dual boot windows xp fedora core

dtra · 11-18-2005, 09:14 AM

hi all

i am trying to set up a dual boot for my pc
with windows xp and fedora core 4

i used to have redhat 9 and windows xp running together
until i did something and i had to use the windows cd to "fix" the MBR which got rid of the linux bootloader

i just installed fedora core 4, and am still having the same issues
when it tries to boot into windows i get this error message

Code:

booting windows
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
        chainloader +1

invalid disk read error (sorry i already forgot, but it was something like that)

and all i can do is hit ctrl+alt+delete
and reboot into linux

can someone help me out with this, i would really like to have linux and windows
as i am a traditional windows user, but would like to learn more about linux
without having to get some more hardware to have two separate installations
i looked at this, but it didn't really help
http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Multi...h-GRUB-2.shtml

my /boot/grub/menu.lst file looks like

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd1,4)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb5
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
        root (hd1,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows
        rootnoverify (hd0,4)
        chainloader +1

i three hard drives with multiple partitions each

thanks
dave

cardy · 11-18-2005, 09:27 AM

It appears that grub is not correctly configured. Grub seems to be saying it can't find the system your trying to boot. This not possible to diagnose further without knowing what drive and partition windows is installed into. If you can post the partition information for the drive windows is located upon I can help you diagnose this further.

dtra · 11-18-2005, 09:31 AM

hi, thanks for your reply
how do i get that information?

ceph · 11-18-2005, 10:16 AM

if you have 3 hard drives, they'll be hda, hdb, hdc. I'll assume you have windows on hda, and that it's the first or second partition, depending if you have a manufacturer partition.

do this:

#fdisk hda

then list the current partition scheme. This will tell you whatyou have. I'm betting it'll be on your 2nd partition.

change your rootnoverify line to this:

rootnoverify (hd0,2)

if that doesn't work, then to this:

rootnoverify (hd0,1)

you can check to make sure in fdisk which one it is, but you have to know what to look for (ie, a vfat or ntfs partition that is bigger than 50Mb).

/ryan

cardy · 11-18-2005, 10:17 AM

You can list all the partitions detected by the kernel by doing

Code:

cat /proc/partitions

This should return things like

Code:

major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0   58605120 hda
   3     1     104391 hda1
   3     2    2096482 hda2
   3     3   25599577 hda3
   3     4   30804637 hda4

In the above example the device is hda which is the first ide hard disk on the first channel. as you have other disks the devices would then be shown as below

hdb First IDE Channel, Second Device
hdc Second IDE Channel, First Device
hdd Second IDE Channel, Second Device
...... and so on.

The numbers after the hda indicate partitions on the disk, numbers 1 to 4 are primary partitions, you can have a max of 4 of these. Partition 5 is an extended partition you can have up to 3 Primary and 1 extended partiions but you can have a maximum of 1 extended partition. Extended partitions tend to be large as they contain logical partitions. Logical partitions start at hda6 and go up to the maximum number of partitions allowed.

You can find out more information about the disk layout by using the fdisk command, doing the command

Code:

fdisk -l /dev/hda

If you can post the layout for each physical disk you have then we can analyse this further. Note that you CDROM drive will appear as an IDE device but you can not partition it.

dtra · 11-18-2005, 06:18 PM

oh ok, thanks guys

Code:

cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0   39082680 hda
   3     1          1 hda1
   3     2   31808700 hda2
   3     5    7253316 hda5 ->windows xp
   3    64   78150744 hdb
   3    65   47391718 hdb1
   3    66          1 hdb2
   3    69    8241313 hdb5 -> fedora core 4
   3    70    2040223 hdb6
   3    71   10241406 hdb7
   3    72   10233373 hdb8
  34     0   78150744 hdg
  34     1          1 hdg1
  34     5   18434556 hdg5
  34     6    2048256 hdg6
  34     7   25607578 hdg7
  34     8   32049643 hdg8

Code:

fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               2         904     7253347+   5  Extended
/dev/hda2   *         906        4865    31808700    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda5               2         904     7253316    7  HPFS/NTFS

Code:

fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        5900    47391718+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2            5901        9729    30756442+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5            5901        6926     8241313+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb6            6927        7180     2040223+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb7            7181        8455    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb8            8456        9729    10233373+   7  HPFS/NTFS

i hope you guys can make something of that

jojotx0 · 11-18-2005, 08:15 PM

looks like you need to change your rootnoverify line in your grub configuration file to:
rootnoverify (hd0,5)

EDIT://
I just remembered that grub reads partitions from 0, so "rootnoverify (hd0,5)" should be "rootnoverify (hd0,4)" which is what is in your grub config file...with this info...this is quite confuzzling...can you please post the exact error message you recieve?

dtra · 11-18-2005, 09:08 PM

it's cool, thanks guys
the windows boot thingie is on the other partition, not the actual xp os partition
changed it to (hd0,1)
and i just posted this from windows
so all is good
now i just have to see why mysql 5 isn't working

thanks again
dave

jojotx0 · 11-18-2005, 09:10 PM

glad to hear you got it working