but that you did not configure grub correctly? All that stuff about a missing hal.dll in you previous post was irrelevant if your Windows install was still working. The hal.dll is required by Windows not Linux.

The main difference between grub4dos and grub (as used by ubuntu) is that grub will completely replace the normal Windows boot process whereas grub4dos will not and instead work in partnership with Windows. Once started both will need the same type of configuration.

The end difference is that it is a lot easier to go back to Windows from grub4dos than it is from grub.

If you used grub4dos, all that you did was add that extra line (c:\grldr="Start Linux") into c:\boot.ini which transfers control to grldr from ntldr. You can leave it there, or delete it as you like and it will have NO bearing on Windows, Puppy or an Ubuntu install. However, if you install Ubuntu it will replace the Windows bootloader in its entirety and take over all boot functions plus repartition your hard disk drive.

Since you already have grub4dos installed, why not just use it to start ubuntu? Configuring the menu.lst is the same for both grub4dos and grub.

Oh, and in case you haven't tweaked yet, the "Start Linux" message you have means start any or all Linux distributions. It is not constrained to only Puppy. You can have Windows XP, Puppy, Xubuntu, Opensuse, PcLinuxOs and whatever all installed together and starting happily.

[ICPUG]

I don't see rameses mentioning missing hal.dll, but that could be very relevant to solving the problem. It is a Windows problem but it will affect loading Puppy if you have used the Lin'N'Win method, which I suspect has been used in this case.

If you get a missing hal.dll message having followed the Lin'N'Win instructions it means the file grldr cannot be found by Windows - usually because it is misnamed - usually by Windows because it renames it to grldr.txt when you download it. Why does it rename the file and then why does it say it is missing hal.dll, when it isn't? - Ask Bill Gates. The Lin'N'Win instructions have been carefully written to avoid this problem but I often find people do not follow the instructions carefully! When they do it works!