RE: grub and dos, windows, and linux?

[Greg White]

> I now have a need to tri-boot DOS, XP, and Linux. I have dual booted XP and 
> Linux for years using grub. My problem is with DOS.
> The system:
> P3 800Mhz
> 1GB RAM
> SCSI hard drives
> Adapatec 2930U2 scsi card
>
> My plan:
> sda1:
> 100MB FAT32 DOS or even FreeDOS
> sda2:
> rest of the disk space for XP
>
> sdb1:
> Linux - whole disk
>
> based on what I have read I should install DOS, Windows, and Linux in this 
> order.
>
> My grub.conf should look something like this:
> default=0
> title DOS Boot Disk
> root(hd0,0)
> chainloader +1
>
> title Hat Linux
> root (hd1,0)
> kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sdb1
>
> title Windows XP
> rootnoverify (hd0,1)
> chainloader +1
>
> Will this work? Are there any potential issues I should know about?

After reading a little more on the subject I think I have the answer:
1. create partitions using linux fdisk.
2. Install DOS on sda1 100MB
3. Install XP on sda2 rest of disk.  This will create a bootsect.dos file that 
grub can use.
4. Install Linux on sdb and write MBR to sda and put the grub files on sda1.

Change the menu.lst to:
default=0

title DOS Boot Disk
root(hd0,0)
chainloader +1
chainload /bootsect.dos

title Hat Linux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sdb1

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

So sda1 (aka C:\drive) will have the following files on it:
command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys
bootsect.dos

ntldr
boot.ini
ntdetect.com? 

vmlinuz
initrd
map

grub/
grub/stage1
grub/stage2
grub/menu.lst
grub/rest of grub files

If I have to reinstall windows, I just reinstall, boot from a grub boot disk, 
reinstall grub:
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0,0)
should be good for that.

And for completeness sack:
dd if=/dev/sda of=mbr.save bs=512 count=1 # save linux mbr
cp mbr.save to /mnt/sda1/boot.lnx
vi boot.ini
add
 C:\boot.lnx="Linux" # boot linux from windows if I need to fixmbr, fixboot or 
reinstall

What do you guys think?


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