Hi all,
Im new to linux and am trying to make a bootable grub sd card.

I have downloaded ubuntu live iso and have booted into it.
downloaded the grub project files from svn repository.

tried to run ./configure and make but no success.

All it says is cant find bison.

Also lots of aritcles that i have read on the web refer to the files stage1 and stage2 etc, yet the project files i downloaded dont contain these files (do i have to compile them?)

Anyway, im basically getting no where not to mention extremely frustrated!

If any one could point me in the right direction i would be most grateful.

Many thanks,
Chris.

If it says it can't find bison, then perhaps you should install bison:

ok thanks very much.

GRUB is too large to squeeze into MBR (which is only 512 bytes large). Hence it is divided into two files. Stage1 goes into mbr, the rest stored in stage2 is kept on harddrive. And yes by compiling GRUB source code you create these two files (stage1 + stage2). To do so, you need all required packages installed (ie. bison).

Ok got grub working!

now got a new problem!

Heres my disk setup:

HD0:

sda0 = 300MB grub partition.
sda1 = 10GB linux distro
sda2 = 100GB XP (CLONE OF SDB0 restored using reloc-img)
sda3 = 100GB XP (CLONE OF SDB0 restored using reloc-img)

HD1:
sdb0 = 80GB XP
sdb1 = 400GB DATA and clonezilla reposoitory.


Ive cloned the working sdb0 onto sda2 and 3 with reloc-img and clonezilla.

Problem is i cant seem to get the sda2,3 paritions to boot!

I can boot sdb0 and sda1 though.

I was wondering if maybe the VBR is incorrect some how for sda2 and 3?

Has anyone got any experience in running (and cloning) 2 XPs on many partitions?

Many thanks.
Chris.

This article explains in detail how to boot multiple windows on one hd.

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=147959

hi, thanks for the reply and the link.

Problem is this bloke wasnt using clonezilla.

I cant just install XP lots of times because it messes up the drive assignments. i.e
i want all XPs to have their own "C" drive.
If i install xp on (hd0,2) and (hd0,3) the "c" drives would be called (E and F!)

This is why i need to use clonezilla.
When i try and boot from the clone on hd0,3 i get the error: ERROR 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.

When i try and boot from the clone on hd0,2 it just freezes when saying starting up.

This is really doing my head in now!

any ideas?

Cheers,
Chris.

herbertmunch:

---"Has anyone got any experience in running (and cloning) 2 XPs on many partitions?"---

Answer:

Multitude of OS, cloned or not, is not an issue for booting through Grub. This boot loader understands that very well.
=========

---"Problem is i cant seem to get the sda2,3 paritions to boot!"---

Comment:

Two (2) possible issues:

1. It could be that your grub/menu.lst did not specify to "chainload" an XP partition (in your case the clones on sda2 and sda3). Remedy: go edit it and add "chainloader +1", make sure that /grub/menu.lst provided entries that point to sda2 and sda3.

2. Your image might have defects that needs redoing.

Read about Grub, it pays to spend time for a great bootloading software. Use the link provided in my signature.

Hope this helps.

Goodluck.

Another problem may be he is not hiding his partitions from one another (windows). If you use the chainload theory you may load up to three windows per hd and it does not matter if it is dos or 98 or XP versions.

hi thanks very much to both of you for your insightful input.

Sorry for the late reply but I havent looked here for a while.

I solved the problem a few days after my last post, it turned out to be a simple problem.

However it caused me needlessly to flash my mb bios After flashing the problem still remained
I decided that i should have a look at the internal components of my machine.

All it was in the end was that I had left the ide ribbon cable connected to a harddrive and had disconnected its molex power connector

Obviously not good and was messing with the bios probably.

Luckily I got away with this risky flashing business, which even the mb manufacturers say that you shouldn't do unless you have to.

This silly mistake was made because i had been messing with trying to load 2 XPs and ubuntu for about 2 days solid, and was understandably getting quite frustrated.

Anyway thanks again.

Chris