dual boot gone wrong
 

I'm trying to get a dual boot setup, currently I can not boot into windows. When I installed Debian, by mistake I put Grub onto the MBR. (or something like that.) From what I've read online I can use Grub to boot XP but I'm having a little trouble. FYI...Debian in on the Samsung IDE and XP is on the SATA raptor. Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions...

Here is my menu.list file
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Here is the output of fdisk -l
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 851 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 852 9733 71344665 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 852 1037 1494013+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 1038 9733 69850588+ 83 Linux

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4499 36138186 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 4500 4500 8032+ b W95 FAT32


I've searched the net with google and I think I found my problem but it's a bit over my head Here is the output of fdisk -l /dev/sda1

Disk /dev/sda1: 37.0 GB, 37005502464 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4498 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1p1 ? 13578 119522 850995205 72 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p2 ? 45382 79243 271987362 74 Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p3 ? 10499 10499 0 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p4 167628 167631 25817+ 0 Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Your Sata is corrupted. XP will not loaded as it doesn't know how to deal with it.

My recommendation is boot to Debian, log in as root, in terminal mode just run cfdisk to delete your sda2, as it is too small to hold anything but may cause a system to abandon the attempt to read it.

After the deletion, exit Debian and reboot to see if the problem persists.

Your Windows booting commands look OK to me and may boot if XP can read the Sata.

Put grub in MBR is not a mistake, it is what you have to do.
In the menu.lst file, you specified that you have installed Windows XP in hda1 partition, but hda1 was a linux partiton.
So where did you install window?
What is the error message when you try to boot window?

And, for further post, but the command output in the tage [code] to make your better appear.

I believe Windows is in sda1 and the IDE disk hda has earmarked as the first bootable disk and so Grub calls it (hd0). Sata is therefore (hd1) to Grub. The truncated menu.lst does show Grub has prepared to boot Windows from partition (hd1,0) and that is sda1 which matches the fdisk-l information of

/dev/sda1 * 1 4499 36138186 7 HPFS/NTFS

Also there is no FAT or NTFS partition in the other disk.

It is the duty of every system to check the integrity of itself on booting. If sda has erroneous entries in the partition table no system knows how to get over it and the easiest way out is to refuse to boot. It will happen to Linux too but the current case is sda is a 100% Windows disk and may not be affecting Debian.

Thank you for the replies. I apoligize if my post was difficult to read.


TruongAn:
Windows was installed first on the Sata drive and Debian afterwards on the IDE drive. Windows was bootable before the Debian installion. I've never had a problem booting Debian. From debain, I can mount the sata drive and read files if that matters.

Also I don't get any errors when I attempt to boot windows. I get the screen with the contents of my menu.list file and a blinking cursor.


Saikee:
I will attempt to delete the sda2 partion. Is there any additional information I need to know other than what you posted.

slap,

If you want to play safe print out the content of fdisk -l.

Then you boot up into Debian, log in as root and activate a Grub shell by typing at the terminal

grub

Then you can use Grub to interrogate sda by typing

geometry (hd1)

If the number of cylinders/heads/sectors matches then it would be quite safe to delete sda2, which incidentally is only 8032 bytes.

Your description confirms Grub did manage to pass the control to XP but XP itself failed to boot up. It is not a Linux problem and XP has to deal with it itself.

If after deleting the partition (don't forget to reboot) you still couldn't get XP up then my suggestion is to dig out XP's installation disk and let XP carry out the repair job. XP will advise you to do a re-installation if it couldn't cope with the damage. If you want to save your data it is time to make a backup before permitting XP to do a re-install.

OK, I deleted the sda2 partion and no luck on the reboot. I get the following screen...

Booting 'Windows XP'
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

and a blinking cursor.

I have the Windows disk handy. I've read online that the fixmbr command might work but my concern is that windows will make debian unbootable. How can I avoid this?

Easy, just boot to Debian, log in as root, pop a floppy into the drive and type

grub-install /dev/fd0

Exit Debian and you should be able to boot up your existing arrangement from the floppy (can still boot to MBR if floppy is removed)

You can proceed to restore XP's MBR. I always use a DOS bootable floppy (with fdisk.exe inside), boot it up and type

fdisk /mbr

This beats the XP installation CD with fixmbr as it takes a lot longer. There are still people around thinking XP's MBR must be restored by its original CD. Good luck to them.

