Install help

[Patni]

Hello,

This is strictly not a kubuntu question, but I am hoping that the gurus here will be able to help

I am trying to dual boot between Kubuntu and Windows 2000. I realize that this topic has been done to death already, and I searched on this. I found two excellent resources:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=179902

However, between the two, I am still a bit unsure, so would love it if anyone can confirm whether the proposed plan of action below is correct or most suitable.

I have two physically separate hard disks: a 1TB SATA drive and a 120 GB PATA drive. I already have Windows 2000 installed on the SATA drive and would like to install Kubuntu on the 120 GB drive. I do NOT want to make any changes to the Windows drive.

Here is what I have gathered so far to enable dual booting for the above conditions:

1. Disconnect the Windows drive and have the 120 GB drive connected
2. Install Kubuntu on the 120 GB IDE drive
3. By default, Grub would be loaded on the 120 GB drive (as I require since I dont want to make change to the MBR of the 1TB drive)
4. Make "some" changes to the menu.lst file in Grub to enable it to "see" the Windows drive

Questions:

• Is the above correct?
• What are the "some" changes to menu.lst? The links mention the following
  

title       Windows 
root       (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map        (hd0) (hd1)
map        (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader    +1

• How do I find out what hd0 is and what is hd1? How is it decided? Is it dependant on the boot order in BIOS? So if BIOS says 120 GB followed 1TB drive, then hd0 = 120 GB and hd1 = 1TB drive?
• Why is the savedefault statement needed?
• Why is the chainloader statement required?
• Also I understand the need for the map statement (supposedly Windows insists that it be the first partition), but why are there 2 map statements?
• Are there any other changes required than the above and is the above sequence of events correct?
  

Also, after the above is done, I should be able to set 120 GB disk as my default boot device in BIOS, I should be presented with the Grub menu at that point, and if I select Windows (or dont do anything , since I have "makeactive" for Windows), it should boot into Windows. Or Kubuntu depending on the choice.

Is the above correct?

[kyonides]

Re: Install help

...and would like to install Kubuntu on the 120 GB drive

During install the Kubuntu Live or the Alternate CD will detect you have a NTFS partition and will look for its current OS, meaning it'll realize that you have installed Windows on that partition and will make the necessary changes in GRUB settings to reflect them on its boot menu.

Once you've already installed Kubuntu (it'd be 8.10 right?) you can go to K-menu > Computer > System Settings and on the new window click on the Advanced tab and select Grub Editor so you can choose which option would be the default one during the boot process and how long it should take to automatically select and run that OS (Windows I might guess).

Only if this automatic process failed during Kubuntu installation, you might consider to edit GRUB from GRUB Editor or by opening the menu.lst file in the boot directory and modifying it manually.