Looking for very specific install method.

[osgNeco]

Hi,  longtime Windows user,  haven't been familiar with command-line environments since I was in my pre-teens/teens  although I have played with Linux distros on and off every so often.
I've tried lots of distros but I think I really do like PCLinuxOS.  I like that for whatever reason (perhaps easier config UI's) my Auzentech X-Fi Forte actually works and I can get sound out of it via SPDIF (oddly enough my Radeon 5850 produced no sound via HDMI -> Optical Out from my Monitor, even though other distros worked fine with it).

However I'm happy to happy to have 2.0 PCM as that's the best I'll get and I don't intend to use Linux for video/audio (wasn't impressed with MKV playback but maybe that was just VLC.. choppy like it didn't like the VFR video stream).   Mostly I just want a lightweight Linux distro for playing around, and also for cross-platform development testing.

Some background:
My biggest pet peeve is that, I have having to either give up, or modify my Windows boot menu / MBR  deal..   Call me nitpicky, but I don't like select Linux from the bootloader and THEN selecting my Linux OS inside GRUB, etc..   Likewise I am very weary of messing with / modifying GRUB  at this point,  so I don't want it to be my default bootloader.    As I also want the ability to reinstall Windows 7  at will, without worrying that GRUB is gonna be messed up etc.

I couldn't get LiveUSB to work nice (hangs on bootstrapping but I didn't try the LiveCD tool, I used an external Windows tool so that might be the problem) , and I don't like the speed of LiveCD's so I'm kind of determined to get an HDD install going..

Linux Mint
I really like whatever it is that their installer did..   I have a primary boot SSD which I keep Windows on for obvious reason, and I then have 4x2TB Samsung F4's with various partition setups.   I chose to shrink the single partition on my third drive (called sdd, apparently) and installed Mint and GRUB to the OS partition..  The result was the following.

My main C:\ Windows drive remain untouched.  It booted just like normal,  however I have an Asus Sabertooth 990FX with a EUFI BIOS and one nice feature I discovered it has is a full boot override menu.  I can hit F8 during POST and the system will HALT after POST and allow me to select any drive on the system to boot from manually -  So I just select my drive I installed Mint to and  VOILA,  the GRUB bootloader comes up, mint runs, etc..

I just can't figure out how to do it properly with PCLinuxOS (or if its even possible).   It is probably just my inexperience, although I have tried so many things in so many different orders,  auto partition setup, manual setup,  dropping GRUB onto different partitions on "sdd" (the drive installing to), but could get nothing.   The most I've gotten is a blank screen with a blinking cursor when I try to boot the drive directly.

Although I'm actually copying files off my NTFS partition so I can wipe the entire drive table now, because whatever I did,  it managed to prevent the installer from running now   

I started out with me trying to clear all the non-NTFS partitions during the Setup Wizard, so I even nicked the one at the beginning of the driver (about 128mb, before the NTFS partition).   Then I started getting   a "can't delete partition" error no matter what I tried.

Since there is no "cancel" feature on the Wizard (at this point at least?) I had to hit the reset switch.   Now any time I run the livecd installer, when it gets to the Setup Wizard and I hit OK or w/e to continue it causes the installer to trigger a restart, ejecting disc and all...

So I'm trying to clean up that mess and then try again..   Is anyone able to give me any steps/advice  to get the boot setup how I want?
Mint is nice, but it was kind of slow imho (especially boot to desktop) so I'd hate to be stuck with that just because I'm picky about  my Windows bootloader setup. 

[Just18]

After the OS install to some partition on /dev/sdd (I believe you said) it asks which drive you wish to boot and where to place Grub ........  if you select   /dev/sdd  ...  and not  /dev/sdd? (?=number) then grub will go into the MBR of /dev/sdd and it can be booted by selecting it as the boot drive as you described above.

A better scheme might be to make the drive on which you intend to install Linux, the first boot drive. Install PCLOS and do the installation as normal.
You will then be able to boot Linux or Win from the boot menu choice ...  even make Win the default ......  and if you ever change all is need is to make the Win disk the first boot disk to get back to present status.

[osgNeco]

Yes I had thought about doing something like that..  I think I tried the base  sdd  device at some point, but it didn't work for some reason..  Maybe because of that first partition sitting there, not sure.

I'm actually about to attempt an install with the drive clean and no partitions and see what that gets me as well..   For what its worth I used the LiveUSB creator on the LiveCD and it worked well,  put grub on it etc.   But still a bit too slow.

