Hi guys...I got problem here.

I got Red Hat Linux running on 40GB hard drive and Windows XP Pro on 20 GB hard drive (dual boot). First I got trouble with GRUB loader, the problem was the same problem like this thread. and I've solved the problem by following the instruction which written on that thread (installing GRUB 0.93).
That problem was solved but new problem comes up. I can't boot my windows XP. After I've chosen Windows XP on OS option screen, there was only sudden screen which came up like this:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Grub Loading Stage2....

And then it came back to the OS option screen. Could someone help me, cause I'm still learning on LINUX, thanks.

Could you copy your grub.conf and write which disk is primary and which is secondary? It looks that now "XP option" is loaded from first drive (primary master or hda). Is it what you mean?

I've facing a similar problem, Linux on the first hd (60 Gigs) and W98 on the 2nd (20 gigs), (W98 doesn't boot).

title Windows98
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader (hd1)+1

selecting this, the hd1 boot sector says "can't load operating system" and halts.

Before to install RH 8 (and GRUB) the machine was happy with LILO as bootloader, Mandrake 8.1 on the hd0 and W98 on hd1.

install LILO instead of grub?

Yesss... you are right. My XP is loaded from the primary master or hda, and The Red Hat Linux 8.0 is loaded from the hdb. I'll look for the grub.conf later since i'm still completely newbie on Linux :P

You'll find it in the /etc directory. You will need to log on as root to open it up. Just copy the contents into your next post.

Too late...I just installed the Linux once again, and now I can't get both Linux and Windows loaded. Now I'm planning to reformat my slave hard drive which contains "crap" linux and reinstall the Red Hat Linux again. All I did was unpluged the hard drive (which has Windows in it) from my system and make the Linux hard drive as the primary master. I was going to format the hard drive through DOS by using DOS boot disk. But now the problem is the DOS can't detect the hard drive, so I can't format the hard drive. It always says "Invalid drive specification". Could you gimme the solution so I can reformat my hard drive. Thanks.

The reason you cannot start anything is because you unplugged a drive during the install and then reinstalled it. Linux thinks it is on the Primary Master drive (hda) and it isn't. Your boot program has no idea what is going on.

How to fix this:

Plug all of your drives back in. Put the Red Hat install disk in and boot from it. Have it install on the Primary Slave (hdb). When install asks if you want to completely reformat the drive, have it do that (I think it is the first option in the Disk Partitioning portion). Put the boot loader in the MBR of the Primary Master (hda). Use either one--LILO or Grub. Most folks here prefer LILO. Red Hat (and me, for that matter) prefer Grub. Both work.

When it asks you to make a boot disk, DO IT. Don't make any excuses for it--find a floppy and do it. There are many instances where the boot loader doesn't work right the first time and needs a little adjusting. You will need that disk if that happens.

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

This NEVER works on my system ...

At least GRUB 0.93 boots my Linux but not for WinXP..
but LILO doesnt work for both WinXP or Linux... It gives a screen full of "9" or "1" and rubbish stuff like that... or it hangs my system.

Open up /etc/grub.conf (where you got this information from) and add the command "makeactive" between the other two so it looks like this:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

If this doesn't work, please tell me how far Grub gets before it crashes.

How did your system get Grub 0.93 on it? RH 8.0 comes with 0.92.

In re-reading this thread, it occurs to me that my thought that you got information from grub.conf may have been assuming too much. This seems to be the information that you get just before Grub takes you back to the menu. The information in that file is pretty important to our efforts here, so let me walk you through how to get it. I'll assume you are familiar with Windows techniques--many of them are the same in Linux.

1. Boot into Linux and log on as root; use the Gnome desktop. Normally this isn't done, but you have to be root to do what we need to do here.

2. From the Start Menu, highlight Accessories and from its submenu, select "Text Editor". This should bring up gedit, a pretty nifty text editor. If it doesn't, from the Start Menu, select Run Program. Enter gedit in the window and hit OK.

3. In gedit, select the Open File icon (similar to Windows based programs) or use the pull-down menus: File, Open.

4. This will bring up the Open File dialogue box. The cursor starts in the file-to-be-opened box. Type: /etc/grub.conf

5. For now, just select all (Crtl-A) and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C).

6. Switch to this forum and paste it in a post.


To make the changes I recomended, let's first try doing them temporarily.

Restart your computer and when you get to the Grub menu, highlight XP and press "e".

This will take you into the edit mode where you can make a change that will only be for this boot. Use the arrow keys and move the cursor to the beginning of the 'chainloader +1' line.

Press 'o' to insert a new line.

Press 'e' to edit the new line, enter "makeactive" and press Return

Press 'b' to boot

If that works, use the gedit again and make the changes permanently.

If it doesn't, get the error number. It looks like you're getting a Stage 2 error, which means that Grub is trying to start XP but cannot get it to boot.

You would hav changed the master / slave ...settings.

No... I know Redhat comes with GRUB 0.92 but that version of GRUB always gave the "Error : 28 ..." So after hunting many forums I found out that GRUB 0.92 has some problem with some systems..
So I downloaded GRUB 0.93 from a website and Installed. Though this version did not provide a GUI Login screen but it surely helped me boot into Linux....

Now I tried to put WinXP also into GRUB List but .. even after
My system hangs ... and does not proceed further...

Ok...I was a bit desperate and Formated all the hard drives (primary and slave). I installed XP on 40GB hard drive (primary) and RH Linux 8 on 20GB hard drive (slave) with GRUB boot loader. It all turned back like the first time I installed Linux. I can't get into Linux. If I choosed Linux on OS option screen this screen came up:

Booting 'Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)'

root (hd1,0)
File system type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
[Linux-bzImage, setup=9x1400, size=0x11154a]

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory

Press any key to continue...

If I placed Linux boot disk into the floopy drive, The Linux starts loading but only until the word:

Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel

Now I'm planning to start all over again (start from formating all the hard drives) and I'm going to put LILO as the boot loader. See if that would work.

You're wasting your time reformatting the hard drives. Something went wrong in the Red Hat install and you just need to do that again. When you get to the formatting portion, tell it to format the entire drive and let it determine its own setup on that drive. Your post lists the file system as ext2. This is probably Grub interpretting an ext3 file system as ext2 (ext3 is ext2 with journalling added--a very good improvement). Just to make sure, though, Red Hat will default to ext3--don't change that.

Grub and LILO take two very different approaches to booting. Often times if one isn't working, the other will, so give it a try.

Good job making the boot disk--it is a shame it didn't work. Continue that good habit when you try LILO.

You didn't mention--does XP load?

For both of you, if LILO doesn't work, our next step is walking you through using the NT boot loader (which is, admittedly the most populart way)