Once XP's MBR takes over you will only be able to get your Debian back by the floppy. As you can boot Debian you can always restore its Grub any time by typing

grub-install /dev/hda

Therefore you can swap the boot loader any number of times but my fear restoring XP's MBR may not be enough to get over your current problem.

By the way even if you lose the Grub floppy Debian can still be rescued by any Live CD.

Hmm I got an error...

debian:/# grub-install /dev/fd0
/dev/fd0: Not found or not a block device.

OK this one got me too.

I ran my Debian Sarge and it has the same problem with Grub-install. Debian Sarge uses V 0.95 of Grub but the latest is 0.97.

I am 85% certain that this is a bug because I can do

mkdir /mnt/fd0
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0

and was able to read and write to the floppy with Debian. It is only the combination of 0.95 version of Grub and Debian (with 2.6.7 kernel) that doesn't work properly.

I also tried Ubuntu 5.0.4 because it also has Grub 0.95. Ubuntu also reported /dev/fd0 isn't a BIOS drive. So it seems that is a dead end. Ubuntu has a 2.6.10 kernel.

Lastly I ran Kanotix 9.2004, which has a 2.6.8 kernel. I checked its Grub 0.95 first (type Grub at root terminal and the version will show up) before dooing a grub-install /dev/fd0

It worked!

There was a time I relegiously creating a bootable floppy for every Linux I installed but I stopped doing it as I have found one Grub floppy, unattached to a system, can boot all of them. May be this the the way for you to go.

-----------------------------------
Step 1 - Arrange the boot loader Grub inside Debian's root partition

I am guessing the root partition of your Debian is in hda1 so putting Grub in hda1 is

grub-install /dev/hda1

If you omit 1 after hda it goes into the whole disk which is the MBR. Do feel free to alter hda1 to the directory you specify as / for Debian.

The above works as I did it with Debian before so it is bomb proof.

-----------------------------------
Step 2 - How to make a bootable Grub floppy unattached to an operating system

I have typed this method repeatedly recently so if you don't mind please refer to

Post #9 and #15 of this thread Make sure you read the alterations I put in #15

You may be relieved to learn that the poster got it working and was very happy about it.

-----------------------
Step 3 - To boot Debian manually with Grub floppy (unattached to system)

You boot up the floppy into a Grub prompt. You then type

root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

That should boot up the Grub hiding inside hda1. The floppy-Grub then hands over the control to the hda1-Grub and you get back 100% of what your current condition is now now, but without the need of the MBR.

-------------------------

Step 4 -- To boot Windows with Grub floppy (unattached to system)

Yes why not. This in fact is the acid test. You basically type the parts of Debian's /boot/grub/menu.lst on Windows but omitting the "title" line and add "boot" after thelast line, like this

rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

If your XP is good it will be booted by the Grub floppy, otherwise try to restore the MBR

Good luck

There's an alternative way . use the windows way by using the boot.ini. Search for" mbrwiz Solution Dual Boot Windows and Linux" in the Linuxquestions.org. this method is fool proof and it will work everytime. It's all done in windows. You won't need luck.

Sorry for the delay of my reply, I just got back home.

I'm confused by this. Did you read the OP? I can't boot into windows.

I think I might have bigger problems with my floppy drive.

debian:/dev# mkdir /mnt/fd0
debian:/dev# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

No

Just put in -tand then the file type should do it. I tried it out myself, remeber?

I am fairly comfortable with it being a bug because I have also verified it in Grub shell

You can do it also to prove Debian can accept (fd0) but can write to it, so (fd0) being not a BIOS drive is incorrect.

If you type Grub at shell

root (fd0) will get Grub to report back what kind of file type in (fd0)

The grub-install /dev/fd0 can be achieved in Grub shell by

root (hd0,0) <-----------------indicating the Debian Grub files location
setup (fd0) <------------------put Grub into fd0

Above failed too.

Therefore, together with the same response I got from Ubuntu I think it is a bug.
---------------------------------------------

I don't have much problem for people advocating XP's NTloder to multi-boot because I also have it too in the box booting 10 systems, which is its limit. Since I got 50+ systems I have to use Grub for all of them.

