Hi,

I recently tried to install Debian 'etch' on my computer. It went through the install without any errors, and I rebooted the computer when it finished.

The computer went through the BIOS boot sequence OK, and then gave me an error that said "Error loading operating system." No additional information; just that.

I booted from an Ubuntu 6.10 CD and installed it to the hard drive. I chose to remove the partitions Debian had put on the drive. Upon rebooting, the computer gave the same error as before.

I am trying to set up a dual-boot system. Windows XP is running on one of the drive's partitions, and I want to install Debian or Ubuntu in the remaining space.

If it'll help, I have the original XP install CD (not an OEM disc). The drive is an 80GB SATA drive which has one ~40GB Windows (NTFS) partition on it.

I'd like to at least restore my XP installation, and preferably get Debian etch running on the computer as well.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
cdrom600

I found a thread somewhere else that ended like this:

Does it still boot Windows or is everything buggered now? If nothing boots now, it sounds like it might be the conflict between the MS and Linux MBR described above. I also saw several comments that you need to change the BIOS harddrive configuration to LBA. Still another poster has a webpage saying that you need to use LARGE and not LBA. In any case, the problem seems to originate with Microsoft. I'd be wary of changing the Harddrive configuration except as a last resort. You might wind up having to reinstall Windows as well.

Everything is "buggered" now - nothing will boot. I've tried using the recovery console's fixmbr and fixboot; I can mess around with those again later if I need to.

Right now, I'm wondering if I might be able to boot from a liveCD, get GRUB installed on the MBR, and from there tell GRUB how to find Windows. I have no clue where to start, though. Any thoughts..will this work, and any help on how to do it? I really know nothing about it.

I'd rather not change my HDD configuration in the BIOS if I don't have to. edit: The HDD config is set to 'Auto' in the BIOS; the only other option is 'Large'.

An update:
this guide has let me install GRUB to the MBR, and the system now loads GRUB. This is good. However, whenever I select to load either Ubuntu or Windows, I get an error (Ubuntu says something like "no such partition", Windows says "NTLDR is missing"). I think some more configuration is necessary, but I'm making progress.

The grub error should be just a matter of messing with the grub numbers until you get it right. If you know which partition you have Linux on, figure it from there per the guide.

As far as the NTLDR is concerned, I found a thread with this in it:
From: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=515396
Oh, and I found a thread that says that all you have to do is run fdisk and make the windows partition active. Of course, you may have to do the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT thing. I don't know. But, it makes sense that Microsoft would mess, err, set things up such that they have to be the bootable partition.

I have it all sorted out - I'll post details tomorrow (it's really late here).

"I have it all sorted out - I'll post details tomorrow (it's really late here)."

Looking forward to it. I have some software that won't run on Linux so I may have to put up a Win2K partition for the rare times I need access. I've got a laptop that'll run it when I need it, though so it's not so critical for me.

Here's the story, with some background info first:

I have Windows XP installed right now. It's on one 40GB partition of my 80GB SATA drive. I'd like to install Debian Etch in the 40GB of free space.

I go through the Debian install and it completes with no errors. I reboot the machine, and it tells me "Error loading operating system." Nothing else. I use a live CD for Ubuntu 6.10 to remove the Debian partitions and install Ubuntu, but the same error occurs.

Eventually, I am able to use this guide to install GRUB to the drive's MBR. I then use the Ubuntu live CD to view the Ubuntu installation's GRUB menu.lst configuration file and find (after some thinking) that the installer has put the wrong drive ID (something like hd(1,1)) into this file. I suspect that this is because the drives on my system are configured unusually - there is no IDE master on the first PATA channel (I ran out of jumpers when reconfiguring the drives, and it seems to work just fine with only a slave).

Anyway, I boot the computer and GRUB loads (because I'd installed it earlier). I select the Ubuntu menu option and press 'e', which lets me edit the entry. I put in the correct drive ID, press 'b', and it boots into Ubuntu. From there, I am able to write the correct drive IDs into the menu.lst file, and everything's been working since then.

Cool. Thanks for following up. I've bookmarked that link as well as this thread. I've got an installation issue that I'd like to figure out, but I'm not quite sure how to even begin searching for it. What I'd like to do is to boot from a software RAID0. What I think needs to be done is to bootstrap somehow from a non-raid partition which enables the RAID and then transfers to the RAID. I think something like this is done for the liveCDs. However, somehow I suspect that the thing would be so precarious that it would only be useful as a "student exercise".

Cheers.

Now, my plan is to install 'etch' in place of Ubuntu.

"Now, my plan is to install 'etch' in place of Ubuntu."

Good man!

I've heard that Ubuntu is best for beginners, and I suppose technically I am a beginner, but I'm experimenting with Debian sarge on a content filtering server here at my house (running Dansguardian) and I've been using the shell account on my Web host for over a year. Overall, I have a lot of computer experience and I feel I can handle it. Plus, I want to learn.

Well, I look at it this way. You used an online guide to fix a grub problem instead of begging for hand-holding here on LQ, so you're ready to graduate directly to Debian. Well, I say that, but I have no experience with Ubuntu or any of the rest - just Debian. Still, I finally figured out how to install to a bootable software RAID0 and I have to say that the etch installation has really improved over the past few weeks. At one time, you had to manually install a lot of xorg. Now, it's installed properly. So, really, I say do the etch installation. You shouldn't have any problems with it at all.

Oh, I'm running it now and am trying to figure out how to get my integrated sound running. The motherboard also provides an onboard S/PDIF output, which is what I really need (the onboard sound is crap, so I take the digital output and put it into a decent receiver).
Any hints? I've never tried or researched how to install drivers in Linux.

Start by running lspci and looking for the audio controller. The response will be something like this:

I'd be very surprised if etch didn't find your audio and simply has the sound muted. If you're running gnome click on Applications->Sound & Video->Volume Control. You want both Master and PCM enabled, and you want to set the sliders for both of them to only about 75%. Anything higher and they may distort on loud sounds. You might even find that this is the cause of poor audio from Windows. Just click on the red "X" under both to enable them. You can also get to the Volume Control by double clicking the speaker icon in the top right of your desktop. If this doesn't get you sound, let me know the output of lspci and I'll try to help. As far as S/PDIF, you may have to click Edit->Preferences to add that to the Volume Control display.

Ummm, you've opened a separate thread for your audio so I won't continue on this thread about that.