Install BT4 over BT4pf with dual boot environment.

[hhmatt]

Thats right, we're going from a dual boot BT4pf and Win7 hard drive install to a BT4 and Win7 without screwing with our Win7 partitions and I've got pictures to aide you in your upgrade. This should apply to any windows or linux dual boot environment. If you're using linux make sure you're installing to the proper partition.

Backup any files you want to keep from BT4pf.

1.) Boot BackTrack 4 Final LiveCD on the machine to be installed. Once booted, type in “startx” to get to the KDE graphical interface.

2.) Double click the “install.sh” script on the desktop or run the command “ubiquity” in console.

3.) Select your geographical location and click “forward”. Same for the Keyboard layout.

4.) Make Sure Manual Is selected then Click Forward.



5.) Here we need to make sure we select our BT4pf partition, Then click Edit partition.



6.) Make sure your set your partition type to what you want, I'm using ext3. Check the format the partition box(optional). Then set mount point to /



7.) Check to see if everything looks right. If it does then click Forward. If NOT then you will need to click back and edit accordingly.



8.) Click Install
(This may take a while)
9.) Once complete. Click Restart Now. Proceed to boot to bt4 and login with root/toor


Optional:
10.) Once rebooted I like to edit my grub menu titles. Customize my boot menu a little. Here's how:

a.) Open a Terminal. Type

cd /boot/grub/
cp menu.lst menu.lst.bak
nano menu.lst

scroll all the way to the bottom until you find:
## ## End Default Options ##

Now you can change your titles to whatever they represent. Here's an example:
Warning: Do NOT change anything but the titles unless you really know what you're doing with grub. Don't hold me responsible for you screwing up your grub entries. Even if you do that's why we made a backup earlier. Use the LiveCD to get and rename "menu.lst.bak" back to "menu.lst".

title Backtrack 4, Kernel 2.6.30.9
uuid .....
kernel .....
initrd .....
quiet

title Backtrack 4, Kernel 2.6.30.9 (recovery mode)
uuid .....
kernel .....
initrd .....

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid .....
kernel .....
quiet

### END DEBIAN KERNEL LIST

### OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS
title Other Operating systems:
root

title Windows7
root .....
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Don't forget to change the password for root using passwd.
Hope this helps people upgrade who might have some difficulty.
Special thanks to the BT crew. pwnsauce FTW! Much appreciated.

[Garg0yle]

Nice. Wish I saw this before I re-installed my laptop. Would saved some settings, but none that I couldn't replace. Thanx.

[hhmatt]

Thank you for the kind words. Chock it up as a learning experience and happy hacking!

[lordplagueis]

passwd = change root password also

[hhmatt]

passwd = change root password also

Yes, I recommend changing your root password asap. Use the passwd command to do that once you're logged in as root.

[R3104d]

I second that G@rg0yle.lol Nice walk-through though hhmatt.Good job.

[Techn0]

This helped me out a ton. Thanks! Would it be beyond the scope of this thread to ask how I can change Grub to boot Windows by default? I am sure booting Windows by default will not make me super popular around here but most of the programs I need for work are Windows progs. Thanks...

[hhmatt]

This helped me out a ton. Thanks! Would it be beyond the scope of this thread to ask how I can change Grub to boot Windows by default? I am sure booting Windows by default will not make me super popular around here but most of the programs I need for work are Windows progs. Thanks...

This really depends. It's an easy change but figuring out which number you need to set it to is slightly difficult for someone who isn't familiar with grub.
You're looking for a line in /boot/grub/menu.lst called default. It should currently be: default 0
You're going to need to boot the machine and when grub loads you need to count which number on the list has windows on it.

Heres what my grub boot list looks like when I turn the machine on.

Backtrack 4
Backtrack 4 (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
Other operating systems:
Windows 7

So...
Backtrack 4 = 0
Backtrack 4 (recovery mode) = 1
Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+ = 2
Other operating systems: = 3
Windows 7 = 4

So if I wanted to change my default to Windows I would change the line in menu.lst to:

default  4

Save the file and reboot and you should see the default highlighted has changed.

Note: If you add anything to the boot list your default will probably be wrong and you will have to correct this. This usually happens when you update the kernel. You can edit out the old boot options as necessary. I typically leave them for a week or so then edit them out once I know everything is still working good.

[Techn0]

That again worked perfectly. Your attention to detail is greatly appreciated. Great tutorial!

[hhmatt]

That again worked perfectly. Your attention to detail is greatly appreciated. Great tutorial!

Thanks, glad you found it useful!