When the operating systems have been "properly" arranged, each with a boot loader inside its root partition, then all of them can be booted up by Grub (in a floppy, a CD, a root partition or in MBR), using the same 3 lines of commands but changing the partition reference only. You can get anything simpler and neater than this

Root (hdi,j) <-----------tell Grub the root partition is located in ith disk jth partition.
cahinloader +1 <-----------tell Grub to boot the system's boot loader
boot <-----------green light for Grub to go for it

For 50+ systems I also have 50+ bootloaders and can confirm that between Grub, Lilo and NTloader the first needs the least amount of work to boot. I would even say Grub needs 1/10 of NTloader's effort but is able to boot 10 times more systems. NTloader also has a limitation of booting only one DOS-based of M$ system (select from DOS, Win3x,Win9x etc). Grub in my box boot 2 DOS, 2 Windows, 1 Win2k and 1 XP, beside the remainder of the 50+ systems.

I do believe Linux users are wasting their time to avoid Linux boot loaders and trying to multi-boot with Windows. Yes it can be done but it is a awfully long way to get to when there are at least 2 short cuts offered by Lilo and Grub. This is the opinion from a guy who have walked through every pace in all the three routes

salkee thank you for your patience...

I guess I'm still a newbie because I still can't mount the floppy. I even went into the bios to confirm the floppy is there because I can't say i use it all that often.

debian:/# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0
mount: special device /dev/fd0 does not exist

grub> root (fd0)
root (fd0)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

Perhaps the floppy is called something else? How would I confirm that?

I recommend to cut the loss and forget the Debian and Grub 0.95 are causing the the problem with fd0.

The most you lose is the ability to use fd0 with your version of Debian. You should try a Live CD and test with the fd0. I confirmed that I had the same problem and so there is no evidence a hardware fault.

As far as I am aware fd0 is used by both Linux and Grub. There is a good possibility of something to do with the kernel.

You can generate Grub floppy (unattached to a system) by a Live CD, say from Ubuntu, Mepis, Damn Small Linux.. Why keep flogging a dead horse?

I take it you have completed the Step 1 of my suggestion without a problem.

Ok I managed to download an Ubuntu live and get it up and running without too much trouble.

I assume I'll be able to create a grub floppy from Ubuntu using "grub-install /dev/fd0"

Is this correct?
Thanks again

No

grub-install transfers a Linux boot loader onto a floppy. Your Debian has a problem of reading fd0 so it is out.

If you do a grub-install with Ubuntu it only boots Ubuntu and no good to your Debian. right?

So you only want Ubuntu to create a Grub floppy unattached to an operating system so that you can use it as a trump card to boot every system in a PC, including Debian and XP.

I repeat the instruction below

--------------------

The traditional method of locating the original source of stage1 and stage2 files is to ask Linux to find it for you. So while in Ubuntu (from Live CD) do a

find / -name stage1

The record I kept indicates Ubuntu keeps these two files in /lib/grub/i386-pc directory. You then cd to the directory located by the find command and do the two dd statements .

dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1

That is the method recommended by "Linux in a nutshell" and also the "Grub Manual"
-----------------------------------------

Ok I screwed up big time, now I can't boot either OS. Here is what I did...

1. I was able to create the boot floppy from the Ubuntu Live Cd.

2. I used the windows recovery cd and ran FIXMBR. The output was
Windows still did not boot.

3. Now I used the windows recovery and ran FIXBOOT.
The output was 4. So..when I attempt to boot from the hard drive get 5. I'm not really sure how to use the GRUB floppy.
To boot Debian from the floppy...
and I get

To use the Grub floppy you tyoe one line at a time, exactly as what I have showed to you

root (hd0,0) <---- tells Grub the root partition to be booted is in 1st disk 1st partition. Frub will responds back by telling you the partition type/ 0x07 for NTFS and 0x83 for Linux.

chainloader +1 <---- tells Grub you want it to boot the boot loader in side the root partition of (hd0,0). A silence from Grub means it has found it. Grub will tell you immediately if there is a problem

boot <------- is the green light for Grub to go ahead.

-----------------------------------

The Grub floppy can also allow you to boot Debian if you know the name of its kernel. I have just tried my Debian in hda15 as follow (to make sure it works before writing this reply)

root (hd0,14)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.20-idepci root=/dev/hda15 ro
boot

and it works.

I initially made a mistake in the name by using idecpi instead of idepci and Grub responds no such file. I then boot it with hda27 Slackware's kernel because it has no extra bits after vmlinuz.

root (hd0,14)
kernel (hd0,26)/boot/vmlinuzi root=/dev/hda15 ro
boot

And Debian was booted up. Then I could see my mistake by ls /boot in Debian.

