Hi,

I am suman... I got a laptop having the following configuration with windows Vista on it from dell:

4.0 GB ram,

nVIDIA Graphics card 256 mb.

intel core(2) Duo t7700 I hope this can support x86_64...

120Gb + 120 Gb Hard disk...

I tried to install Fedora 8.0 and it did not worked. Then I tried to install Suse 10.3 Downloaded via bit torrent.

The installation was over without any error and the system boots into linux... it recognised everything.. keyboard layout, graphics card, sound card, wireless card, bluetooth and it was really great... BUT

But when I rebooted the system it stuck at the Grub loader.. I do not know why... I think this is a hangover from the previous linux installation... How to remove this?? I formated every disk of mine but its not working... Then I tried to boot from the DVD, and then from the hard disk through the DVD... it worked fine... BUT..

But when I tried to boot to windows Vista also through the DVD, it did not worked... it stuck saying operating system not found or disk corrupt...

I have Vista on my first hard drive and suse on second. By default the laptop BIOS is set to boot from first drive but I tried booting it from both drives and the results are same.

Please help me in solving the problem.. I really do not know but I think the installation is ok but some problem s with the boot loader... I am a novice user to the Linux so any of ur help will be higly acknowledged..

Thanks..
Suman

could you post the content of /boot/grub/menu.lst
this file is on your linux distro

First, you mention that Fedora 8 "did not work," but don't describe any problem. Since you state that your sydtem uses a nVidia graphics card, I suspect that your problem with Fedora was related to graphic rendition. If that's the case, you should be aware that Fedora does not ship an "up-to-date" nVidia driver. Instead Fedora defaults to using the FOSS nv driver that only supports some of the nVidia chip sets, and those only partially. The "real" nVidia drivers for Fedora can be found in, for example, the livna repository.

Second, most distributions will install the boot loader in the MBR of the first hard drive on your system unless you specify otherwise during the install. Again this is just a suspicion, but Vista may check that the NT Loader is installed in the MBR of the Vista boot drive. Hence the "corrupt" message when you try to boot Vista using a non-Windows boot loader. If this is the case, perhaps someone who has some Vista experience may be able to help you.

Snide comment: Why on Earth did you buy a laptop with Vista installed? Most vendors will, if pressed, replace Vista with XP before shipping the system. XP has the "virtue" of actually working at least some of the time . . .

Thanks for commenting.. I will write the content of /boot/grub/menu.lst soon...

Here I am writing what exactly it is written before the system freezes... (When I was trying Fedora...)

Root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
[Linux_bz Image, setup=0x2c00, size = 0x1d3c18]
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img
[linux_initrd @ox37c2f000,0x3c0804 bytes]

Decompressing linux...done
Booting the kernel
Red Hat nash version 6.0.19 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active


Kernel Alive


After this nothing happens....

Here is my menu.ist

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Nov 16 00:49:01 CET 2007
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1200BEVS-_WD-WXE807721582-part2 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

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

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1200BEVS-_WD-WXE807721582-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title XEN
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/xen.gz
module /boot/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1200BEVS-_WD-WXE807721582-part2 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
module /boot/initrd-xen

there are 2 menu.lst

menu.lst and menu.lst.old which is as follows...

which is as follows

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Nov 14 22:33:17 UTC 2007
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1200BEVS-_WD-WXE807721582-part2 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

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

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1200BEVS-_WD-WXE807721582-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

My device.map looks like :

(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

and device.map.old :

(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

Ok well maybe someone else could confirm that but i think (it has been a while since i dual booted) but:
make but linux and windoes boot from the same partition.... shouldnt the windows rootnoverify point to the windows disk and linux root to the linux disk????

also vga=0x314, because of issue with nvidia could cause problem, try to boot without it.
you can modify grub at boot time, without risking anything, to do so:
when grub menu shows up, press e, this will allow you to edit the selected line, when done editing press b and it will boot it, this way you can try without vga=. Next time the menu will be back to its original value, if you fix the issue, change menu.lst accordingly.

Thank you all for ur useful comments... I changed the rootnoverify (hd1,1) for windows to rootnoverify (hd0,1) and then the good thing happened I could boot to windows

Well this problem is solved But all this happens when I boot from the disk first and then the "boot from hard disk" option... but without the disk it is booting and flashing GRUB > and nothing happens...

I do not know what is the problem... I also noticed that in the /boot dir there is another /boot with almost same content and directories.... inside that there is another and so on... I checked till 6 times... Is this normal ??

PLease help me in soving this problem and I am up and running

Thanks again to all of u...

Suman

well that is probably because grub is not installed at the right place (that is if windows vista does not screw up some thing i dont know about, the first thing i did when i got my laptop is flush vista)
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...tall-grub.html
that should help.
in the event that vista is screwing up with grub, you should be able to work around by installing grub on hdb mbr and setting your bios to boot from the second hard drive.