cannot boot suse linux on laptop with win xp pro

pacoki · 10-30-2003, 10:33 AM

Hi! I had to install again win xp pro after other problems, i have a partition with 20 GB NTFS win xp / 471MB FAt32 / 35GB suse linux
but now when I reboot i don´t have the choice between linux and win, win starts automatically. I CANT BOOT LINUX
what can i do?
thank you very much
pacoki

aaa · 10-30-2003, 10:53 AM

XP erased your bootloader. Try booting with the Linux cd in rescue mode. Check out the SuSE site for instructions on how to get there and how to restore you're bootloader. Next time, backup your MBR to a file:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/mbrbackup.b bs=512 count=1

Or to a floppy:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1

This floppy will boot like it was a hard disk. You can use the file to boot with the XP bootloader, or reverse it to copy it back:

dd if=/mbrbackup.b of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

CloudBuilder · 10-30-2003, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pacoki
Hi! I had to install again win xp pro after other problems, i have a partition with 20 GB NTFS win xp / 471MB FAt32 / 35GB suse linux
but now when I reboot i don´t have the choice between linux and win, win starts automatically. I CANT BOOT LINUX
what can i do?
thank you very much
pacoki

Normaly your grub configuration file should be in /boot/grub/grub.conf. It will still be there even if you overwrited the MBR.

Use your CD to start, there is a rescuSystem function.
You can also use the LIVEEVAL CD it can also be used to rescue the system.

CB