Gentoo/Windows dual boot

gentoo

This is a really, really annoying weekly post. You can get tons of results from google, which are categorized as two:

  • install Grub/Lilo to MBR, let it boot Windows
  • install Grub/Lilo to root disk, let NTLDR to boot Linux

My situation is a little different. The desktop is borrowed from my wife. I must guarantee the Linux installation would not step on the Windows’ territory. So I installed Gentoo to another physical disk:

  1. setup the jumper to make Windows in slave disk
  2. then change the boot sequence in BIOS
  3. emerge the system for Gentoo
  4. install grub to MBR, grub kicks the ass of NTLDR
  5. Reboot

The Gentoo system is booted successfully. Before we go further, we need to setup the dual boot. Get the troubleshooting post from Gentoo forum, add the following code snippet to the grub.conf

title Win2k
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

Now everybody is happy, either one disk is unpluged, the computer still can boot without any problem.