[adave]

I just finished building my HTPC. I'm using an ASRock 330 Ion dual-booting with GRUB2. I have the option of booting either Ubuntu Minimal to go directly into XBMC or Windows 7 to launch Boxee.

I was wondering if there was anyway to use my ASRock remote control to choose which OS I would like to launch at the GRUB bootloader screen? Has anyone here tried this before? I don't have a keyboard hooked up to the ASRock and was hoping to use the remote control for everything.

Any help would be appreciated.

[gajraaj]

Hi adave,

I do not have an answer to your question but may be you can be of some help to me. I have just bought an ion 330 and want to make it dual boot like you did. Can you provide me the procedure that you used to make it dual book as you have done.

thanks in advance

gajraaj

[robo989]

OP

I can't exactly help but my bog standard CyberLink remote\receiver works from the grub boot screen (i dual boot like you win7\ubunutu minimal xbmc) without anything needed to have been done.

Thing is these remotes send key presses and aren't proper windows media center remotes, whereas yours prolly is a proper one...could be the problem and might help withn your search.

[barrygordon]

There is a lot of data on the web regarding making dual or triple boot machines. My ION 330 is set up as a triple boot (Windows XP soon to be Win 7) full Ubuntu, and XBMC LIVECD.

The general process is to format the HD to several partitions, one for windows, and multiples for Ubuntu or linux based systems to allow for a swap file.

Then install Windows first into one of the partitions. Then the Ubuntu full if you want it and finally XBMCLiveCD. It i not hard and there is plenty of detaild info on the Web. Just search for dual boot windows/Ubuntu.

[pumkinut]

There is a lot of data on the web regarding making dual or triple boot machines. My ION 330 is set up as a triple boot (Windows XP soon to be Win 7) full Ubuntu, and XBMC LIVECD.

The general process is to format the HD to several partitions, one for windows, and multiples for Ubuntu or linux based systems to allow for a swap file.

Then install Windows first into one of the partitions. Then the Ubuntu full if you want it and finally XBMCLiveCD. It i not hard and there is plenty of detaild info on the Web. Just search for dual boot windows/Ubuntu.

The OP is not asking how to set up his machine for multi-boot, rather if it's possible for his IR-remote to work during the grub screen so he can choose which OS to boot to with the remote and not have to use a keyboard.

[wierd0n3]

Grub is a Very basic OS built for choosing where to look for boot records. My guess is if it needs to be configured to work in your OS (Assigning keys, drivers) your out of luck. best bet is to find a remote/keyboard combo that uses standard keypresses to navigate.

here is one i've been eyeing. Im using a PS3 remote, and while im really satisfied with it, the battery issues and issues similar to yours make me want to look for a more fitting solution (add to the fact i sometimes grab the wrong one and boot up my ps3 )

Link to amazon

[kiwisparkles]

Not sure that this is what you're looking for, but I am planning something similar, so that I can playback BluRays on the exact same machine.

I was thinking of writing some small script which can be accessed through the scripts menu (with an SSD the machine boots in a couple of seconds anyways), which simply does something like "sudo grub-reboot <windows>" as a one-time boot into Windows, but keeping the default value being Ubuntu / XBMC.

For more info regarding the Grub 2 boot options, check out this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275