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Multi Boot Issues

Hey guys,

I have 3 hard drives. One is 320GB and contains Windows Vista in one 120GB partition and a NTFS data partition (180GB). The second hard drive contains one HFS+ partition which holds Mac OS X 86 (the size is 120GB). The third hard drive is 750GB and contains one partition which holds Ubuntu and a swap partition. I can successfully boot into Ubuntu, but can't boot into Windows. Note that booting into Mac gives me a HFS+ partition error so this is probably not for this forum but this is probably not a grub issue. So the main problem is bot being able to boot into Vista. Here is my fdisk -lu:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdc97c70c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 16065 245762369 122873152+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 245762370 625137344 189687487+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 16128 245762369 122873121 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2d689089

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 1443874004 721936971 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 1443874005 1465144064 10635030 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 1443874068 1465144064 10634998+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x173fe8c6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 63 234436544 117218241 af Unknown

##note: /dev/sda5 is the windows installation partition

Here is my menu.lst (I took off the comments):

default 0
timeout 10

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=0ef437f2-7e6e-4cbb-9755-e6128bf56611 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=0ef437f2-7e6e-4cbb-9755-e6128bf56611 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Mac OS X
root (hd2,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

The rest of the menu.lst is the VIsta part. I tried all the following combinations:

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

and got grub's Error 13

tried:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd1,4)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

and got grub's Error 13

tried:

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

and got grub's Error 12

tried:

title Windows Vista
root (hd1,4)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

and got grub's Error 12

tried:

title Windows Vista
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

and got grub's Error 12

tried:

title Windows Vista
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

and got grub's Error 13.

Anyone has a clue on this?

Thanks!

I would try the following:

Code:

title Windows vista

rootnoverify (hd0,X)

makeactive

chainloader+1

I'm not sure what X would be since there are two large windows partitions but I would start with 1 and go from there. GL.

-Mark

Hi, Welcome to LQ!

LQ has a fantastic search function with over 3 million posts to read from,
It may save you time waiting for an answer to a popular question.

if /dev/sda5, is the windows installation partition

in grub that relates to 0,4 sda=drive0 and partition 5=4 (grub starts counting at 0,
(like any good computer science))

But the partitions are all over the place, if I may, I would suggest repartitioning the
first HD so that vista is on sda1 (with room for the master boot record), then an
Extended partition at sda2, which is not really used but is a locator for older
M$win file-systems to find other partition entries.

I mean, in my experience, GNU/Linux does not care about extended partitions,
but can use them if you insist.

Vista will expect to be on the first partition of the first drive.
If you ever have to repair that file-system, you may find it very difficult
(but, I have never tried it with vista) It probably works OK as is,
but it's not good practice.

as for the others, same goes with Extended partitions, it's a left over
from dos days. But it will work.

sdb looks like the Linux install...HD1
That looks like an awfully large swap file, generally, in my experience,
your swap needs to be large enough to cover your ram. I generally make mine
a bit bigger if I have the disk-space. Like a dvd size.
Make a really big /home partition too, so it will be safe if you have to reinstall Linux
(for some strange reason).

sdc1 may be the Mac hfs+ partition.

If you don't have too much personal data to risk, go ahead and
re-partition and reinstall vista, but if you have loads of stuff you don't
want to delete, then copy it to the Linux partition first and move it back later.

I'm not sure about the rest, but the layout of your partitions, especially the sda1
extended partition, may be the cause of grubs confusion.

There are many good grub tutorials around here, but I think you need to re-organise
the partitions first, so there is room for a master boot record and the rest.

But if you change this, it might work.... no promises though.
This looks right...

Quote:

title Windows Vista
root (hd0,4)
savedefault #don't know about this line
makeactive
chainloader +1

anyhow, see how you go,
:-)

regards Glenn

ps, does your Debian install disk (cdrom or dvd) have a rescue mode in the boot menu? If so, you may be able to reinstall grub from there, it will (should) find all of the boot-able file-systems (drives) on your system and place them in the new grub menu. easy as!

Hardware is so cheap these days, isn't it? ;)

But I don't understand how you are able to boot into Ubuntu with 'root (hd0,0)' where as your installation is on sdb1 which maps to (hd1,0)?

Thinking similarly (hd2,0) should work for Mac, well may be you can try putting 'rootnoverify (hd2,0)' instead of 'root (hd2,0)'

Hey guys.

First of all, thanks for your replies!

I tried your suggestions and non worked. I've decided to back up my data and start everything from scratch.
Delete all the partitions and start over with 3 fresh hard drives. In that case, what would you recommend me to do?
Which OS should be installed first? What partitions should I create, of what type and on which hard drive?

Thanks a lot!

You need not erase Mac drive I guess unless you confirm with someone that its bad.

My suggestion would be,

1st drive:
sda1: Windows Vista with NTFS (Approx 50GB ? )
sda2: Ubuntu with EXT3 ( Don't keep 720 odd GB for root partition as you had done previously. 30GB is more than enough)
sda3: Extended partition
sda5: Swap 2GB should be more than sufficient
sda6: DATA partition with FAT32 ( Rest of the drive )

2nd drive:
sdb: DATA partition with FAT32 ( Keep whole drive or partition as you wish )

3rd drive:
sdc: Mac

isn't it better to keep each OS on a different hard drive? And in your reply, the first hard drive is the 320GB one?
What do I need the FAT32 partition for - why not NTFS? What do I need the extended partition for? And how should I create the partitions (the swap one specifically)? Should I let the OS installation do the partitioning?

