Boot and grub related threads.

[Saint Linux]

How to mark another partition as active in Solaris. It's not that
tough.

If you can boot into your Solaris OS,
boot into Solaris System
Enter following command,
# fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0d0p0

To select "Specify an active partition" press 2
Then Select partition no.
Then press 5 (to save changes and exit).

But if you have Solaris but you cannot boot into Solaris and you have
Solaris DVD/CD. Then boot from CD/DVD

Select console
In console type the same commands we used previously
And it's done.

Also you can use your Windows OS to mark partitions active(http://
groups.google.com/group/freedom_creative/browse_thread/thread/
98f05e69a480ee25#).

Also you can change active boot partition using GParted Live CD and
Ubuntu Live CD(this taks is left for yours)..

N.B: If you have Windows Vista in your System for your concern Windows
Vista Boot Manager have great bugs. It may mess up after changing
active boot flags.

[Saint Linux]

Login as root or acquire such a role.
type installgrub /boot/grub/stage1 /boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/
c[]p0
To install mbr in your Solaris primary partition command will be this,
installgrub /boot/grub/stage1 /boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c[]s0

To know the value of c[]p0 by applying this command df -h. And notice
the mount point of '/'.

Related Links:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2723/disksxadd-45774?a=view

[Saint Linux]

To dual boot Unix and Windows normally we use GRUB bootloader. Here I
will describe the process to boot Solaris (also applies to other Unix/
Linux using Windows Boot Loader which is installed defautl for
Windows.

In Solaris mark(previous thread in this topic) Windows primary
partition as active.
Backup the vista mbr
# dd if=/dev/dsk/c0d0p0 of=/mbrbackup bs=512
count=1 // assuming your hard-drive is c0d0p0
install solaris mbr(previous post in this thread)
copy the solaris mbr as solmbr
# dd if=/dev/dsk/c0d0p0 of=/solmbr bs=512 count=1 (I am not sure dsk
or r)
copy this solmbr in your USB drive or mounting an windows
partition
load vista backup
# dd if=/mbrbackup of=/dev/dsk/c0d0p0 bs=446
count=1 // bs =446 to keep the previously install Solaris
Boot information

now boot to your windows. If you have Vista it's boot manager shows an
error (solve it with the help of this post:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom_creative/browse_thread/thread/98f05e69a480ee25#)

Copy the file solmbr from USB-drive to your C:\ logging into Windows.

Windows Vista
==============
Run your command prompt as Administrator
bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Solaris"
(Notice, every command gives a success notification after it
completes without errors. If the above command has not worked use
bcdedit /copy {ntldr} /d "Solaris")
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \solmbr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast // to add in top
use /addfirst

Windows XP (booting Linux/ UNIX from XP boot manager)
=================================================
Windows XP boot manager is very simple and nice one as this is only a
file called boot.ini. The entries in this file are like below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect

Add a line to this file like this
C:\solmbr="Solaris"

And it's done..

N.B: These are all serious experiments. And I don't care of your
important data and infos on hard memory than these daring experiments.
If you feel bothered on this issue then it's your own responsibility
to backup your data from Hard-dsiks etc..

Related links:
http://blogs.sun.com/moinakg/entry/vista_and_solaris_express_dual
http://www.tprthai.net/bootmgr.htm