I am trying to setup a dual boot for my suse operating system, but when i add my windows os into the bootloder cofiguration with YaST, it goes ok, but every time i try to startup from windows, i get a screen saying my kernel can't load. Does anybody know how to setup a dual boot with grub??????

If windows was already installed when you installed SuSE, SuSE should have correctly written the /boot/grub/menu.lst to include an entry for windows. You ahould only need to manually configure grub to boot windows if you installed/re-installed windows after SuSE.

My preference is to edit menu.lst with a text editor. I've never tried it with YaST.

Having said that, let's see your /boot/grub/menu.lst (the windows entry), and /etc/fstab (the entries for all partitions, Linux and windows).

We should be able to work out the correct config for windows to put in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

here is my menu.lst file. The windows entry looks different from the rest, but i did that because on the opensuse website, they tell me to add the "map" entry in there


###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd1,0)+1
map(hd0)(hd1)
map(hd1)(hd0)

The following command is only required if you are booting from a hard drive that Windows is NOT loaded on.

map(hd0)(hd1)
map(hd1)(hd0)

For instance, when I boot Linux from an external hard drive and Windows is loaded on an internal hard drive I would use this command to start Windows. This is because the boot drive is always the logical HD0 and Windows wants to also load from HD0. When Windows is loaded on the same hard drive as linux, you do not need this command.

I could not tell for sure from your message, but are you saying you can start Windows OK from Linux Grub, but you can't start Linux from the Windows Menu? If you can get Grub to load both Windows and Linux, then I would not try to use any other menuing system.

Thank You,

i can boot from linux fine, it's windows that i can't boot from. i can't figure out how to start from mbr and load linux with that, if you could tell me how, then i can just do that instead of using grub to start. my windows and linux operating systems are on 2 different harddrives so i can choose which to start with. plus, if i remove the "map" command, it still wont work.

You will need a utility such as Grub if you are going to run two operating systems. You may set windows as default where Grub will load automatically unless told to do so otherwise.

You can't add Linux to the Windows Boot Menu. When you decided to load Linux on a second hard drive, you must boot from and use that hard drive to select which operating system to run. If you make the Windows hard drive the one to boot from, then you can only elect to run Windows. What you have is what you get unless you buy another program like Acronis that can boot from different hard drives as part of its menu. However, you are no better off than just using Grub that came with Linux. The next best thing is just load Linux on the same hard drive as Windows, but even though you only boot from one drive, you still use Grub to select which OS to run.

I have exactly the same setup as you have in that I boot from an external second hard drive with a Grub menu that can select Linux or Windows. I like the fact that if I mess up Linux or its Grub menu, I can just unplug the external hard drive and Windows still works just like it did before I added Linux. Look at this as a backup plan that can keep your computer running and allow you to get online to find out how to fix your Linux or Grub problem should it stop working.

Thank You,

i might be swimming upsteram, but i need to seup a dual boot since i swtich between the osses frequently. Besides, people have sucessfully setup a dual boot before from the mbr and grub

We must have a failure to communicate here. If you can select either Linux or Windows from Grub and boot either one and it works, then you have a dual boot system.

As for Grub and MBR, there are two basic methods to startup Grub. In the first, you load a special MBR (Master Boot Record) which basically points to the rest of Grub and loads it and its menu. No matter what the active partition, if Grub is in the MBR, you are going to load Grub. The second method is to have a standard or Generic MBR, which just loads the boot sector from the Active partition, which is the normal function of the MBR. In this second case, the partition that has Grub and Linux loaded in it is also setup as the active partition. This is the preferred method, however if the Active Partition is changed from that of where Grub and Linux is loaded, you will not be able to load Grub or Linux.

In your case, I am just not sure what you have working and just what you want to work different. I feel certain that all of the messages above contain the information that you are looking for or at least how it is really going to work, no matter what you would like to have working.

In any event, good luck to you and I hope you find what you are looking for.

Thank You,