(not so common) RH9/xp grub boot problem
 

I have done extensive searching for an answer to this problem, but can't seem to find an answer....

I have xp home and RH9 installed on my laptop. After rebooting from windows, i only get a grub command line interface. But if i reboot from linux, i get the 'usual' (GUI) grub interface, ie:

boot into linux
reboot
get grub GUI
boot into windows
reboot
get grub command line

I can boot into xp/linux by typing in all the commands in my grub.conf, but this is a pain in the ass. Now, i have done installs of RH9 with XP before, and never had a problem.

output of fdisk -l

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 3471 27880776 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 3472 3484 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 3485 7231 30097777+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 7232 7296 522112+ f Win 95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 7232 7296 522112+ 82 Linux swap


my grub.conf :

title RedHat 9
unhide (hd0,1)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img

title Windows XP
unhide (hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

ideas??

thanks in advance

when all u get on boot is just the Grub Command Line, it usually means that Grub can't find the menu.lst file.

menu.lst file would typically be in /boot/grub, and in Redhat 9 would probably be a sym link to /boot/grub/grub.conf
/etc/grub.conf is also a sym link to /boot/grub/grub.conf

My suspicions would be that Grub can't read your linux partition after rebooting from Win, but i can't really say why.
Perhaps you try removing the "unhide" commands. (is it hidden in the first place?)

Disclaimer: have not done sufficent reseach and taking a quick jab at this Q. Please ignore if irrelevant

I have just installed RH9 on a Compaq X1000 notebook. My partitions are organised the same way as your computer bubbles.

The crucial difference is that I have left the MBR for Windows XP alone, and made the /boot (second) partition active. Grub is installed as the bootloader here. New notebooks have no BIOS constraints as far as where the bootloader goes, so this is ok. However, I understand XP likes to be in first physical partition.

Grub boots (graphical mode), then Windows XP can be chain-loaded if selected, else RH9 is loaded. Hope this helps.

Ok, this helps a little... I figured it would be something to do with the mbr.

Next question is, how would i go about 'restoring' the mbr so windows likes it (yes i have a win98 boot disk)? But if do that, then how will grub work?

I think one easy way would be to use first RH CD again (boot from this CD)- you can do 'linux rescue'. Just go through the menus until you get oppurtunity to install GRUB on /boot partition. You shouldn't even need to edit the config file.

Linux 'fdisk' can be used to make the /boot partition active. Also you can make sure that the Windows NTFS partition is not hidden. It will not start properly if this is the case. Now GRUB should be the first bootloader to load.

Next, fix up the XP MBR, you can boot from Windows Recovery disk if you have one. From there you can select recovery mode and get to a command prompt mode, where you can do a 'fixmbr'. This should get you dual booting properly again.

If you are running XP, then don't use the 98 boot disk (wrong MBR).

For 98 you can just use a bootable floppy disk and from the command prompt type 'fdisk /mbr' (windows/DOS fdisk command). This will restore the MBR on the 'C:' drive