[SOLVED] Booting Vista via grub: Invalid or unsupported executable format

jot · 01-06-2007, 07:18 AM

Hi

This is about getting grub to boot either FC5 or Windows Vista (on one harddisk). Booting Fedora works fine. When attempting to boot Vista I get this output:

Code:

Booting 'Windows Vista'
chainloader +1
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format
Press any key to continue...

The installation history is as follows:

1) Installed FC5
- no problems with booting
- I had also prepared an empty 80GB partition

2) Installed Windows Vista on the empty partition
- grub menu was gone, could not access Linux anymore
- Vista started up fine

3) Repaired grub and MBR
- FC5 could be accessed again
- Vista could not be booted - my current status

Yeah, by now I know that I should have installed Vista before Linux. But is there any chance to spare me reinstalling the whole system? I have been using FC5 for quite a while, so a lot of configuring and installing has gone into it. As for Vista, I urgently need it working as I must run a piece of software on it.

My configuration:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600 on a A8N32 SLI Deluxe board
Fedora Core 5, kernel-2.6.18-1.2257.fc5 (x86_64)
Windows Vista Beta 2 x64

My partitions (as reported by parted):

Code:

Model: ATA ST3250620AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  107MB  107MB   primary  ext3
 2      107MB   168GB  168GB   primary               lvm
 3      168GB   250GB  82.2GB  primary  ntfs         boot

Mounting point of sda1 is "/boot". The logical volume group on sda2 contains two logical volumes ("/" and swap). Obviously, sda3 contains Vista.

My grub.conf looks like this:

Code:

default=0
timeout=30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2257.fc5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2257.fc5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2257.fc5.img
title Windows Vista
        rootnoverify(hd0,2)
        chainloader +1

--
Plan B: If there is no other way than reinstalling everything, is there something I should be aware of other than the order of installtions?

Thanks so much for any hints!

comprookie2000 · 01-06-2007, 10:41 AM

Try this;

Code:

title=Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1

jot · 01-07-2007, 01:16 AM

Thank you very much, comprookie2000!!

Was bracing myself for heavy-duty tweaking. But your minor change already did the job! You saved me lotsa headache, time and trouble!

comprookie2000 · 01-07-2007, 04:03 AM

Thanks for letting us know it works.
have fun ...