After installing fedora 6 on a separate partition, grub 0.97 will not boot my win xp partition.

fdisk print out:

/dev/hda1 * 1 1 8001 1 FAT12
/dev/hda2 2 1467 11775645 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2 639 5124703+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 640 652 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 653 1467 6546456 8e Linux LVM

grub menu setting:

Fedora Core
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18 ...
Other
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

I'm new to this, any ideas how I can make the "Other" to boot into my Win XP partition. If this have been covered in this Forum already, please direct me to the proper thread.

Thanks in advance.

Try changeing this:
Other
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

to this:
Other
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
man (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
man (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Reason: windows won't boot via the grub bootloader unless it's on the first partition of the first hard drive. So, we just tell it a little white lie (the map lines) to convince it that it's somewhere other than where it is (the map lines tell it it's on the first partition of the first drive).

Change "man" in two places to "map"

I couldn't have asked for better support. You don't get this in a multinational corporation!!

Added the "map" commands and got this (I think I have got this before but forgot to mention it in my original post):

Error 12: Invalide device requested

However, when I issue the "root (hd0,4)" command in the grub prompt, I get:

filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xb

Oops! My bad. I made three errors.

change this:
Other
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
man (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
man (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
makeactive
chainloader +1

to this:
Other
root (hd0,4)
map (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
map (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I just had this problem with the wife's laptop a couple of days ago and make pretty much the same error. I don't know why 'root' and 'rootnoverify' didn't work the same.

From 'Solving Boot Problems with Grub - 2nd Edition'
12 : Invalid device requested
This error is returned if a device string is recognizable but does
not fall under the other device errors.

So, I'd gather that the string in this case is the difference between root and rootnoverify. At any rate, it's worth a try.

I have seen alternative configurations, such as:
Other
rootnoverify
root (hd0,4)
man (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
man (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
makeactive
chainloader +1

will I did try using root instead of rootnoverify ... got the same Error 12.

So now I don't know whether my winxp partition is messed up during the install of fc6 or something else.

Any suggestion is appreciated!

EDIT: Ups, maybe misread your post. I read FAT12 as FAT32. Never saw FAT12 before. So my post will be of no help I guess ...


I'm not that familiar with grub, but I wonder why you call hd0,4 instead hd0,0 -- if I understand your fdisk output right, Windows is on the first partition of your hard disk?

My grub 0.97 Windows configuration part:

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

My prediction is XP is booted by whatever in the hda1, which has a fat12 filing system for an ancient Dos. The partition ID is shown "1" so it cannot be a fat32 which would have a partition type "c" or "b" depending LBA mode is used or not.

XP has left its NTLDR there and the Dos is dual booting itself and XP.

XP should boot by

If you can't get it to work, boot up the XP install disk. Instead of installing, go to the recovery console and when you are at the prompt type: FIXMBR or FIX MBR (cant remember exactly what it is, so check the help). That will reinstall ntloader (the windows bootloader) to the Master Boot Record. Then reinstall grub from floppy or from cd. If you decide to do it this way, print out the page from the grub documentation:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...l#Installation

GOT IT! root (hd0,0) did the trick. Thanks to all!