I just noticed that, well, anyway it seems so, that my c: is primary of course, but that my d: maybe is extended.
And it makes sense cause when I try to install SuSE 9.1 Pro it says mountpoint for c: is hda1 and for d: is hda5, and then it wants to put itself on hda6 and hda7 and hda 2,3,4 is not used, and I start to think maybe that is why the bootmanager will not work???

Could it be like that? That I for some reason got d: extended when formatting it from XP and now cant install Linux cause of that (neither GRUB nor LILO will load after default install and I have to delete Linux partitions to get in to be able to boot XP and get back to normal)


Thank you very much for helping to clear this shit up so I might finally be able to try Linux and start to learn some (hopefully)

Where are you putting Lilo or Grub? Despite advise to the contrary, I've always put Lilo / Grub in the MBR of hda. Linux sitting on hda6 or higher is not a concern, BUT, if the bootloader sits too far down the drive, it might not boot.

HTH
Baldrick

Ok, so hda2 hda3 hda4 being empty and not used is not the problem here? (Damn, I thought I had at least a clue to the problem but seems that wasn't it then)

I think it says it is putting GRUB on hda0 or hd0. Strange it worked on my old 120GB Seagate but not this new 160GB Seagate which both had XP SP2 on c: and d: and 5-6 GB unpartitioned for Linux.

Only difference I can tell is that now I get Linux on hda6,7 instead of hda3,4 or whatever it was before.

I dont know how I check if it puts GRUB in MBR or not, I just saw it said hda0 or maybe hd0 (pretty sure on that but not 100% lol), but if thats the way to do it it should do it by default I guess.

Ok I try an ugly bump here cause I'm desperate. Try to help, or just ban me for it (wont matter cause without help I'll never be able to install any Linux and dont need to be here either).

How can I install SuSE 9.1 and get the boot-manager to load???
What option in the default-install should I change, so that it will work instead of hanging pc (it says GRUB at boot and then stops) when booting both Linux and XP.

There is some option of putting GRUB on its own partition (at least thats how I interpret the description of the setting), and I dont know if that would help, or if I risk messing my XP's c: & d: then.....

Please you guys
If you dont have a clue please say so so that I know its like unsolvable and wait untill I get some other pc with a new hd in a year or two maybe.

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...booting91.html

Grub see's hard drive as 0, lilo see's it as hda,

Windows No Longer Boots Following the Installation of SUSE LINUX 9.1
Applies to: SUSE LINUX 9.1

Symptom
Following the installation of SUSE LINUX 9.1, the Linux system can be booted, but the Windows system no longer boots. After selecting the Windows entry in the boot loader GRUB, a message such as the following is displayed:
root (hd 0,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
chainloader +1
The computer stops at this point.
The Windows boot loader may also stop with an error message (if GRUB or LILO was *not* installed in the MBR during the installation and the Windows loader was retained).

The problem cannot be solved by restoring the original MBR with YaST or by writing a new MBR with Windows tools (with the command FIXMBR or with FIXBOOT from the Windows rescue console). Repairing the partition table with proprietary partitioning tools does not solve the problem and may even destroy the entire partition table. The problem cannot even be solved by uninstalling Linux or reinstalling Windows without deleting the entire hard disk.

Cause
The partitioning tool parted, which YaST uses during the installation, may write an incorrect partition table. The problem occurs if
the BIOS and Linux "see" different disk geometries AND
the Windows partition is larger than about 8 GB (more precisely: if the first hard disk partition ends on cylinder 1024 or beyond this point).
When the system is booted, Windows may use the values in the partition table, which causes a failure.
Currently, this problem also occurs on other Linux distributions using kernel 2.6.

Solution
One quick solution is to activate the LBA or large access mode under which the hard disk was previously addressed for the hard disks in the computer's BIOS. It is important that the hard disk values not be set to "AUTO".
If this does not help (or if your BIOS does not offer this option), you can repair the partition table with a driver update. To do this, proceed as follows: On our FTP server, find two images at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/upd.../misc/parted/: one for creating a floppy disk and one for creating a CD.

Floppy Disk
To install the driver update from floppy disk, proceed as follows:
Download the file parted.img.gz and save it to a directory of your choice, for example, in /tmp.
Insert a floppy disk and use the following command to write the image to the medium:
gunzip -c parted.img.gz >/dev/fd0
Caution: The previous content of the floppy disk will be lost.
Insert the installation CD/DVD (important: if you use an AMD-64 system, insert the 32-bit side of the DVD). Boot the first installation CD or DVD up to the point where you can choose one of the different installation variants.
Press F6. A message asking you to keep the driver update ready will be displayed.
Use the arrow key to select the menu item "Installation".
Enter the boot parameter "fixpart=1" and press ENTER.
When the message "Please choose the Driver Update medium" is displayed, insert the driver update disk you created and press "OK".
In the following menu, select "floppy" and confirm with "OK".
After completing the driver update, press "Back".
The following dialog for repairing the partition table displays your hard disk (usually /dev/hda) and the status of the partition table (broken). Select the hard disk and click "OK" to repair the partition table.
After repairing the partition table, exit the menu with "Back". Press the key combination CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the computer and remove all media from the drives.
Now you should be able to boot both Windows and Linux.
CD-ROM
To install the driver update from CD-ROM, proceed as follows:
Download the file parted.iso.gz and save it to a directory of your choice, for example, in /tmp.
Use the following command to unpack the image:
gunzip /tmp/parted.iso.gz
Burn the file /tmp/parted.iso as an ISO image on a CD by either using a graphical burning program, such as k3b or xcdroast, or from the command line:

