I screwed up my dual boot

creedog · 12-28-2005, 05:08 PM

I am running dual hds. hda is windows xp and hdb is fedora 4. Had issues with grub a while back and after a bit of tinkering I was able to boot fedora again, but I cannot boot windows. Its just sits there after 'chainloder" Here is my grub.conf. I tried running fixboot from the windows resue console, but that did not help.

Any ideas here, this is getting frustrating. Thanks.

[root@jupiter ~]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1653_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1637_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1637_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1637_FC4.img
title Fedora Core 4 (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

creedog · 12-28-2005, 05:09 PM

Oh, and why are there so many 'versions' of linux listed?

Ha1f · 12-28-2005, 05:36 PM

dude, that joint is messsed up lol...

heres my working fedora grub file, changed to fit your specs of course.

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,1)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core 4 (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
	root (hd1,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows XP Pro
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	chainloader +1

and if you mean the "versions" in your grub file, i have no clue how they all got there.

creedog · 12-28-2005, 06:56 PM

Ok, I tried the cleaned up version of the grub.conf and i still could not boot windows. anymore thoughts.

I am thinking that I need to fix the mbr record for windows. advice on how to do this and not screw up my linux boot

Ha1f · 12-28-2005, 09:00 PM

thats my /boot/grub/menu.lst file, not grub.conf...if you knew that then:

try to do a repair install of fedora core...you may be able to reinstall the boot loader from there.

other wise you can use the fixmbr utility on the windows install cd and use a linux live cd to reconfigure grub...

strange though, that configuration should work for your setup...

syg00 · 12-28-2005, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creedog

I am thinking that I need to fix the mbr record for windows.

Do *not* attempt do that.
Reboot the box, and highlight the Windows entry, then hit the <e> key to get that stanza listed. Then hit the <b> key to boot that stanza (you get help text along the way).
If it still fails, do the following (from Linux) and post the output;

Code:

hexedit /dev/hda1

creedog · 12-29-2005, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Do *not* attempt do that.
Reboot the box, and highlight the Windows entry, then hit the <e> key to get that stanza listed. Then hit the <b> key to boot that stanza (you get help text along the way).
If it still fails, do the following (from Linux) and post the output;

Code:

hexedit /dev/hda1

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunatly I was still unable to boot, even using your instructions above.

Here is the output of hexedit. Can you explain what I am looking at here

00000000 EB 58 90 4D 53 57 49 4E 34 2E 31 00 02 40 20 00 .X.MSWIN4.1..@ .
00000010 02 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00 ........?...?...
00000020 4D 36 34 09 9E 49 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 M64..I..........
00000030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 02 ................
00000040 81 00 00 80 61 54 00 00 00 08 FA 80 CA 80 EA 53 ....aT.........S
00000050 7C 00 00 31 C0 8E D8 8E D0 BC 33 C9 8E D1 BC F4 |..1......3.....
00000060 7B 8E C1 8E D9 BD 00 7C 88 4E 02 8A 56 40 B4 08 {......|.N..V@..
00000070 CD 13 73 05 B9 FF FF 8A F1 66 0F B6 C6 40 66 0F ..s......f...@f.
00000080 B6 D1 80 E2 3F F7 E2 86 CD C0 ED 06 41 66 0F B7 ....?.......Af..
00000090 C9 66 F7 E1 66 89 46 F8 83 7E 16 00 75 38 83 7E .f..f.F..~..u8.~
000000A0 2A 00 77 32 66 8B 46 1C 66 83 C0 0C BB 00 80 B9 *.w2f.F.f.......
000000B0 01 00 E8 2B 00 E9 48 03 A0 FA 7D B4 7D 8B F0 AC ...+..H...}.}...
000000C0 84 C0 74 17 3C FF 74 09 B4 0E BB 07 00 CD 10 EB ..t.<.t.........
000000D0 EE A0 FB 7D EB E5 A0 F9 7D EB E0 98 CD 16 CD 19 ...}....}.......
000000E0 66 60 66 3B 46 F8 0F 82 4A 00 66 6A 00 66 50 06 f`f;F...J.fj.fP.
000000F0 53 66 68 10 00 01 00 80 7E 02 00 0F 85 20 00 B4 Sfh.....~.... ..
00000100 41 BB AA 55 8A 56 40 CD 13 0F 82 1C 00 81 FB 55 A..U.V@........U
00000110 AA 0F 85 14 00 F6 C1 01 0F 84 0D 00 FE 46 02 B4 .............F..
00000120 42 8A 56 40 8B F4 CD 13 B0 F9 66 58 66 58 66 58 B.V@......fXfXfX
00000130 66 58 EB 2A 66 33 D2 66 0F B7 4E 18 66 F7 F1 FE fX.*f3.f..N.f...
00000140 C2 8A CA 66 8B D0 66 C1 EA 10 F7 76 1A 86 D6 8A ...f..f....v....
00000150 56 40 8A E8 C0 E4 06 0A CC B8 01 02 CD 13 66 61 V@............fa
00000160 0F 82 54 FF 81 C3 00 02 66 40 49 0F 85 71 FF C3 ..T.....f@I..q..
--- hda1 --0x0/0x12686C9A00---------------------------------------------

syg00 · 12-30-2005, 07:57 PM

Sorry, tried to reply yesterday, but the site seemed to go down again.
That listing is the first sector from your XP partition (hopefully) - what is known as the boot sector record.
Looks suspiciously like a non-NTFS (FAT32 ???) boot record. I was just checking that you hadn't overlaid it with grub - however on re-reading I see you did a fixboot, so the interest was moot. I've never needed to run fixboot, so I don't know what it writes, but that doesn't look like what I'm used to seeing on ntldr based systems.
Maybe you will have to use fixmbr, and then go and recover grub to be able to get to your Linux system(s).
Can't offer anything else.

creedog · 01-01-2006, 10:13 PM

I think that it is very possible that I over laid my windows boot sector with grub, as I had issues with grud and had to reinstall. I will run fixmbr to correct the windows mbr. Will I need to reinstall grub, and if so where? hda? hdb? I want to make sure that I do this correctly. Thanks.

Also if you are able to provide the answer, could you elaborate on your response? Not totally sure that I understand how grub and the windows mbr work together. Thanks

syg00 · 01-02-2006, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creedog

I think that it is very possible that I over laid my windows boot sector with grub, as I had issues with grud and had to reinstall.

Erk - I hope not !!!. Good luck.
I have seen too many threads where fixboot (apparently) doesn't restore enough sectors to get a working XP system. I keep meaning to test this but haven't yet.
You may find the fixmbr won't give you any better system than you have now - i.e. XP won't boot. You may be up for an XP re-install. Used to be you could do a "system only" rebuild of a Windows system. Don't know if it's available with XP, but you'd hope so.

After that, you'll need to re-install grub - to the MBR would be my recommendation (/dev/hda) - I would expect you could do it from recovery mode in FC I would think. Don't know, I've never installed it.

Trio3b · 01-02-2006, 01:18 PM

Sorry can't help with your specifics as I use MDK, but I remember trying to install a dual boot FC2 / Wxp about a year ago and had the same problem.

There was extensive documentation that Fedora and Red Hat have problems with altering the HD geometry when installing alongside Windows. Apparently it loads Grub OK but alters the geometry table so that the 'pointer' to Windows is lost. This problem dated back to 1999! I don't know if it's been fixed since then.

There was a workaround:
Try here -> http://lwn.net/Articles/86835/

or Google "HD geometry+Fedora" or visit the Red Hat errata sites.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

good luck