Dual boot Linux with Windows: Grub Error 17

Veniogenesis · 10-22-2005, 06:37 PM

Hi everyone!

I've been having trouble all day with installing Linux on a machine that already has Windows XP. I was using grub as the bootloader and it kept giving me Error 17.

I think it has something to do with the way I'm partitioning my drives.

This is my initial table:

Quote:

IDE1 Master (hda) - 160.0 GB
#1 primary 160.0 GB (BOOT) (NTFS) - /media/hda1

IDE2 Slave (hdb) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 40.8 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb1
#5 logical 139.7 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb5
pri/log 19.5 GB FREE SPACE

SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 200.0 GB (NTFS) - /media/sda1

This is what I was trying to use:

Quote:

IDE1 Master (hda) - 160.0 GB
#1 primary 160.0 GB (BOOT) (NTFS) - /media/hda1

IDE2 Slave (hdb) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 40.8 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb1
#5 logical 139.7 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb5
#6 logical 830.7 MB (SWAP) - swap
#3 primary 18.7 GB (BOOT) (EXT3) - /

SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 200.0 GB (NTFS) - /media/sda1

Since I'm a newbie, I think I'm doing it TOTALLY wrong. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice.

Thanks so much!
Venio

Veniogenesis · 10-22-2005, 08:22 PM

A friend of mine told me that my partitioning method was totally wrong. He suggested the following and tried it.

Now grub is giving me an Error 5. Next I'll try LILO.

Quote:

IDE1 Master (hda) - 160.0 GB
#1 primary 160.0 GB (BOOT) (NTFS) - /media/hda1

IDE2 Slave (hdb) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 40.8 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb1
#5 logical 139.7 GB (NTFS) - /media/hdb5
#6 logical 830.7 MB (SWAP) - swap
#3 logical 18.5 GB (EXT3) - /
#7 logical 0.2 GB (EXT3) - /boot

SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 200.0 GB
#1 primary 200.0 GB (NTFS) - /media/sda1

saikee · 10-23-2005, 08:19 AM

First thing first

The Grub Manual (searchable by Google) will tell you Error 17 is

"Cannot Mount selected partition - partition cannot be recognised by Grub."

I recommend sticking with your original system.

you should tell Linux to use /dev/hdb6 as the swap and /dev/hdb3 as the root partition "/".

Apart from the swap many users use more than one partition for a Linux but it is unnecessary. If no more partition is specified a Linux will put everything under / directory.

Your installation can be marginally improved by using /dev/hdb7 instead of /dev/hdb3 for the Linux installation and allocate say 10 Gb with 8.7 Gb unallocated space for packing another two future distros. Linux doesn't need to be installed in a primary and always bootable from a logical partition. The use of primary partition hdb3 creates more problem than benefit.

Logical partitions work like a steel chain and must be continuous with no primary partitions in the middle. Each logical partition works like a link. The 1st link carries the address of the 2nd link, the 2nd carries the address for the 3rd link and so on.

b0nd · 10-23-2005, 09:41 AM

Hello,
agree with saikee.
One more thing you should notice is that "error 17" also occurs when there is something mismatching b/w your "grub.conf" and the entries which "fdisk -l" shows.
so compare them. otherwise post them.

did u make any partition changes after installing linux ??? e.g may have increased/decreased the number of partitons.

regards