Dual booting Suse and Vista, Vista installed after Suse
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Dual booting Suse and Vista, Vista installed after Suse
Hi guys,
After installing Vista I can't access my linux! Both Suse and Vista are installed on the same hard drive in different partitions. Now after searching 4 a few solutions on the web I realise that I have to edit the /mnt/boot/gru/menu.lst file in Rescue mode. Now that's where my problem is; After accessing the file using the command: "vim /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst" in Rescue mode, I'm not sure how to edit and save changes on that file, I just need to know perhaps the keys I have 2 hit (or commands) in order to edit, save and reboot in Rescue Mode.
Help will be greatly appreciated.
If you boot directly into openSUSE as root, or Switch User to root under Leave in the Kicker menu, you can open the file "/boot/grub/menu.lst" with either Kate or KWrite and edit menu.lst directly as a document. Save the session as you would any other document and the the changes should be made.
Last edited by thorkelljarl; 10-04-2009 at 03:11 PM.
If you installed vista after Suse then vista overwrote Grub in the master boot record and you will need to re-install Grub to the MBR. Use your install or any Linux CD and open a terminal as root, run the command fdisk -l (lower case Letter L) and post that partition information here so someone can tell you the necessary commands. Installing vista after Linux and overwriting the mbr, you can edit the menu.lst file forever and it won't change anything. Re-installing Grub to the mbr is very easy, just a few lines.
Thx 4 the feedback guys...
When I run the "fdisk -l" in Rescue mode I get the following:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 409 3820 27406890 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3821 7296 27920970 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 5369 7296 15485952 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 3821 4082 2104452 82 Linux Swap/Solaris
/dev/sda6 4083 4794 5719108+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 4795 5368 4610623+ 83 Linux
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, apparently I have 2 edit that menu.lst file before I install GRUB. I got the solution from the Novell website, and it says I have to edit that file by adding the following 2 the end of menu.lst:
title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
--------------------------
Now, the file (as seen in Rescue mode using "vim" command) already has similar lines like this:
###Don't change this comment-YAST2 identifier: original name: Windows ###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
------------------------
So I wonder if I have 2 change or delete these already existing lines (above) or just add new lines at the end of the file without changing anything else.
Please provide me with commands I'm supposed 2 use as well
Last edited by MCRan; 10-05-2009 at 04:07 AM.
Reason: typos
You just need to over write the mbr with the grub bootloader that has been messed up by windows loader.
Boot into rescue mode and type
grub-install /dev/sda
I guess this can be done with other distros disk as well if you do not have a Suse disk. You can use Ubuntu Live cd, boot from it and give the commands as said.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.