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I have a primary HD1 that has an installed bootable Windows XP partition 1 that is working. And Linux Mint in partition 5 also in primary HD1.

I need the Windows XP partition in order to use a very old printer.

The Windows XP partition is successfully boot from BIOS firmware. My current machine has UEFI firmware. That can boot with BIOS.

I assume that next computer will not support BIOS firmware booting.

The current computer firmware is: American Megatrends Version 2.13.1216

The computer is HP Compack Elite 8300 MT v02.05

Currently I am able to dual boot both Windows XP and Linux Mint from the BIOS using a twisted trick:

  1. Installed in Windowx XP GRUB4DOS using software from 'AIO Boot Extractor' from here.

  2. Installed on GRUB4DOS chainload to GRUB2

  3. Configure GRUB2 to dual boot Windows XP and Linux Mint

So I have a twisted temporary solution.

I am seeking for a future/permanent solution:

I want to dual boot Windows XP from UEFI firmware.

I found out grub2 cannot chainload MBR, it is looking for *.efi module. And there was a grub2 module for ntldr that is not available anymore.

What are my options. And what are the available solutions.

I considered to copy the Windows XP parition into virtual machine. I do not know if the virtual machine host will be able to communicate with the old printer.

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  • A VM can be a solution uf the printer connects with USB (unlikely because it then would have support in a newer, UEFI enabled Windows version). But are you sure it doesn't work in you Linux? Commented Jun 1, 2019 at 20:11
  • Thank you for your comment. The printer connects with USB 1.0, and the printer USB device driver was blocked for security breaches. It might be available for the VM host, but I am afraid about the security breach blocking the printer. And I will have to reinstall it again. Commented Jun 1, 2019 at 23:50
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    That must be a very weird/unusual printer. Most old printers are supported natively in Linux and also many that required an additional driver in XP were natively supported in newer Windows versions. Perhaps you should investigate that or ask a specific question about that printer. Otherwise this looks like a X-Y problem and what you think is a solution - using XP - is actually very dangerous if exposed to the internet, in dual-boot or VM. Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 3:44

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