To load/boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS from Microsoft's Boot Loader (NTLDR)

dhawal · 09-10-2005, 03:08 PM

recently i installed RHEL 4 WS. before this i had windows 98 and windows 2000. while installing linux there are two option - either install the loader on the MBR or on the 1st sector of the boot partition. so i installed the grub loader on the boot partition. i have two hard drives - on the 1st is win98 and win2k and on the 2nd i installed RHEL.....it proceeded with no problems and after installation completed it had to reboot. but i had only two options on my ntldr - win 98 and w2k coz i still hadnt added linux's entry in the boot.ini file. so i started linux in rescue mode and typed

Code:

dd if=/dev/hdd6 of=/mnt/cdrive/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

i read this on the web that this will solve the purpose. here hdd6 is where i have my boot (/boot) partition and /mnt/cdrive is the directory where i mounted my c drive which is FAT32; all other drives are NTFS. so after executing this command it made a linux.bin file in my c drive and i added its entry in the boot.ini file. now when i restart my machine and select the linux option it shows GRUB and freezes, it doesn't proceed further. also i don't want grub to be on the MBR, i just want ntldr to boot linux.

saikee · 09-10-2005, 03:40 PM

Grub isn't in you MBR so don't condemn it.

Your Red Hat isn't bootable on its own and Grub failed. Your box can boot your Windows normally as long as you don't choose Linux.

Here is the fix

Boot up your Red Hat installation CD and go into rescue mode. Mount hda6 on the /mnt directory, chang root from installation CD to your failed Red Hat and restore Grub again in hda6 root patition. See if that helps

Instructions after booting to rescue mode are

mkdir /mnt/hda6
mount /dev/hda /mnt/hda6
chroot /mnt/hda6
grub-install /dev/hda6

You should try to make a bootable floppy for the Red Hat by adding to the above

grub-install /dev/fd0

A bootable floppy can confirm if your Linux working or not.

bongski55 · 09-11-2005, 12:28 AM

I also use your method to dual boot.
Are you sure your RH installation is booting?Make sure your linux installation boots ok before creating the 'linux.bin' file. It saves a lot of trouble.

saikee · 09-11-2005, 06:55 AM

That is why using NTLDR is a waste of time because Grub can boot 10 times more systems with only 1/10 of the effort.

dhawal · 09-25-2005, 06:33 AM

Problem: To load/boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS from Microsoft's Boot Loader (NTLDR)

I have Windows 98 and Windows 2000 installed on my computer which I've been using for many years now and lately I was curious about linux. I read about RHEL and thought to give it a try. So I downloaded it and installed it on my PC. And since I wanted to load linux from my Windows boot loader, I installed GRUB on the first sector of the boot partition in linux. I had earlier posted a thread regarding this, but its solution didn't work. The scenario is as follows:
I have two hard disks - 1st as Primary Master where I've installed Windows 98 and Windows 2000 with NTFS partition, 2nd as Secondary Slave which I had kept for collecting data, songs and movies. So I decided to install RHEL 4 WS on this hard disk. I read the installation guide before actually installing and then proceeded as mentioned. Since I wanted Linux to boot from NTLDR, I selected the option to install GRUB on the first sector of the boot partition. The partitions that I made in linux are (1) / (root partition), (2) /boot (boot partition), and swap partition. The root partition (/) is on hdd8, the boot partition (/boot) is on hdd6 and Windows 98 is on hda.
Now, after installation I restarted Linux in the rescue mode and tried to find the grub.conf file as it was mentioned in many of the web pages online if you want to dual boot Windows and Linux. The problem is, I cannot find any grub.conf file. I tried the grub-install command, but that too doesn't work. Also tried the dd command
dd if=/dev/hdd6 of=/mnt/cdrive/linux.bin bs=512 count=1
but this too didn't work; after adding its entry in the boot.ini file and after restarting and selecting the Linux option, it freezes after showing GRUB. I'm not able to start linux at all. Is there any solution for this or do I have to install the grub loader on the MBR itself??

nixcraft · 09-25-2005, 06:37 AM

You need to mount the hda6 and chroot, for example when you boot into redhat rescue mode, issue command

Code:

mkdir /chroot
mount /dev/hda6 /chroot
chroot /chroot
grub-install /dev/hdX

replace X with your choice.

dhawal · 09-25-2005, 06:47 AM

i tried this also, but it doesn't work. wht does the command do? it will install grub to the hdX right? while executing this command it doesn't show any erroe, but after the restart it doesn't work. and i don't want to put RHEL's entry on the MBR and thats the reason I installed grub on the first sector of the boot partition (hdd6)

dhawal · 09-25-2005, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bongski55
I also use your method to dual boot.
Are you sure your RH installation is booting?Make sure your linux installation boots ok before creating the 'linux.bin' file. It saves a lot of trouble.

