Dual boot Grub Suse 9.1 - totally stuck
I am having problems getting dual boot to work with windows XP.
My PC came configured with Windows XP as the main OS and a small "recovery area" which contains a copy of the OS for loading if the main install breaks - this can be reinstalled if need be - but rubs out all your data. It is an HP Pavillion. I have been using it for some time and it has all my data on it. I installed 9.1 Professional straight out of the box. There seems to be a well known bug with Grub and the 2.6 kernal which prevent dual boot - the system hangs with a chainloader error. I followed the instructions on this site regarding updating the parted install, setting the bios to LBA and reinstalling. After a little editing of the menu.lst file I can get the system to boot into the XP recovery partition: However this just offers me the option of reinstalling XP. I cant seem to get my machine to boot to XP. Ideally I want to be able to dual boot XP and Linux. I'm stuck now. Can you give me some ideas? The Suse guys aren't interested because the distro is > 90 days old. Regards Tom > ================================================== > menu.lst file: > > # Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun May 1 01:16:17 2005 > > > color white/blue black/light-gray > default 0 > timeout 8 > gfxmenu (hd0,2)/message > > ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux### > title Linux > kernel (hd0,2)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x314 splash=silent fixpart=1 acpi=off desktop resume=/dev/hda6 showopts > initrd (hd0,2)/initrd > > ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows### > title Windows > rootnoverify (hd0,0) > chainloader +1 > > ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy### > title Floppy > root (fd0) > chainloader +1 > > ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe### > title Failsafe > kernel (hd0,2)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 3 > initrd (hd0,2)/initrd > > I have also tried: > title Windows > rootnoverify (hd0,1) > chainloader +1 Didn't work either. =================================================== > > output from fdisk -l > > Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15505 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/hda1 1 648 4898848+ b W95 FAT32 > /dev/hda2 * 649 10697 75966408 7 HPFS/NTFS > /dev/hda3 10698 10710 96390 83 Linux > /dev/hda4 10711 15506 36250672+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA) > /dev/hda5 10711 15436 35728528+ 83 Linux > /dev/hda6 15437 15506 522081 82 Linux swap |
Can you post the results of the command: fdisk -l
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> > output from fdisk -l
> > Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15505 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/hda1 1 648 4898848+ b W95 FAT32 > /dev/hda2 * 649 10697 75966408 7 HPFS/NTFS > /dev/hda3 10698 10710 96390 83 Linux > /dev/hda4 10711 15506 36250672+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA) > /dev/hda5 10711 15436 35728528+ 83 Linux > /dev/hda6 15437 15506 522081 82 Linux swap Is this not it? Tom |
Sorry, didn't look below the line as I kinda thought it was a signature line. :(
Anyway, it sure looks like /dev/hda2 is where it's at and should work. title Windows rootnoverify (hd0,1) chainloader +1 |
Quote:
"I have also tried: > title Windows > rootnoverify (hd0,1) > chainloader +1 Didn't work either." And I'm afraid it doesn't work - it just hangs. Regards Tom |
It could be that Windows doesn't like your /boot partition. /dev/hda3 .
You may have good success by typing the command: grub-install /dev/hda |
So I - > su root
then ran: >> grub-install /dev/hda /usr/lib/stage1: Not found. didn't seem to recognise the command Regards Tom |
Ok, try this as su -
Type the command: grub at the grub> prompt, type: find /sbin/init which aught to return something like this on your box.... (hd0,4) Now use that in the next grub command: grub> root (hd0,4) then the command: grub> setup (hd0) then the command: grub quit Then reboot to see if it worked |
Doesn't recognise the device:
grub> find /sbin/init (hd0,4) grub> setup (hd0) Error 12: Invalid device requested Really weird. (thanks for taking the time to help btw.) Tom |
I'm starting to wonder if some of the issue is because most of the dual boot faqs assume that you have XP on partition 1 of disk 1 and I dont - that's my "recoverey setup" I have my XP on what looks like partition 2 of disk 1.
I have tried the "frig" or remapping the disks like this in my menu.lst title MS on NON-FIRST partition root (hd0,1) map (hd0,1) (hd0,0) map (hd0,0) (hd0,1) makeactive chainloader +1 But still get the error "Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7" I'm pretty much at my wits end now - all ideas very gratefully recieved. Tom |
This part is correct for your setup because you have Windows on (hd0,1) . So, I would leave that part of the grub config alone.
title Windows rootnoverify (hd0,1) chainloader +1 The error is strange because, grub does see (hd0,4) . That means it sees (hd0) so I don't know why it is acting stupid. It's possible that you have the problem caused by early 2.6 kernels where linux partitioning badly disagreed with windows partitioning. I would make a grub boot disk so you can get back into Linux. Then boot up with a Windows WinMe boot disk and type the command: fdisk /mbr That should at least get you into Windows. If not, you may need to read up on that 2.6 kernel thingy. Code:
fdformat /dev/fd0 |
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