InformIT: Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed > Installing and Using BootMagic

Installing and Using BootMagic

BootMagic is a commercial bootloader included with PowerQuest's PartitionMagic program. This bootloader must be installed using Windows, and may be installed and configured after you have installed Linux in a separate partition. If your computer does not have a CD-ROM drive, you'll have to use another computer to copy the BTMAGIC directory from the PartitionMagic CD-ROM onto a floppy and then onto your Windows desktop. You can then click the Setup.exe program to install BootMagic. You'll see a dialog, as shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1 PowerQuest's BootMagic bootloader features a graphical installation and setup.

Click the Next button to install the BootMagic bootloader while running Windows.

Follow through the next seven dialogs, filling out your user information, directory locations, and so on. You'll then be asked if you want to create a bootable BootMagic diskette. This is a good idea, and the diskette can come in handy later on if you have trouble booting either Windows or Linux on your computer. After creating the diskette, you'll see a BootMagic configuration dialog used to add other bootable partitions to BootMagic's initial boot menu. Click the Add button to begin.

In order to show your Linux partition(s), click the Advanced box and then click the root Linux partition. When finished, click OK to add Linux to BootMagic's boot menu. You'll then be asked (in a new dialog) to give your Linux partition a name and icon. Click OK when finished, and you'll see BootMagic's main dialog (as shown in Figure 3.2).

The main dialog is used to set the default operating system to boot. Click your new Linux entry, and then click the Up arrow Reorder button to move Linux to the top of the list. Click the Set as Default button while your Linux entry is highlighted to make sure your computer boots to Linux by default. Note that you can set a startup delay, delete or rename entries, and enable or disable BootMagic. When finished, click the Save/Exit button and BootMagic will be installed.

Figure 3.2 Use the BootMagic Configuration dialog's buttons to reorder the list of operating systems and to select a default operating system to boot.

When you reboot your computer, you'll be presented a graphic menu of operating systems to boot. You can click with your mouse, or wait the preset time delay, and Linux will boot.

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