How do I check whether the RH installation is working or not? I can boot from the 1st CD in to the rescue mode and execute most of the commands.

wmakowski · 09-25-2005, 09:23 AM

I don't have RHEL 4, but will assume it works similar to all the other versions of Red Hat when it comes to rescue mode. To see if Linux works as installed you will need to create a boot disk. Here are the steps.

1) Boot from an install disk and type linux rescue at the boot prompt. This should locate your LInux installation and bring you to a command prompt.
2) At the command prompt type chroot /mnt/sysimage. /mnt/sysimage should be the / of your original installation.
3) Insert a diskette that will be used as your new boot diskette.
4) Locate the version number of your kernel using ls /boot/vmlinuz*. It is most likely 2.6.something.
5) Create bootdisk by typing mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.6.something

You should now be able to boot into RHEL 4 using the diskette you created. This does not require GRUB to be installed or installed and working. The boot disk essentially becomes you boot loader.

saikee gives a good suggestion about reinstalling GRUB. I question your dd command. Was /dev/hdd6 a typo or do you really have four harddrives? I would be interested in seeing what your GRUB configuration file looks like. Since GRUB is coming up, perhaps the source of the problem lies there.

Bill

Tinkster · 09-25-2005, 01:09 PM

Your to threads have been merged since the second one was
a continuation of the first.

ltamit12 · 09-27-2005, 05:20 AM

I am also facing the same problem. ie. I have two hard disks of 80 gb and 40 gb. 80 gb is my primary hard disk and 40 gb is my secondary hard disk. Now I have loaded win xp in 80 gb and rh 7.3 on 40 gb. I can boot with both however I have to make change in bios setup to boot from ide0 or ide1 everytime. I am not getting both operating systems option at the grub, I tried to configure grub.conf file as
title win xp
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
imakeactive
chainloader +1
nothing happened besides getting win xp as another option in grub boot loader. But when I choose win xp to boot it says,

booting win xp
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
and nothing happens thereafter. What could be the problem and what is exact way to boot from both OS loaded in two separate hard disk???

wmakowski · 09-27-2005, 08:17 AM

My initial thought is that you are not pointing to the correct harddrive to boot WinXP. It should be (hd0,0) instead of (hd1,0).

Bill

wmakowski · 09-27-2005, 08:18 AM

My initial thought is that you are not pointing to the correct harddrive to boot WinXP. It should be (hd0,0) instead of (hd1,0) in the rootnoverify statement. If the entry for Linux is hd1 that is definitely the problem.

Bill

Woops, must of hit post reply instead of edit. Sorry about the extra post...

saikee · 10-14-2005, 09:23 AM

Yep

Grub counts from zero!

dhawal · 10-20-2005, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wmakowski
I don't have RHEL 4, but will assume it works similar to all the other versions of Red Hat when it comes to rescue mode. To see if Linux works as installed you will need to create a boot disk. Here are the steps.

1) Boot from an install disk and type linux rescue at the boot prompt. This should locate your LInux installation and bring you to a command prompt.
2) At the command prompt type chroot /mnt/sysimage. /mnt/sysimage should be the / of your original installation.
3) Insert a diskette that will be used as your new boot diskette.
4) Locate the version number of your kernel using ls /boot/vmlinuz*. It is most likely 2.6.something.
5) Create bootdisk by typing mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.6.something

You should now be able to boot into RHEL 4 using the diskette you created. This does not require GRUB to be installed or installed and working. The boot disk essentially becomes you boot loader.

saikee gives a good suggestion about reinstalling GRUB. I question your dd command. Was /dev/hdd6 a typo or do you really have four harddrives? I would be interested in seeing what your GRUB configuration file looks like. Since GRUB is coming up, perhaps the source of the problem lies there.

Bill

i don't have four drives, only two. but the hdd in which i installed RHEL is Secondary Slave and so hdd. Also, to my astonishment, I don't have a grub.conf or menu.lst anywhere (neither in /boot/grub nor in /etc)