Dual boot system failure - Man and Machine tale

I have get a computer with relatively small HDD (only 80GB). It hosts Windows and Linux OS with GRUB boot manager. I needed more disk space so I decided to remove linux, and create new NTFS partition in that place. It looks simple. So I run the partition manager and checked what is what. First 100MB small partition looked like linux boot directory. Next was windows and then linux and swap partitions. Easy. Remove linux and windows partitions, format. All done. I played with Windows settings and decided to reboot.

Then I saw my mistake. I accidentally removed GRUB stage and config files with linux partition. The first one partition does not contain those needed files. I should check it more thoroughly. It sucks. I suck.

The first thought was, get the windows CD and rewrite master boot record with windows boot loader. But I have no cd/dvd drive in that machine. I don't have spare one in that location. But I have my laptop and USB pen drive. So maybe another option. I will install small linux distro as a power utility and reinstall GRUB. That's I like more.
The first thing I tried to do was creating bootable USB flash drive. I have used couple boot images, and Puppy Linux distro, different BIOS settings - my machine does not allow me to boot from USB. Not good.

So I decided to boot windows by manually configuring GRUB. After little research and experimenting I have booted into Windows. Now every time I want to boot that machine I have to:

• get into GRUB prompt by pressing 'e' key
• write GRUB commands

root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader --force +1
boot

Nice "hacker" style setup. It was definitely not finished yet.

I next part I write how I made that system more usable.

Is host virtualization for everyone?

Corporations often use host virtualization as a way to split one bigger and powerful server machine into set of easy manageable custom smaller servers without hardware mess. For software developers there is a way to test their software in various target environments, that are easy to set up on one testing box. Home and office users often use it boot two different systems at once to get what it gives best to improve productivity.

On the other hand virtualization separates OS from real hardware. This is tempting to have unchanged hardware environment for long time support systems. What will be problem with your customized perfectly working system in the next 5 years or later? New hardware solutions arrive at crazy pace. Your hardware platform probably will not be supported soon. And there will be differences that cause most of installed Operating Systems to be reinstalled or reconfigured again. So if you are looking for cutting the cost of future hardware adaptation, think about future machines preconfigured to use host virtualization. There are of course more usable cases for use of virtualization.

From historical point of view there is convergence of PC and server hardware platforms. Do you remember Amiga or Atari PCs? What about Apple computers- what is the difference between new Mac and other off-shelf Intel PC? Operating systems are trying to hide and abstract hardware differences. The final difference gap can be hidden under virtual machine host.

I'm looking forward for even better virtualization solutions.

Are you Vista ready?

We have interesting situation at the operating systems market. People don't adopt Windows Vista as fast as Microsoft planned, so Windows XP is still a valuable platform and it will be longer available. Even some Vista license buyers are allowed to switch to Windows XP.
It's good time for multiplatform and web application developers.

What do you think about it?

Broken mobo and OS

At last, I have new replacement mobo for my desktop PC. It's budget GA-M61P-S3. The old one was hanging occasionally and causing hardisk data corruption. It was older GA model M55Plus, still having warranty. So far so good.

I booted my Ubuntu linux and then came first insight- both mobos look similar but have different onboard gfx, ethernet and audio chips. And that caused that my nvidia driver is hanging at boot time. I switched temporarily to generic vesa driver, and tried to fix OS. Then I've realized that ethernet and audio isn't working either. I used available ubuntu stricted driver packages with previous mobo and it just worked. That was good experience- no time waste, desktop linux for the people etc.

I've tried to use nothing more than that existing Ubuntu packages. After day of searching and trying to find working solution, I gave up.

So here comes plan B. I downloaded drivers from nvidia and realtek site. After checking prerequisities I started instalation scripts. It worked like charm. But I still don't have sound. I had to download the newest alsa sources and install it manually too. Now everything works fine except onboard ethernet port. I've used old PCI card in that place. Maybe new forcedeth driver will fix that in future.

I have to admit it took me some time, but it was good time. Everyone who sometimes hacks linux system knows that feeling. Linux newbies or just usual desktop users may have other opinion. Let's think about alternative situation- how much time would I spend fixing windows system. Probably it would require windows reinstalation or repair action, then calling microsoft rep to get new activation code, then installing new drivers from mobo packet cd. It's slightly easier and faster way. There is still a little work to do to make linux desktop more user friendly. I believe that linux instalation and upgrade will be easier than now in near future.

The sign on the mobo box says: "Vista ready". But I'm not vista ready yet- It's still not solution for home use. But milions of early adopters will test it and maybe next release will be better. I'm happy that I can choose OS that suits my needs. Do only nerds think in that way?