Dual-boot, Grub errors, linux mint

Larry Webb · 11-22-2011, 04:10 AM

What did you do to get the grub prompt?

SuperMechaCow · 11-22-2011, 07:08 AM

I installed windows, moved to sda3, then installed Linux to sda1.

SuperMechaCow · 11-22-2011, 09:52 AM

Ok, I managed to use GRUB to manually load the linux kernel, and run update-grub as a user on the sda1 filesysem instead of the Live CD. Now I am presented with the proper grub menu and can boot to Mint normally.

Great progress, except now I can't get into Vista. When I try I get the following error in GRUB:

Code:

error: no such device: A2060A3F060A1547.
error: no such disk.

There was a SINGLE file that didn't copy from sda1 to sda3 when I was moving Windows. Something about a cache file being a special file. I think it had that number attached to it but I'm not sure.

Should I try the Windows "disc" and repair the boot , then reinstall GRUB via Live CD and repeat this process? Or will that just cause headaches?

EDDY1 · 11-22-2011, 12:44 PM

If you elect to repair vista it'll search for vista & do the repair & then yes you can reinstall your grub.

Larry Webb · 11-22-2011, 01:20 PM

All ms systems are particular and want to boot and reside on the first partition of the hd. There are steps you can go through to put it on other partitions. It would include having another hd to run as a slave. Here are some details how this man booted 145 using grub1, but the same can be done using grub2. I do not know if you want to go to all this trouble, you may want to consider an usb external hd.

145

Scroll down to Dos and Windows systems.

SuperMechaCow · 11-22-2011, 02:37 PM

I just tried to repair Vista via boot disk and the repair tool could not find automatically find my Vista installation. However, using bootrec.exe it found it just fine. I repaired the MBR and rebooted and all I got was "Missing Operating System".

So after an hour of messing with it and restoring GRUB, I'm back to where I started. One OS works but not the other. All I did was make them trade places.

It comes down to Linux will not boot unless it is the OS on partition 1. Windows will not boot OR install/repair unless it is the OS on partition 1. Why?

Why am I the ONLY person in the world who can't do something as simple as dual boot Vista and Linux?

yancek · 11-22-2011, 04:32 PM

Quote:

I installed windows, moved to sda3, then installed Linux to sda1.

What? Installed windows where? moved what to sda3? Installed windows on sda1 and then moved it to sd3?

The error you report:

Quote:

error: no such device: A2060A3F060A1547.

is looking for a uuid which it can't find it. Boot Mint and run the blkid command and see what the uuid is for the windows partition.If it's not the one above, that's part of your problem.

Quote:

I just tried to repair Vista via boot disk and the repair tool could not find automatically find my Vista installation. However, using bootrec.exe it found it just fine. I repaired the MBR and rebooted and all I got was "Missing Operating System".

You got the error missing operating system when trying to boot?? vista? mint? both?
Did you use the repair options on your vista disk to repair the mbr?
I think part of your problem now is that you copied vista from one partition to another, at least I think that's what you did, maybe I'm reading it wrong.

Linux doesn't need to be on the first partition and it doesn't even need to be on a primary partition to boot.
Windows boot files need to be on a primary partition but the OS does not.

I'd check the uuid numbers.

SuperMechaCow · 11-22-2011, 05:32 PM

Yes, I installed Windows to sda1, then picked it up and moved it to sda3 as I had said I was going to earlier in the thread.

Code:

MechaMobile mechacow # blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="4235ede0-2fdf-4f62-916c-17cccf8d13e7" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="d4ef5726-9e06-49df-845d-3dd0a1c93e44" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda3: UUID="A2060A3F060A1547" TYPE="ntfs"

Code:

menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos3)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root A2060A3F060A1547
	chainloader +1
}

The UUID's seem to match.

Quote:

You got the error missing operating system when trying to boot?? vista? mint? both?

After using bootrec.exe in the Windows recovery tools I turned it on, it went to BIOS, then I got the error. THe automated repair couldn't detect a windows installation, in spite of the fact that bootrec.exe could, and I could browse the Vista filesystem.

wagscat123 · 11-22-2011, 06:42 PM

If Mint comes with Wubi, you might want to try that (or try it in Ubuntu if Mint doesn't have it). What Wubi does is it installs Linux to your Windows partition in a disk image, then adds an option to the Windows boot menu offering you the ability to boot to Linux on the hard disk image. Before trying if you can, make sure you repair the Windows bootloader.

SuperMechaCow · 11-22-2011, 08:50 PM

Doesn't really help. I know this thread has gotten long, but I said earlier I specifically want to use grub to automatically boot linux and give me the option at each startup to boot to Vista instead.

Thanks, though.

Larry Webb · 11-22-2011, 11:17 PM

If you are booting vista from sda3 you will need to make it is in the first partition.

One other note, sda3 must be a primary partition.

On second thought that will not work because boot can not reside in partition 1, will not work if you have to hide it.

yancek · 11-23-2011, 09:00 AM

There is nothing wrong with your vista menuentry in the grub.cfg file you posted above.
You have Grub installed in the mbr and can boot Mint so it's not likely the bootloader.
You might check the /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab files to see what entries you have for sda3 or which are ntfs.
If there is no problem there, I expect your boot files on vista got messed up in the copying.

SuperMechaCow · 11-23-2011, 09:37 AM

I don't know what I'm looking for...

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda1       /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=d4ef5726-9e06-49df-845d-3dd0a1c93e44 none            swap    sw              0       0

Code:

/dev/sda1 / ext4 rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mechacow/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mechacow 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/Linux\040Mint\04011\040Katya\04032-bit iso9660 ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500 0 0

yancek · 11-23-2011, 04:21 PM

The fstab and mtab entries don't show anything useful. Do you get the "no such device/disk" error in grub? does it say grub rescue?

Not sure what else to suggest.

SuperMechaCow · 11-23-2011, 04:47 PM

When I try to select Vista from the grub menu I get:

Quote:

error: no such device: A2060A3F060A1547.
error: no such disk.

Then press any key yada yada...

It then goes back to the grub menu.

I noticed that fstab and mtab dont seem to mention sda3 at all.