So the tool is there for you to use. You have to study each step and substitute the relevant partition and kernel name in your case.

Normally a Linux needs to boot both kernel (vmlinuz) and the initial ramdisk initrd but the latter isn't used by my Debian.

---------

Go ahead to boot Debian first, try the Windows later

Ahhhh I see, I didn't know I needed to add the kernel information. The kernel I'm using is 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic. So at the GRUB prompt I need to run.

I'll give this a try when I get home in a few. Getting the debian back up is my primary concern. I've been without windows for a few months but I'm kind of getting the itch to play a little BF2. I forsee a reinstall of XP once I get Debian booting again.

I repeat do each line at a time, not all 3 ine one line please

root (hd0.0)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro

boot

because you get a reply if something goes wrong. Grub would tell you what kind of problem if it can't do the thing you instruct it to do.

Also you will be wasting my time if you cant boot XP with the grub floppy.

Your original Grub instructions to boot XP by /boot/grub.menu.lst were

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

With Grub floppy booting into a Grub prompt you omit the title line and add

boot

after pressing "Enter" for the last line.

and the XP should come up. If it fails it is because you have changed the connection or BIOS boot sequence.

okay...

This doesn't not give any errors. It begins to boot then I get the following error
VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown block (8,1). Please append a corect "root=" boot option

Is hda1 not my root partition? I tried root=dev/hda (1,2,5,6) and none worked.

if you need to get into windows and do file maintenance, try using bart's pe...

http://webserver.computoredge.com/ed...ver&issue=2345

i had a boot.ini problem and was able to rename the file and change the name of my backup to boot.ini.

worked like a charm.

if you want quick results, you can forget about including mcafee, spybot, adaware, etc... you can probably just slipstream barts and your xp disk as per the instructions.

best of luck,

GN

In Grub prompt you can type help to get the commands available to you

geometry (hd0)

will list all the partitions in the fist disk. That should give you some idea of your root partition.

Do also geometry (hd1) and so on to know your own partitions.

Also Grub will confirm the partition type after the first statement. Does this match your expectation? Type 0x83 partition is Linux, 0x7 is NTFS, 0x82 is swap.

You should also get a line of text if Grub accepts yopur kernel statement

I got the feeling that you have 2 partitions of /boot in hda1 and / in hda6.

Therefore

root (hd0,5)

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda6 ro

boot

should yield result.

yes after entering root (hd0,0) I get Filesystem type is ext2fs partition type 0X83

Grub also accepts my kernel statment.

The error occurs a few seconds after the boot process starts.

I will attempt your suggestion...

output from the geometry commands

geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)
[CODE]Parititon number 0: Filesystem type unknown partition type 0x7/CODE]

Thank you again for your time and suggestions

OK slap. I have been answering a few other posts and may not remeber evrying you have got. However reading back I am sure your Debian was bootable before.

The exact way Debian boots up itself is described in /boot/grub/menu.lst, which I thought you have been able to access, instead of keep guessing as what we did together.

Now I realise you also have a Live Ubuntu CD so lets do the minimum.

In case I haven't told you before a Live CD can rescue a distressed Linux and you have Debian's Grub working nicely before in the MBR, so let's put its Grub back. I was side-tracked by its inability to write Grub on fd0.

I describe the steps as follow

Boot up Ubuntu Live CD
click system/root terminal<-----------Ubuntu should tell you the password, if not type su in terminal
mkdir /mnt/hda6 <--------------make a temp. directory in /mnt
mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 <----------mount device hda6 on the temp directory
chroot /mnt/hda6 <------------you change root to Debian hda6. If you manage this far then you are inside Debian now, it is fun isn't it?
grub-install /dev/hda <----------------You ask Grub to install itself into the whole disk of hda, that mean MBR of hda
reboot

Remove the Live CD and Your Debian should be up again

Post mortem------------------

While inside Debian, either after change root or have it up and running, print out or write down the content of /boot/grub/menu.lst and unstand what has gone wrong with your previous instructions. I prefer you list its content here and tell us your comment.

-----------------------------------
Windows problem

You will notice that the No. of heads reported by Grub is different to previously reported in fdisk after you have deleted the 2nd partition. I don't like 240 in the middle of C/H/S because it should be 255 as hda.

You may need to do more investigation in cfdisk and fdisk. Do change it now. Report to us if you can mount it and obtain all its information.

Thank you again for your patience. I'm learning a lot from each of your posts.

