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

> > 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

Thanks for that idea. I did try this (see first post):

"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.