So Ive done the grub install from the gentoo manual down to the t with the exception of my installation being on /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hda
so, when I finally get to reboot, I cant get into either os

my grub.conf file looks like this


default 0
timeout 30
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

Only in case you want to dual-boot
title=Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title=Gentoo Linux 2.4.26-r9
root (hd1,0)
kernel /kernel-2.4.26-gentoo-r9 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hdb3
initrd /initrd-2.4.26-gentoo-r9

I get error 17 when booting linux and error 13 when booting windows... Any ideas where im going wrong??

Well it loooks fine to me with one small thing bothering me... that " Only in case you want to dual-boot"... did you add it when you posted or is it like that in your grub.conf? If it is like that in the grub.conf then you need to add the # to the beginning of the line.

I actually copied the manuals example grub.conf verbatim and made changes for my partitioning scheme. The "dual boot" is not in my actual grub.conf I just copied that over and forgot to take it out before i posted it...
So if nothing looks wrong, then what is my problem? Am i mounting wrong? Im just not sure

Hrmmm... could you please post the output of ? Just to check.

Also error 17 happens when the target partition has an unvalid format... funny isnt it?

fdisk -l gives this
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2433 1954301 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/hdb1 * 1 63 31720+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 64 1056 500472 82 Swap
/dev/hdb3 1057 19846 9470160 83 Linux

ok so the linux box is only running a live cd without network , so I only typed what I thought was relevant, leaving out the heads, cylinders, and tracks because I have no convinent way of transfering the file to and fro. hope this works any help is much appreciated

so everything looks cool right? I ran into this post somewhere else and it is posted verbatim.. Dont know if this has anything to do with me

Should I try LiLo instead?

try making your root (hd1,0)

I though I had it as hd1,0
not for the windows partition but what would that matter?

yor first post had it at hd0,0. i could be wrong about this but you said you had it installed on hdb. hda would be hd0 and hdb should be hd1.

that was an error on my part sorry,
I cant copy things the way i'd like too because this box is using wireless and until i get ndiswrapper on there nothing is going to work the way it should... anyway

I tried to install lilo, and got no love whatsoever

it continued to boot the grub that doesnt work

ok how many partitions do you have /dev/hdb devided into and what are they designated as, ie,, hdb1, hdb2

three partitions
/dev/hdb1 is /boot ext2
/dev/hdb2 is swap 512mb
/dev/hdb3 is / with the rest of space

ok a couple of questions. what exactly does the error say. i only see that it gives you error 17 and 13 unless i missed something. also are you using genkernel or gentoo-sources. i see you have an initrd image, when i used gentoo i didnt use one and my kernel line looked like:
kernel /kernel-2.4.26-gentoo-r9 root=/dev/hda3 more or less. but i used vanilla sources.

did you install grub on the MBR? also which version of gentoo are you using because you need to use a 2.6 kernel which is on the newer gentoo cds

I am using gentoo 2004.3
I compiled the kernel at first manually(2.6) and then using genkernel(2.4) on my second install attempt

Same error both times around

the exact error is

filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Error 17: cannot mount selected partition

and I installed to the mbr on /dev/hda
I also just ran FixMBR from the winxp install cd and it did not overwrite the grub install

ok it sounds like you didnt compile the filesystem support ext2 into the kernel. you need to recompile the kernel and make sure you make ext2 filesystem built into the kernel.