Yes you are correct, Debian was fully functional before I ran fixboot and fixmbr from windows restore cd. I'm confident my Debian problems were caused by that.

1. GRUB
I was only able to get to step 2 of your instructions. I created the directory with no problems. Here is the error output...

root@ubuntu:/# mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda6,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

2. Windows
I was able to mount the sda that contains the windows partitions. The following gave no errors.
root@ubuntu:/# mkdir /mnt/windows
root@ubuntu:/# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

3. fdisk
Just to be complete I ran fdisk again.

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 851 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 852 9733 71344665 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 852 1037 1494013+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 1038 9733 69850588+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 37.0 GB, 37019566080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4500 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4499 36138186 7 HPFS/NTFS



(I'm off to work so it will be several hours before I'm back at this machine.)

OK your Debian has proved stubborn.

Before doing anything why not add the type parameter in the mount statement since Grub has confirmed, also fdisk too, that hda6 is ext2. So try

mount -t ext2 /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6

It may be just enough but if it does your situation is as follow.

Windows parition sda1 can be mounted but not yet bootable. This is the time to do a back up of your data. When come to a push you might to to do a reinstall of XP. Have you tried booting XP with the instructions I gave in #22 post? What was the reply from Grub? The Grub floppy. unattached to a system, can boot any system and is a very important tool.

Debian was working fine before untill XP's MBR overwrote Grub. Now the partition cannot be mounted. However you can still boot it with the Grub floppy except you do not have the exact loaction of the kernel and its name. My guessed location has not been successfull.

root (hd0,5) <---------------assumes your /root is in hda6
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda6 ro<-----------assumes /boot is in hda1, /root in hda6
boot

You have not ey report back the error from the above after I have swap the

root=/dev/hda6 with root=/dev/hda1

in the kernel statement. As far as from your information Grub took in the root and kernel statements without complaint. This indicated

/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic

was discovered in (hd0,0) and the filename is correct.

I need to know what kind of error you were getting after telling Grub

root (hd0,5) and NOT root (hd0,0)
root=/dev/hda6 and NOT root=/dev/hda1 in the kernel statement.

It is possible that you may not have implemented everything I said. I have managed to hang on to your kernel name from hda1 by calling the kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz------- instead of just /boot/vmlinuz................

I've tried to address all the question in your last post.

So try mount -t ext2 /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6
no luck, same error listed in my last post


You have not ey report back the error from the above after I have swap the

root=/dev/hda6 with root=/dev/hda1
root (hd0,5) root=/dev/hda1 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it
root (hd0,5) root=/dev/hda6 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it

root (hd0,5) and NOT root (hd0,0)
root (hd0,5) and root (hd0.0) are both accepted by GRUB. No Errors are given.

root=/dev/hda6 and NOT root=/dev/hda1 in the kernel statement.

root (hd0,0) root=/dev/hda1 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it
root (hd0,0) root=/dev/hda6 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it

root (hd0,5) root=/dev/hda1 gives a file not found error.
root (hd0,5) root=/dev/hda6 gives a file not found error.

However with (hd0,0) in the kernel line...
root (hd0,5) kernel(hd0,0) root=/dev/hda6 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it
root (hd0,5) kernel(hd0,0) root=/dev/hda6 gives no errors. GRUB accepts it

If Grub did not object to a command that means the file exists.

Give it another trial like this

boot up the Grub floppy and maually type

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

ok setup (hd0) did something good because now grub is back when I boot from the hard drive but of course there is a new problem.

Debian began to boot but the xserver wouldn't start. it told me to run fsck manually and I did. I said yes to a bunch of questions.

I rebooted and the Xserver still wouldn't start. It told to view the xserver output error and bascially the nvidia display module isn't working.

So I ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 and the system told me xserver-xfree86 is not installed.

How I'm totally confused. (which isn't a big suprise)

I am comfortable in helping you to get back any of the systems but couldn't offer much beyond this point. You may consider a partial or full re-install of each system if necessary.

I hope you can use the Grub floppy to good effect because it will save your hair from pulling out.

I thank you for you time. You actually succeeded, Debain does boot just not the GUI. More importantly I learned quite a bit and have a handy universal boot disk.

At this point I will cut my loses and reinstall Debian and XP. Hopefully I'll get it right the second time around and GRUB will be able to boot both OSs. However I think I will search around this site a bit and I'll start a new thread if I have any questions.