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    Trying Ubuntu alternate use for MediaDirect button

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by c5f8, Jul 22, 2007.

  1. c5f8

    c5f8 Newbie

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    For my E1505/ATI-x1400, I want to dual boot between XP and Ubuntu using the power button for XP and the Media Direct button for Linux. My laptop came with Vista which I wiped out. The Grub loader is installed onto the Linux partition.

    My SATA drive now looks like this:
    C:\ NTFS boot on /dev/sda1, (1st primary partition),
    E:\ Ubuntu6.10 on /dev/sda2, (2nd primary partition),
    D:\ NTFS file on /dev/sda3, (3rd primary partition),
    extended partition = /dev/sda4,
    F:\ Linux swap on /dev/sda5, (extended partition),
    G:\ fat32 on /dev/sda6, (extended partition).

    In a terminal window I checked the location of Grub using:
    sudo grub
    find /boot/grub/stage1
    computer returned: (hd0,1)

    In a terminal window I checked the location of Grub using:
    sudo -i
    find / -name stage1
    computer returned:
    /lib/grub/i386-pc/stage1
    /rofs/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage1

    Stage2 was at the same locations.

    Since I had Vista, my media direct disk was MediaDirect 3. I followed the procedure at this thread: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=198374
    In an XP command prompt window I went to the CD file location and typed:
    rmbr DELL 1 2

    Then I shut the computer down and pressed the Media Direct button. First a MediaDirect splash screen came up and then a blue screen of death appeared:
    Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error something to do with win32k.sys

    Anyone know what is wrong?
     
    c5f8, Jul 22, 2007
    #1
  2. TechIsCool

    TechIsCool Notebook Consultant

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    i like the idea of booting xp on one button and vista on another :)
     
    TechIsCool, Jul 23, 2007
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  3. majortom1981

    majortom1981 Notebook Consultant

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    I think that button by default just loads a minimal version of vista. So you might have to reprogram it to load linux.
     
    majortom1981, Jul 23, 2007
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  4. shrimants

    shrimants Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey there, eventually i would like to do the same thing as you. As we speak (type) i am reformatting my entire computer and deleting all the media direct stuff off of it. the tech support person said that media direct button would be a dummy button if i did that. That is kind of what i was hoping for, although it would be great if i could boot into a different OS.

    PS: you were supposed to run the rmbr command off of the dell CD, not the xp command line.
     
    shrimants, Aug 22, 2007
    #4