Dual Boot with XP problem
 

Apologies if this is a repeat of anything previously posted, but I can't find the exact problem anywhere.

I'm installing FC6 as a dual boot on a laptop with an existing XP Pro install, and I created a partition for FC6, installed and added Windows as a Grub option, and now the laptop boots fine in FC6 if that's selected, but the XP boot is corrupted - it sets off booting XP, but then gives two errors: "xmnt2002 program not found, skipping AUTOCHECK" and "autochk program not found, skipping AUTOCHECK" and reboots.

A major pain, and not a great way to start a FC6 evaluation at work.

From previous searching of t'internet, I'm inclined to think it might be the MBR that's toast. You'd think this sort of thing would have been properly sorted out by now.

Anyone got any ideas as to how I can get the thing to dual boot properly and rescue the Windows boot?

Thanks,


Mark

One of the first things anybody will ask here, is to post details...so

Post your grub.conf file. It is located in /boot/grub directory. It is also called menu.lst sometimes. Also post output of the following command

Sounds interesting..if you'd like to start it all over (without wiping out any personal data or operating systems themselves), you could use Windows setup discs to get into Recovery Console and run fixmbr to put Windows bootloader back. A word of warning, though: that trashes your GRUB and might still not make Windows bootloader work, but you can always get GRUB back using a Live-cd or Linux setup cd, by running grub-install. Though if the problem became during FC setup, without error messages, I don't think it's going to go away just like that. Another way around might be to give Windows the whole MBR and install GRUB (Linux bootloader, anyway) to /boot and set it as the bootable partition. That's one way if you get Windows' bootloader work when it's alone in MBR.

There's becoming a new version of GRUB, a version should be available at the moment already which is considered usable, but for now the main distributions are still using GRUB Legacy. The new GRUB is, I think, more or less completely rewritten, and perhaps works better.

Dual Boot Problem
 

Thanks for that, B0uncer, though it brings more problems :rolleyes:

The laptop won't boot from an XP disc - it gets to the "Setup is inspecting your hardware components" part of the XP boot, then hangs. (I've tried several different XP discs, so it's not a CD fault).

Do you think the possible damage to the MBR might be causing it not to boot from a CD?

Thanks,


Mark

Dual Boot Problem
 

Here's the grub.conf file contents, if i'll help:

# 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/sda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


Thanks Folks.

Mark

MBR is located on the hard disc so even if your MBR may be damaged (which I don't think it is), booting from a CD is not affected by it. Sorry mate :mad:, I have no idea why XP live cd won't boot.

Dual Boot Problem
 

Thanks for that tuxrules.

Does the grub.conf file look OK?

If everything's OK with that, I guess the partitioning/ FC6 install has wrecked the Windows install.

Of course, that fact that this is on a laptop makes things more complicated.

Doesn't fill me with confidence for the other dual-boot installs I was going to do to test our render farm under FC6. I guess we'll stick with Windows a while longer...

Thanks anyway.


Mark

One question...

Did you use a program like Partition Magic to resize the Windows partition to make room for FC6?

It might be possible that resizing the Windows partition has damaged it (it's been my experience that Linux is cautious about other partitions and I've never had Linux wreck a Windows install (though I can say I've had Windows wreck a Linux install on more than one occasion)).

Just curious.

Mark,

Please don't blame Fedora (yet), it may be purely accidental that this happened just after installing Fedora. I can assure you that I had the very same error while I was running Windows XP64 exclusively. I don't remember exactly what caused it (I believe it was accidentally launching the netboot function on my motherboard) but it certainly wasn't Fedora.

The best news, however, is that I found the workaround to be extremely simple. All I had to do was repair a registry key that had apparently been changed. I'm afraid I didn't write it down so I can't be any more specific. I suggest you do as I did: type your error message into Google and you won't have to search far.

Please post back to let us know whether this was helpful.

Looks fine to me...Although you can try to add makeactive before chainloader +1 in the windows section of grub.conf.

It may be grub or something may have gone wrong while partition resizing as another poster stated. Try reinstalling grub to see if it works.

Tux,

Tuxrules,

I'm pretty sure that won't do. Mark can install as many GRUBS as he wants, it still won't work. It's the windows key that needs repairing, not GRUB.

Dual Boot Problem
 

Aaaaaaaand the points are shared by rocket357 and jay73: it was indeed PM which had made a mess of the Windows partition. Some serious amounts of Googling later, and with some help from a thread on tek-tips, and I've got the Windows partition booting.

For the record, I modified the grub.conf file entry:

XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

to read

XP
unhide (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Hey presto - Dual boot laptop. Fedora innocent of all charges. PM is evil.

Thanks to all who contributed.


Mark

Oh, thx for that !!!
I was struggling with the dual boot issue too, with XP just refusing to cooperate, but the 'unhide' line in grub.conf fixed it. :) You're a hero!