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If you're on Vista / Win7, you can choose to NOT install GRUB in MBR, but on the Linux partition itself. Then, use EasyBCD:
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
You might be interested in Ubuntu WUBI (does not mess with your partitions).
When GRUB starts, and without a boot menu, you have to fix the GRUB settings from within Linux. If you install a newer distro, chances are that you get GRUB2, which is horrible to configure.
Again, when you install the boot manager (GRUB) into the Linux partition (NOT in the MBR), than you can change the active partition using fdisk or other partitioning programs. The active partition is the one that will boot. Some small boot loaders use this on startup so you can choose which partition to start.
My personal favorite is SBM (smart boot manager):
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/
As far as I remember the problem was not a missing boot menu - but zero timeout during which you can choose what OS (Fedora, Windows) to boot.
By default, Fedora installer was supposed to detect that there is an existing installation, and automatically put the non-zero menu display time.
Anyone hit by this bug, could simply boot into Linux, edit the /etc/grub.conf file, and replace the timeout=0 with timeout=<insert_your_preferred_timeout_here>.
- Gilboa
Edited 2010-05-19 08:22 UTC




Member since:
2010-05-19
I'm newer to Linux. How would one boot to Windows without the boot menu?