How to add Ubuntu to the Windows XP boot.ini file?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to boot Ubuntu using the Windows bootloader?

I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 Alpha 2 on a partition separate partition from Windows and was wanting to know how to add the OS to the boot.ini so I can boot into Ubuntu.

Solution

Windows XP? Well...

This has been working since the early days of NT4:

• boot into your linux
• mount your Windows boot drive R/W to /media/fat
• perform dd if=/dev/sdxY of=/media/fat/linux.bin bs=512 count=1 as root, replace sdxY with your linux partition
• edit your boot.ini to look like mine:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Safe mode)" /BASEVIDEO /SOS
c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP recovery console" /CMDCONS
c:\linux.bin="Grub (loader)" 

Your results may vary: Grub2 might need downgrading to Grub 1.x for this to work.

Comments

[Admin]

askubuntu.com/a/115934/46312 might try this

[HotrodJP99]

True.... But I would rather have Windows NT as my bootloader over grub

[shay.porteous]

-1: EasyBCD is Vista & 7 only. XP was asked instead.

[Sridhar Sarnobat]

Will this work if your Windows XP drive uses NTFS? (yes I still "use" XP...I'm more of a Mac + Linux user now but still have my old machine)

[shay.porteous]

just try it - you are copying a file of 512 bytes to the root directory c:\. If ntfs is not mountable from linux, copy it to a FAT-formatted usb-stick, then boot windows and copy it.

[Sridhar Sarnobat]

It did. I later realized that you are creating a file on the file system so once it's mounted it doesn't matter what the type is.