GRUB dualboot XP and Linux Problem

demmylls · 03-03-2007, 12:36 PM

i have IDE Drive at Primary Master slot and a SATA drive at SATA1 slot

i've installed Windows XP on /dev/sda1 (SATA Drive) and then i install Fedora Core 6 at /dev/hda1 (IDE Drive)

In Bios i've set SATA1 slot as my Primary Boot device when installing XP
then when i install FC6 i've set IDE Primary Master slot as my Primary Boot Device

FC6 detected XP and added it to GRUB.
Both XP and FC6 boot up fine.

When i set SATA1 slot at the primary device then i can only boot XP
but when i set IDE Primary Master drive as my primary device in bios i can use GRUB to boot FC6.

The problem starts when i tried to use GRUB to boot XP and it gives me error message
"Missing 'io.sys'"

after that i no longer be able to use the GUI GRUB to boot any of the my OS.
just by selecting XP and press enter in GUI GRUB i no longer be able to boot anymore.

So i have to change my BIOS to SATA1 slot at my primary boot device.

Now everytime i goes into GRUB i will be given GRUB command line interface (grub>)

how do i fix this?

the following is my grub.conf auto generated when i install FC6

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core 6 Zod (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
title Windows XP Pro SP2
	rootnoverify (hd2,0)
	chainloader +1

Maestro485 · 03-03-2007, 01:37 PM

I think the problem is that when you change the boot device in your BIOS, grub's configuration is no longer accurate. I'm not positive, but it seems like when grub looks for '/dev/hd0' its actually finding the wrong disk because of the new BIOS settings.

As for what to do at the 'grub>' prompt, you can just enter the commands by hand:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

if you're having problems, try setting (hd0,0) to different values such as (hd1,0) or (hd0,1)

Again, I'm somewhat guessing here, but it can't hurt to try.

bigrigdriver · 03-03-2007, 01:43 PM

Set the ide as primary.

Edit grub.conf to change this:
title Windows XP Pro SP2
rootnoverify (hd2,0)
chainloader +1

to this:
title Windows XP Pro SP2
rootnoverify (hd2,0)
map (hd2,0) (hd0,0)
map (hd0,0) (hd2,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

You should then be able to boot both Linux and windows via grub.

demmylls · 03-03-2007, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maestro485

I think the problem is that when you change the boot device in your BIOS, grub's configuration is no longer accurate. I'm not positive, but it seems like when grub looks for '/dev/hd0' its actually finding the wrong disk because of the new BIOS settings.

As for what to do at the 'grub>' prompt, you can just enter the commands by hand:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

if you're having problems, try setting (hd0,0) to different values such as (hd1,0) or (hd0,1)

Again, I'm somewhat guessing here, but it can't hurt to try.

when i install XP i've set SATA slot 1 to primary HDD
when i install FC6 i've set IDE Primary Master as my primary HDD in BIOS