Triple Boot Impossible?

AeroBoy1987 · 04-13-2011, 02:22 PM

Sorry everyone about the reposts, when I reloaded this page half my posts had disappeared :-(

AeroBoy1987 · 04-13-2011, 02:24 PM

Can I just start over? Should I start by wiping everything, installing Windows 7 onto Disk 1, then WinXP Pro also on Disk 1 (1/2 and 1/2) and use Disk 2 entirely for linux? Would this then give me all the boot options?

johnsfine · 04-13-2011, 02:26 PM

Quote:

I do not know what (hd,0) or (hd,1) means, but assuming the websites are correct, (hd,0) would be my Windows 7 HD and (hd,1) would be my Windows XP/Ubuntu HD?

In grub2, your Windows 7 is (hd0,1) and your Windows XP is (hd1,1) and Ubuntu is (hd1,5)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AeroBoy1987

Can I just start over? Should I start by wiping everything, installing Windows 7 onto Disk 1, then WinXP Pro also on Disk 1 (1/2 and 1/2) and use Disk 2 entirely for linux? Would this then give me all the boot options?

I wouldn't do anything that drastic.
If you really can still boot XP by telling the BIOS to switch the boot sequence then everything is nearly correct already. You're one minor change away from having the triple boot work. I'm just not comfortable enough with Ubuntu 10 to instantly tell you what to do. Someone will soon or maybe kindofabuzz did already.

According to the Ubuntu grub2 documentation, the command
sudo update-grub
should fix the grub2 configuration and see both copies of Windows. But I think if that were true, the original install of Ubuntu would have set up the triple boot correctly.

So there is some file in the directory /etc/grub.d that can be edited to force the next sudo update-grub command to do the right thing. I'm just short a few details because I don't know what is currently in that directory on your system.

There is also a file /etc/default/grub which controls the behavior of update-grub. Can you show us the contents of that file in case it contains a reason sdb1 isn't enabled.

markush · 04-13-2011, 02:27 PM

Well, your post #14 answers my question of post #15. Grub is installed in the mbr of /dev/sda

Markus

johnsfine · 04-13-2011, 02:45 PM

I found Gentoo documentation covering this situation. It looks like this would also apply to Ubuntu, even though I can't find it in Ubuntu documentation.

Create or Edit the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom

Insert the following text:

Code:

menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP" {
	insmod chain
	set root=(hd1,1)
	drivemap -s hd0 hd1
	chainloader +1
}

Then use the command
sudo update-grub

remmilou · 04-13-2011, 03:27 PM

Another direction to search:
Start Win7 and go to manage disks and look vor de disk with WinXp on it. If it is a dynamic disk and you have shrunk it with the Ubuntu installer, then you might have corrupted it. Dynamic disks must be shrunk from Win7.
Don't know the exact details, cause I do not use Windows.
Success

EDDY1 · 04-13-2011, 03:45 PM

If Ubuntu is operational go to open filemanger
mount all windows partitions and enter
os-proberthen
update-grub
you may have to
sudo os-prober
sudo update-grub
I had to do it this way on a quad-boot.