[syslinux] Any way to boot Windows NT (specifically Win2K) directly?

[Nazo]

On 12/31/05, Bernd Blaauw <bblaauw at home.nl> wrote:
> Nazo schreef:
> > Since the chainloader doesn't seem to accept this for whatever reason,
> > I'm wondering if there isn't a better way anyway.  It occurs to me to
> > wonder if there isn't some means to directly boot a NT windows.  Say,
> > perhaps some way you can boot a binary file as if it were a kernel?  I
> > don't like having to rely on NTLDR (if it gets messed up, I have to
> > drag out my old win2k disc to make repairs -- assuming I can find it,)
> > and I think it's silly having multiple bootloaders in a row anyway.
> >
> there's no direct way. You could try FreeLoader (FreeLDR), from the
> ReactOS project.
> If I remember correctly it has been modified to not only support booting
> ReactOS,  but also boot Windows.
>
>
> --
> Efficiency is intelligent lazyness
>
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>
I'll definitely check that out.  If nothing else, if it did work, I'd
at least remove the dependancy on the NTLDR with it's complete lack of
proper configuration and inability to be applied anywhere other than
through the recovery console (which is just so limited in what it can
actually do that it's not even funny.)  Not to mention that it takes
3x longer to get into the recovery console than my worst linux rescue
disc, which already takes far far too long to boot up for my liking. 
I must say, I'd heard the name ReactOS before, but, never looked up
what it was, which I now regret.  This is a very neat project, so
thanks for mentioning it so I'd end up looking it up.

On 12/31/05, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:
> Nazo wrote:
> > I decided to install Win2K on my "retrogaming/htpc" system to take
> > advantage of the dual processors in the thing when I'm multitasking a
> > lot, but, it's kind of annoying having to use first one bootloader to
> > chainload my Windows 98 partition, then, via NTLDR, selection Windows
> > 2000 to get to Win2k.  I tried using the recovery console to try to
> > force it to write a boot sector to that partition, then chainloading
> > it, but, the chainloader just informs me the partition doesn't exist.
> > Obviously it doesn't help that the Win2k partition not only passes
> > that 1024 boundary, but, is on a logical partition and everything (I
> > wanted to use FAT32 so I could get to that partition thanks to free
> > space concerns.  I won't be running any servers on there anyway and I
> > doubt I'll ever forward any non-lan ports it's way, so I'm not too
> > worried about file system security issues.)  Specifically, it's on
> > hda8 in linux terms.
> >
> > Since the chainloader doesn't seem to accept this for whatever reason,
> > I'm wondering if there isn't a better way anyway.  It occurs to me to
> > wonder if there isn't some means to directly boot a NT windows.  Say,
> > perhaps some way you can boot a binary file as if it were a kernel?  I
> > don't like having to rely on NTLDR (if it gets messed up, I have to
> > drag out my old win2k disc to make repairs -- assuming I can find it,)
> > and I think it's silly having multiple bootloaders in a row anyway.
> >
>
> What do you mean it doesn't seem to accept it?  There might be a bug
> with using the chainloader on logical partitions, but it's supposed to work.
>
>         -hpa
>
Perhaps you're right.  It says "Requested logical partition not
found.".  I just assumed it had a problem because I have probably a
bit of an unusual setup and because, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that
Win2k partition passes the 1024 boundary.  Right now I'm booting the
NTLDR that installed on the much lower Win98 partition where the boot
part shouldn't be past 1024.  Heck, I could have simply applied the
boot sector incorrectly.  I booted the Win2k recovery console, ran the
help program, then ran help on the fixboot command, which, as nearly
as I can tell is what I needed.  I ran fixboot D: which is supposed to
apply it's boot sector to that particular partition.  It said it was
sucessful as well.  Nonetheless, I may have misunderstood something,
though I don't see what.  Well, I might add that, just in case, I
tried hd0 3 all the way up to something like hd0 12, just to be 100%
sure, and it said the same thing in each case, except hd0 3, which
said it booting and froze, but, that's the extended partition, so I
didn't expect it to work.  Well, just in case it's of any use to you
at all, here is my fdisk output (tried to make a non-fixed font look
semi-right, so it's not space accurate):

Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device   Boot        Start            End             Blocks     Id   System
/dev/hda1    *                  1               65           522081    83  Linux
/dev/hda2                      66          5563      44162685      c  
W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda3                 5564          7476       1536172+      f  
W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5                 5564          5694         1052226    82  Linux swap
/dev/hda6                 5695          5759            522081   83  Linux
/dev/hda7                 5760          7034       10241406   83  Linux
/dev/hda8                 7035          7476       3550333+     b  W95 FAT32


I believe I did my original partitioning with PartitionMagic 8. 
Windows 2000 formatted the /dev/hda8 itself though.  I noticed it
didn't say LBA like the other FAT32 partition, so I tried changing
that b to a c (eg W95 FAT32 to W95 FAT32 LBA.)  Still says "Requested
logical partition not found."  I probably should have written my
partition table with fdisk or something, but, I wasn't sure quite how
I'd do things and wanted to kind of visualize it to figure out how
much to distribute where.