I'll give things a shot again and see if I can't straighten it out.   Very impressed with how speedy the OS is

The only other thing I forgot to mention is, in addition to selecting the partition grub gets installed too, it takes me to a another screen,  stating I've selected a partition,  again asking what drive I am booting the system from,  I think that is where I was selecting the base "sdd" drive.. perhaps that was the part in error?

I've also considered unplugging every drive but the one I'm installing to, as a last resort measure to try.

[Just18]

The only other thing I forgot to mention is, in addition to selecting the partition grub gets installed too, it takes me to a another screen,  stating I've selected a partition,  again asking what drive I am booting the system from,  I think that is where I was selecting the base "sdd" drive.. perhaps that was the part in error?

It is a long time since I used that, but yes I believe you should have chosen the boot drive .....  maybe /dev/sda in your case .... when asked.

[osgNeco]

I never did because I was (again) afraid it would simply leave me with either an  overwritten Windows boatloader that sent me to grub, or an edited bootloader.

However,  following your advice I still couldn't get it to work, it seems..

I repartitioned my drive,  adding back my NTFS partition first, and left 100gb of free space.
Ran the installer and let it setup the partitions
On the bootloader setup I selected  "sdd (Samsung F4 blah blah blah)"  and it moved on without a complaint.

However setting the drive as the first HDD in the priority menu doesn't yield anything but a Windows 7 bootmenu  (I've tried getting into PCLOS via  easybcd with no results)
Manually selecting the drive as the boot override has the same results.   I did make sure it was set as the 1st HDD to try in the boot order before booting the LiveCD installer though.

EasyBCD wasn't able to boot it from any of the partitions on the drive..  Back before I first started messing with the tables, I managed to create a Windows Bootloader entry that loaded PCLOS.  But that only happened once.  Subsequent reboots did not work with the entry.   Although that is irrelevant at this point.

I'm not sure what else to try other than  starting with no partitions on the drive at all,  or just unplugging everything but the single drive I want to install to..

I can't help but wonder if the mystery 128mb partition that used to be at the start of the drive, has something to do with it  (created by Mint and containing GRUB maybe??)

[Just18]

I am convinced the simplest and easiest method is to install PCLOS to a different drive than Windows is on. Write Grub to the MBR of the Linux drive.

Now go into your BIOS and set the Linux drive as the first boot drive.

When you reboot you will get a grub boot selection, which will include PCLOS and Windows ......  there may be an odd entry there if the boot manager things there is a second Win you could boot.

You should then be able to boot Win or PCLOS from that selection screen.

You can set whichever option as default as you wish, and adjust the time-out to a couple of secs if you wish.

Doing that means your Win disk is separate with its own separate boot loader.

regards.

[osgNeco]

That's exactly what I did during my last re-attempt before posting.  But for whatever reason it failed.

However I am now posting from PCLOS.   I did several things differently this time.

A) I booted a LiveCD Session and ran the installer from there.
B) I started with a blank drive with no partitions, not even the large NTFS partition I had previously.
I made my partitions manually  ( "/", "swap", "/home") and let it install.
I selected  the "sdd" device (instead of any partitions on "sdd")as we had discussed and as I did during my last failed attempt to try and get GRUB onto the MBR.

C) I left the boot menu entries alone, when previously I had removed any Windows boot entries.   I don't think this would have had an effect either way but who knows.

Now for whatever reason it decided to work.  I have successfully booted the drive with my BIOS manual boot selection menu twice.

No idea why it worked this time.   But hopefully, adding the NTFS back to the remainder of the free space will not jinx me  

Thanks for your consultation

[Just18]

Glad to hear you got it working 

[dupek]

Since, I have 2 HDD, I unplugged the default HD with win 7. I installed the PCLOS on second HDD. At boot, I just press F12 for boot menu. That way I do not mess with win7 HDD. I do have win7 rescue CD.

[Neal ManBear]

Since, I have 2 HDD, I unplugged the default HD with win 7. I installed the PCLOS on second HDD. At boot, I just press F12 for boot menu. That way I do not mess with win7 HDD. I do have win7 rescue CD.

     
Not sure if your BIOS will support it (my dell's does), but if each hard disk has its own MBR, you should see a menu to choose which HDD to boot from on starting the machine. That is with both HDDs connected.     
I can install grub to the MBR of both HDDs and choose which HDD to boot from, then choose from either grub menu after. For my own convenience, I only use the first HDD's MBR, but I can easily switch, if I want/need to.