I recently installed SUSE 10.1 on a 3rd hd on a system that has Vista installed on the 1st hd. At first when I selected Vista at the GRUB selection screen it would boot just fine, but now when I select Vista the screen goes black and says "chainloader (hd0,0)+1" then does nothing. The only GRUB settings I changed were making it say "Vista" instead of "windows 1." What could be the problem?

Well - we need to see your grub.conf/menu.lst first. Though removing vista entirely is the recommended approach, have you tried changing "Vista" back to "windows"?

I didn't use the shell to change anything. I used YaST to change to name as to make sure I didn't mess anything up. It stopped booting correctly before I changed it's name.

grub.conf's contents:

setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd2,1) (hd2,1)
setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd2,1)
quit

menu.lst's contents:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu May 17 19:52:02 CDT 2007

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd2,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: 2.6.16.13-4-defa
ult###

title Suse
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-4-default root=/dev/hdc2 vga=0x317 resume=
/dev/hdc1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16.13-4-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###

title Vista
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###

title windows 2
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe --
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off ac
pi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd

Ah - user supplied red herring! ... then, it just stopped on its own? What was the last thing you did?

This can happen if you changed the disk order somehow - sometimes disk order changes spontaniously when you use cable select. Check this with fdisk -l

hmmm... will "windows 2" boot OK?

Backup that menu.lst file

For the vista section:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I did change to boot order actually. I moved Vista from 2nd to 1st and made it the default (all changes made with YaST) Windows 2 doesn't have an OS on it. It's just for spare storage for my own documents and such that I use in Vista. I'm pretty sure that I'm using cable select with one of my IDE components.

I did change to boot order actually. I moved Vista from 2nd to 1st and made it the default (all changes made with YaST)[/quote]... yes, but did you swap any physical drives around? Did you alter any bios settings?

If not, then Vista is probably still on hdb1 and the menu.lst entry should be:

# Windows Vista
title=Vista
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Also, delete the windows 2 entry entirely.
You should reformat that partition in vfat unless only vista will be using it.

No, I did not physically swap any drives around or change my bios settings. At the moment I only want the windows 2 partition to be accessed by Vista, but I may change it later. I'm sorry, I know my questions wreak of n00bism, but I'm just trying to learn Linux at the moment.

Ok, I tried making the changes you told me (all except for changing the name to Vista, I left it Windows 1), but now when I select windows 1 the screen goes black for a second and then goes back to the Grub OS selection menu. My menu.lst looks like this

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun May 20 05:52:28 UTC 2007

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd2,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/hdc1 splash=si
lent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title windows 1
rootnoverify(hd 1,0)
map(hd1)(hd0)
map(hd0)(hd1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title windows 2
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

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

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off ac
pi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd

it would be a lot easier to just run suse and vista on the same hdd on seperate partitions. ie: load up vista as normal leaving half the disk as empty space then load suse on the left over space.

It will automatically take the mbr and set up grub correctly. Works fine

rootnoverify(hd 1,0)

... should read rootnoverify(hd1,0), it shouldn't matter though.

According to grub manual, I got the map order wrong:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man..._node/map.html
... should be:

map(hd0)(hd1)
map(hd1)(hd0)

However... I suspect that vista doesn't care if it isn't in the first primary partition. If this is the case, then the windows2 entry now points to it. Humor me and try booting the windows 2 entry.

Jon Briggs: it is perfectly reasonable and non-hard to place different OSes on different drives. There are even advantages (no risky resizing for eg.) The above problem arose because the user unwittingly told YaST that the drive order had changed when the drive order had not changed.

Of course, the quick fix would have been to swap them back in YaST.

I changed the YaST settings back to the way they were originally and swapped those two values in menu.lst. Unfortunately it still keeps sending me right back to the GRUB menu. I also tried selecting Windows 2 but it just did what Windows 1 did originally did. The screen just went black and says "chainloader (hd1,0)+1" This is what my menu.lst looks like now:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed May 23 04:00:10 CDT 2007

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd2,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/hdc1 splash=si
lent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###

title windows 1
rootnoverify(hd 1,0)
map(hd0)(hd1)
map(hd1)(hd0)
makeactive

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###

title windows 2
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

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

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off ac
pi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd

That may be because you went and changed two things when only one was indicated. Now I've lost track.
... you still have that rogue gap. You also forgot "chainloader +1"

If fixing that don't work... we'll have to check the current organization of your partitions.

fdisk -l

... check:
I am expecting (hd0,0) = hda1 (primary master IDE) to be a non-bootable (ntfs) partition occupying the entire drive.

(hd1,0) = hdb1 (primary slave IDE) to be the bootable (ntfs) Vista partition occupying the entire drive.

(hd2,1) = hdc2 (secondary master IDE) to be OpenSUSE root or boot partition, also bootable. I'm guessing hdc1 is swap.

Make sure none of your drives are on cable select.
If you know how to get YaST to generate a new menu.lst for you... do so.

I have a funny feeling about what has happened...

I decided to start fresh so I checked out the GRUB online manual and found this:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

I replaced all that was previously there with this code and it works fine!
Thanks for your help. This n00b appreciates it!

Probably best thing to do once you'd done so much changing around.
How did vista end up on primary master after you had it in a different place? Did you also reinstall vista? (Hmmm... what does that do to your license?)

Probably best thing to do once you'd done so much changing around.
How did vista end up on primary master after you had it in a different place? Did you also reinstall vista? (Hmmm... what does that do to your license?)

I guess I didn't explain my setup properly I have Vista as the master on my primary IDE and SUSE as my master on my secondary IDE. I didn't have to reinstall anything. My hd that I have as my slave on my primary IDE is currently just storage for the Windows hd, but eventually I want to format it so that I can read and write to it from both Vista and SUSE. What do I need to do this? In order to make the change will it erase my drive? The files on that drive are irreplaceable so I need to make sure I make backups if that's the case.

Ye-ess... that would explain the trouble before.