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msc8127 03-07-2009 10:05 AM

still struggling with GRUB and vista
 
Ok,

I have Debian (Lenny) on my IDE hard drive, and windows vista on my SATA drive.

I installed windows first, then installed Lenny, and I guess with vista being on a different hard drive than Lenny, vista went undetected by grub on initial install.

so I have tried using /boot/grub/menu.lst and have added an entry for vista, and have tried several arrangements listing the drive and partition for Grub to find vista on, but I still get error 23 (I think, I will double check after this post) when I select vista on a reboot.

Here's menu.lst:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-legacy-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hdb1 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(single-user) single
# altoptions=(single-user mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-686

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686 (single-user mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-686

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (sd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST


I have tried (sd1,0), (sd0,0), (sd0,1), (hd0,0), (hd0,1). I have also tried using Super Grub Disk's live swap feature to no avail also.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

msc8127 03-07-2009 10:26 AM

the error i'm getting is indeed error 23 "error while parsing number"

yancek 03-07-2009 10:27 AM

Grub entry for vista needs to be changed to:

Quote:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
In menu.lst entries, Grub uses "h" not "s" to identify drives and windows has problems booting from second drive so you need the map entries.

This assumes vista is on the first partition of the second drive!

msc8127 03-07-2009 10:52 AM

that got me a little further...now I get "BOOTMGR is missing Press ctrl+alt+delete to reboot"

I googled that and apparently I have to boot from the vista cd to fix the vista installation, which I'm guessing will overwrite grub and make it where I can't get into Lenny.

So, i'm not sure what to do now?

Thank you!

msc8127 03-07-2009 02:06 PM

ok, I had vista on the sata drive (#1) and lenny on the IDE (#2)...I tried to reinstall vista to fix the missing BOOTMGR and vista at that point insisted on being where Lenny was....

So after letting vista have it's way, and reinstalling both OS's everything is now up and running.

Thanks for the help

yancek 03-07-2009 03:26 PM

Glad you got it running. I do some volunteer work trying to get older computers running (almost all were running windows) and I see that message:
Quote:

BOOTMGR is missing Press ctrl+alt+delete to reboot
a lot. Usually, it is because the drive is not formatted correctly or at all. Does not seem like that would be the problem in this case. The Error 23:
Quote:

Error while parsing number
This error is returned if GRUB was expecting to read a number and encountered bad data.
is one I don't think I've seen before. Not really sure what it's about but am curious and will try a little research.

msc8127 03-07-2009 03:55 PM

Thanks again for the help,

I'm generally good at screwing up stuff to degrees people haven't seen before :)

I hate that I even need to have windows on the machine, as I am really liking linux as I get adapted to it. However there are just certain programs that I have to have that require windows.

It's definitely nice to be able to configure a system to one's wants/needs as opposed to having all the one size fits all windows stuff to deal with.


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