Hi folks,
I've had my system running for a while and can currently load all four of my installed OSes, but I'm not satisfied with the current configuration. I have Windows 2000Pro, XP Pro, SuSE 8.0 and Debian installed, plus a few data partitions. The Windows OSes are on hda, and the Linux on hdb. GRUB is on the MBR. Here is my fdisk -l output:
Code:
Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 3134 25173823+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 3135 6268 25173855 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3 6269 9825 28571602+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda4 9826 9956 1052257+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda5 3135 6268 25173823+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/hdb: 40.9 GB, 40982151168 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4982 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 122 979933+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 132 1568 11542702+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 1569 1690 979965 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb4 1691 4982 26442990 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 1691 2663 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 2664 3514 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hdb7 3515 4365 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hdb8 4366 4730 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/hdb9 4731 4982 2024158+ 83 Linux
Here is what /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like:
Code:
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
default 0
timeout 20
color cyan/blue white/blue
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-686-smp
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-686-smp root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-686-smp
savedefault
boot
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-686-smp (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-686-smp root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-686-smp
savedefault
boot
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-386
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
savedefault
boot
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
savedefault
boot
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows 2000 Pro
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
# This entry manually added for /dev/hda3 (WinXP)
title Windows XP Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hdb2.
title SuSE 8.0 Pro (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 ro append = "acpismp=force hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd
savedefault
boot
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hdb2.
title failsafe (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.suse root=/dev/hdb2 ro append = "ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off acpismp=force hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd.suse
savedefault
boot
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hdb2.
title memtest86 (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/memtest.bin ro
savedefault
boot
GRUB successfully chainloads Win 2000 Pro, but it doesn't work for XP. The way I currently load XP is to select Win2k from GRUB, because I have a boot.ini installed that knows about XP. So I have to go through two menus to get to XP, which currently is my most-used OS.
After reading some more of the GRUB documentation, I suspect the problem lies with the use of makeactive, for which the doc says "Set the active partition on the root disk to GRUB's root device. This command is limited to primary PC partitions on a hard disk." The footnote also says it's not necessary for most modern OSes.
What I am going to do next is remove the makeactive flag from menu.lst and try it again. What I don't recall is whether the XP partition is a primary partition or a logical one. (I used to know a lot more about this stuff, but I've forgotten a lot and it takes a lot of time to refresh.)
So, a few questions:
1. How can I check whether XP is on a primary or logical partition? (Does this have anything to do with the * or + symbols in the fdisk output?)
2. If removing the makeactive flag doesn't allow GRUB to chainload XP, what steps can I take to get it to do so?
3. What on earth is the /dev/hda5? I know of no such partition. In the Windows world, on hda I have C:\ with Win2k,
D:\ as a data partition, G:\ as XP and H:\ as a 1GB FAT32 data partition (for file-sharing with Linux). Could it just be unpartitioned space? Why does it have so many blocks?
Of course, question 2 is the most important.
Thanks,
Mike