Hi, saivin is quite right. Good sizes and access to all os's.

The fat32 can be read and written to from vista, Linux and possible Mac.

So they can share the resource.
You won't use the fat32 for a system drive.

And yes, while some security is better if the os's are on different partitions...
Some virii and other mal-ware find it difficult to cross the boundry, keeping some isolation, and

If a drive fails, you still have a computer system that works.(redundancy)

Ntfs is good for windows, but it is not open-source. As it is you will need to configure your linux install to be able to write to ntfs.(maybe)

I have 2 os's on my system. 4 drives and about 17 partitions, It's fine.

WinXP on the first drive (sda1), Mandriva Linux on the second (sda6)(oops, I must of changed it when I put in the other drives, was sdb6.)

I would start with a list of partitions sizes on paper, remember that stuff? lol.

Start with vista, set the partition size and format it ntfs. Install vista.

Then install Linux on the second drive (sdb1) The install should pick up the vista system and add it to grub for you.

Test it all works, then go about getting mac up and running, (it may get found automatically too.)

Here is my fstab, it may give you some ideas about sizes, but your drives are larger than mine, so it's just and indication.

OK, sdc is a realtime kernel install for making music.
sdd is a shared drive for archiving that music.
sda is the main drive but in tandem with sdb for the linux system.
/etc/fstab with sizes, not all the partitions are listed in this fstab, only the partitions I want access to from here. GamesBox.

Code:

# Entry for /dev/sda6 :6.9Gb

UUID=8f60d791-9082-4a55-b7ff-90767e62c5bc / ext3 relatime 1 1

# Entry for /dev/sda5 :556Mb

UUID=668a0c18-9a69-48d8-bc75-a956c8a0fe82 /boot ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb10 :49Gb

UUID=2d7c228a-3eba-4b81-8f10-10dd9cfdea17 /home ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda13 :43Gb

UUID=13e6a9b5-a63a-459f-8132-19502ed2b9ef /home/glenn/local/Archive ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb6 :29Gb

UUID=78461ae8-382a-478f-bd11-8ab1f7924997 /home/glenn/local/Music ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda14 :9.7Gb

UUID=1418aa89-dadb-4bba-92e1-d071bb3430ca /home/glenn/local/sda/sda14 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda15 :43Gb

UUID=27ceb992-e240-437c-9ca2-d1733b72f6c1 /home/glenn/local/sda/sda15 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :55Gb

UUID=3ad51d2e-2dac-4228-92bf-19109dd80978 /home/glenn/local/sdc/sdc1 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdc6 :19Gb

UUID=54fb2088-152e-4377-a4f6-e8ad778a4858 /home/glenn/local/sdc/sdc6 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdc7 :32Gb

UUID=b1c9ad38-1e0d-4da1-8d3e-533ca3ec300c /home/glenn/local/sdc/sdc7 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdd2 :70Gb

UUID=cca3042f-64c6-4203-915e-c84a44fd1896 /home/glenn/local/sdd/sdd2 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdd3 :70Gb

UUID=94603e4f-2e60-407a-afb3-0dd7eac10688 /home/glenn/local/sdd/sdd3 ext3 defaults 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda8 :19Gb VirtualBox

UUID=554c552e-248b-4e62-8166-859a86d0a8f3 /home/glenn/local/vm1 ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb7 :14Gb VirtualBox

UUID=04f903de-23c5-425e-907e-8812868038d3 /home/glenn/local/vm2 ext3 relatime 1 2

/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0

/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,exec,flush 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sda1 :21Gb WinXpsp2

UUID=E098342C98340416 /mnt/win_c ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sdb8 : utf8 is case sensitive with fat32 19Gb

UUID=4807-901A /mnt/win_c2 vfat umask=000,iocharset=utf8 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sda11 :19Gb

UUID=4807-8FD4 /mnt/win_d vfat umask=000,iocharset=utf8 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sdb9 :13Gb

UUID=49A7-8385 /mnt/win_d2 vfat umask=000,iocharset=utf8 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sdb12 :5.2Gb

UUID=c25946d4-790d-4ca8-8be1-84e56d6b0d54 /opt ext3 relatime 1 2

none /proc proc defaults 0 0

none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs noatime 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sda10 :3.8Gb

UUID=ba99e8a3-9e8c-430c-b20a-b64377a2155c /tmp ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda9 :20Gb

UUID=e2db618a-acc5-41b0-a9c9-95035c2df816 /usr ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb11 :5.2Gb

UUID=b2370f30-d7fe-451a-9aec-6b0c009f19e3 /usr/local ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda7 :27Gb

UUID=024e52ef-71a8-4db4-a562-73ef6b193bdc /var ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sda12 :15Gb

UUID=5456da07-de09-47a1-bd4d-81b2a667e928 /var/ftp ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb5 :7.8Gb

UUID=de2163aa-fc11-408a-97a9-15ed1a6fd616 /var/www ext3 relatime 1 2

# Entry for /dev/sdb2 :3.8Gb

UUID=24eda376-9395-4881-a4f6-2e0c6e624b74 swap swap defaults 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sdc5 :3.5Gb

UUID=609d8010-704c-467a-b26a-1b5db58cac5a swap swap defaults 0 0

# Entry for /dev/sdd1 :8.2Gb

UUID=fe7ba7c9-3fc3-4eec-b925-ddd749b04822 swap swap defaults 0 0

Regards Glenn.