cdrecord -v -eject speed=2 dev=/dev/hdc /tmp/parted.iso

The parameter dev=/dev/hdc might have to be adjusted according to the burner device file.
Insert the installation CD/DVD (important: if you use an AMD-64 system, insert the 32-bit side of the DVD). Boot the first installation CD or DVD up to the point where you can choose one of the different installation variants.
Press F6. A message asking you to keep the driver update ready will be displayed.
Use the arrow key to select the menu item "Installation".
Enter the boot parameter "fixpart=1" and press ENTER.
When the message "Please choose the Driver Update medium" is displayed, insert the driver update CD you created and press "OK".
In the following menu, select "cdrom" and confirm with OK.
After completing the driver update, press "Back".
The following dialog for repairing the partition table displays your hard disk (usually /dev/hda) and the status of the partition table (broken). Select the hard disk and click "OK" to repair the partition table.
After repairing the partition table, exit the menu with "Back". Press the key combination CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the computer and remove all media from the drives.
Now you should be able to boot both Windows and Linux.
If Linux Is Not Yet Installed
If Linux is not yet installed, you can integrate the driver update to prevent any boot problems from the outset. Proceed as described above, but omit the parameter "fixpart=1" in the installation menu. Then follow the instructions. The update medium will be loaded and the installation will be performed with an updated libparted.
Creating Update Media with Windows
If you are not able to create an update driver medium with a Linux OS, proceed as follows to create it with Windows:
First decide whether to use a CD or a floppy disk as update medium. Then unpack the relevant file (parted.img.gz for floppy or parted.iso.gz for CD) with a Windows unpacking program. For this purpose, use the program untgz32.exe located in the directory /dosutils/untgz on SUSE's first installation CD or DVD. Copy the file untgz32.exe to the directory containing the downloaded file. Open a command prompt, change to the corresponding directory and start the program with:

untgz32 -d parted.img.gz parted.img
or
untgz32 -d parted.iso.gz parted.iso
Writing on floppy:
The directory /dosutils/rawrite/ on the first CD or DVD includes the program rawrite.exe that can be used to write the image to a floppy. Copy this program to the directory containing the unpacked file parted.img.

Insert a floppy in the drive and start rawrite.exe. Enter the file parted.img as source file and confirm with Enter. Then enter the name of the floppy drive (usually "A") as write medium. The image will be written to the floppy.

Writing on CD:

Burn the unpacked file parted.iso to a CD in Windows with a burning program of your choice. Make sure you do not create a data CD but write the file as an ISO image.


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Keywords: windows,boot,grub,lilo,boot manager,ntldr

Thank you, even if its not my problem (it seems anyway) its nice that some people try to help

My problem is that I cant boot WinXP and I cant boot Linux....the boot-manager (tried both of them) does not even start.

After boot it just says "GRUB" when I try to start boot Linux (choose boot from Linux-CD), and if I take out the disc and try to boot XP it says "GRUB GRUB GRUB".

Same thing with LILO, except it says L 99 99 99 99 ......


What is strange is that this standard installation worked on my old 120GB Seagate hd, but on my new 160GB Seagate hd it does not work. The only difference I can tell is that it wants to put Linux on hda6 & hda7 here instead of 3,4 or whatever it was on my old drive, so its probably partitioned slightly different for some reason even though both had just 2 NTFS (c: and d and 5-6GB unpartitioned for Linux.

But someone else told me it doesn't matter where Linux installs to, its all about putting the boot-manager in the MBR, but I haven't changed any settings for that in the default install and I dont see any settings for it either (dont want to mess with manual install either)


Your feedback was interresting though...if I really will risk loosing all my windows-data during the SuSE-install I'm not 100% sure I want to give it another try. Maybe wait untill I can buy another pc and run only Linux on it and nothing else....well I dont know. Right now I dont have any choise cause this install does NOT work for me

Sorry I didn't reply sooner ... been without a phone line for a week (stupid cows breaking the pit and chewing the line grrrr ... BBQ next week )

Anyway, to install GRUB into the mbr of hda, boot into rescue mode with the Linux CD and run grub-install /dev/hda. That will for certain install to the mbr.

The reason you don't have hda2, hda3, hda4, is that you have only 1 primary partition (hda1) and one extended partition (hda2), which houses further partitions hda5 (your windows D:\ ) hda6 (Linux etc and so on). Hda2 isn't visible as such. For example, my hde drive:
This is a Linux drive with a fat32 partition for file sharing with WinXP. I don't know if any of this info will help, but at least it will give you some idea of how Linux sees things.

Baldrick

Cool, you live with cows on the country
Barbeque

Thanks anyway. I just dont understand why my d: didn't get primary also....I formatted it from within XP after installing it on the completely new drive. There were no option for partitioning it as primary or extended.

And anyway, why would this become a problem for the bootmanager in the default install? I mean, more people than me would have partitions like this...probably most guys running XP.

I dont think I dare doing that special install of the boot-manager in the MBR....forcing it in there, I dont know what might happen to my windows-disks, and also dont know how to continue the default-install afterwards. I then have to tell it not to install any boot-manager since I already have one, and I'm not even sure I can do that


My plan right now is, if I get back my old hd repaired, is to run XP on my new drive and install Linux completely alone on the old, and then build/buy a switch that switches power between the drives so I can boot and run one at a time. That way I cant mess my XP up no matter how much I play around in Linux