Problem with booting windows in GRUB
 

Hi everybody,

I am very new to Linux. Last night I installed Suse Linux 9.1 pro on my computer. This computer had Windows XP on it before.

Everything went well and I am writing this while on SuSe.

But I am getting a problem when I try to boot using windows. When I select Windows on the boot screen it gives me an error.

This is the error:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Upon further investigation I found this is what it means:

This error is returned if the kernel image being loaded is not recognized as Multiboot or one of the supported native formats (Linux zImage or bzImage, FreeBSD, or NetBSD).

Now, it seems to me that this GRUB doesn't want to boot any sort of Windows. The thing is, this is what came with the program and is the default setup.

I would appreciate it if anybody would be able to tell me how to fix this problem so I can view Windows.

Thanks for your patience and bearing with my newbieness.

:newbie:

I'm not sure if this will help, but I do know that if the xp is using NTFS instead of FAT 32 file system, you cannot dual boot, not with Linux or even windows 9.X.

I made that mistake and spent 2 hours in the phone with MS support to get windows running again with out losing data.

If you using a legal copy of XP, you get 2 free support calls. I'm no M$ fan, but the help I got was impressive.

Hope I was of some help
Scot

You can dual boot regardless of the other OS's filesystem.

Can you post a copy of you grub configuration file.

root (hd0,5)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,5)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit

I'm an idiot and I think I posted the wrong thing. Once again, thanks for your patience and bear with me!

Alright here we go.

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Aug 17 15:16:38 2004


color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=0x31a splash=silent desktop resume=/dev/hda5 showopts
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 3
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

Oh my God ... hope my dual-boot machines won't
stop working when I read to them that they're not
supposed to be working since they're on ntfs. :}


Cheers,
Tink

I have WinXp on NTFS and I dual-boot just fine (sort of, I have my own problems but Windows I can definitely boot by using Grub. And your Grub entry looks just like mine, for Windows. Sorry I can't be of any more help than that.

Another thing

This is exactly what the screen says.

root (hd 0,1)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Chainloader +1

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

IIRC that means NTFS

/me schmeisst 'nen Eimer Wasser auf's brennende Herz...

What's the output of
fdisk -l
for that machine?


Cheers,
Tink

More bad news.

I was working in the boot loader configuration in Yast and it looks like Windows has disappeared from the menu. When I try to reset the settings to anyway Windows doesn't show up.

Sorry for the delay.

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 649 5208808+ b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda2 * 650 9260 69167857+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 9261 9727 3751177+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 9261 9320 481918+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 9321 9727 3269196 83 Linux

:D

You there? :(

Ummm ... with my limited knowledge of Grub I'd say
that the output of your grubmenu and the output of
fdisk match ... I can't see why it wouldn't be working,
but then I have no idea what chainloader +1 does...


Cheers,
Tink

Try this:
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1