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hiding windows OS when dual boot

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 3:07 am
by pleigh
hi there...i was just wondering if it is possible to hide the windows OS when my pc is in dual boot...to make my it clear, here's the idea...i have a windows xp installed in my system, then i made it dual boot to linux...when you turn on the computer, there are selections to where you will be booting, windows or linux...then select the OS you want to boot from...now, will it be possible that i can hide the windows choice from the selection??or rename the windows xp selection to something else(let's say, another linux flavor)?

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:08 am
by Chris Corbyn
Which bootloader? Grub or Lilo (or even windows - that's still possible to do).

Yes it's possible but we need to know which bootloader you use.

If it's grub then:

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nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf
Then find the line which starts with something like:

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title=Windows XP
Delete all the stuff that's under that line (there will be a few chainloader + 1 etc etc...) until the next title (if there's more opertaing systems). To get into linux you'll need at least a root definition, a device location and some kernel params e.g.

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root (hd0,0)
title=My Linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.6.12-r10 root=/dev/hda1
With grub at least, you will not have to rewrite the MBR but with Lilo I believe you will.

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:25 am
by pleigh
thanks d11wtq for the info...i really have no idea what is the boot loader of my linux...my flavor is xandros desktop...all i can see in my boot directory are files namely: boot.0300, boot.0303, config-2.6.11-x1, initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz, map, splash.lilo, System.map-2.6.11-x1, System.map, vmlinuz-2.6.11-x1, xandros.splash.b

by the way, when i tried to do nano, the console prompts me "command not found"...thanks again d11...

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:28 am
by Chris Corbyn
The nano issue is because nano isn't installed. Try pico instead, (or emacs or vi).

It looks like you're using lilo. I'd have to check what the config for lilo is because I haven't used it recently (at least not that I configured myself).

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:36 am
by Chris Corbyn
OK it looks fairly simple. To do with lilo.

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pico -w /etc/lilo.conf
Find the line that starts with "other=" and delete that line along with the label for it (probably directly underneath). Type CTRL+O then ENTER to save the file then CTRL+X to close it.

Now you need to write lilo back to the MBR.

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/sbin/lilo
You should get some messages saying what it's done :)

You'll need to do all this as the root user by the way (probably can use the command "su" to swicth to the root user).

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:38 am
by pleigh
hehe...thanks again...i have tried vi and that worked, but i dont know where the conf of lilo is...waiting for your help... :D

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:41 am
by Chris Corbyn
pleigh wrote:hehe...thanks again...i have tried vi and that worked, but i dont know where the conf of lilo is...waiting for your help... :D
Read my last reply. By the way I strongly advise you try pico before vi.... vi is notoriously difficult for beginners ;)

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:44 am
by pleigh
yup...advise noted... :wink:

i'll get back if everything went crazy here... :D

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:53 am
by pleigh
that's great...but wait...how will i do the code below??
d11wtq wrote:OK it looks fairly simple. To do with lilo.


Now you need to write lilo back to the MBR.

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/sbin/lilo
You should get some messages saying what it's done :)

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:06 am
by Chris Corbyn
Once you've edited and saved lilo.conf simply type (in a console window) "/sbin/lilo" then hit enter. It should just work. Then you'll need to type "reboot" or "shutdown -r now" to reboot ;)

Note: Editting lilo.conf will not do anything until you rewrite lilo to the MBR by issuing the command /sbin/lilo

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:25 am
by pleigh
yup...thanks very much d11, thats very helpful....1 more question....is it easy to identify if i am hiding an operating system from my system??

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:53 am
by Chris Corbyn
Well I could check what block devices you have and then mount them so I can browse the files. It would be pretty easy to work out yes. Any reason why you want to hide windows? :)

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:22 am
by pleigh
d11wtq wrote:Well I could check what block devices you have and then mount them so I can browse the files. It would be pretty easy to work out yes. Any reason why you want to hide windows? :)
well, im not realy sure how can i let you browse my system, but anyway, regarding to the question about the reason to hide windows?well, i am very much comfortable with windows, but my brother won't let me use it, he's an advocate of open system...by the way, he's older than me and he owns the computer i'm using in the house...hehehe...i just like windows for my games, and using linux for games gives me like a hell of a job figuring out how i can play it there, considering that i tried some emulator, my favorite games doesn't seem to work...i jaust like that when my brother used the computer, he cannot browse the windows partition in my system...hehehe...but anyway, in the office, i am using a linux box, and i don't intend to install windows there, for i have no rights(admin privileges) to install it... :D

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:34 am
by Chris Corbyn
You could always make the partition a hidden partition, but it's still not foolproof, it would be seen if he ran fdisk (or he noticed that the disk space he has available seems to be lacking somewhere).

I wasn't meaning that I could browse your filesystem from here :P I meant if I was using your PC ;)

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:38 am
by pleigh
oh sorry, i was not thinking about that...at least at some time, i can enjoy playing until he figured out that i still have a windows xp installed in my computer... :D :D