suse file system
 

hi guys,

just a quickie, actually managed to get suse running on my laptop along side xp on the same hdd just partitioned. no suse cant install bootloader as xp dies if i try. and then nothing will boot, so i have read somewhere that i have to use the dd command to write out the header or summin then xfer this to windows and use nt loader (unless there is another way) but my laptop doesnt have a floppy drive so is there a way of reading the suse filesystem from within xp?? hope i can do this


regards

I've never had a problem with a suse install not detecting and properly setting GRUB to do a dual boot. Which version are you using? Are you trying to run XP on dynamic disks? Is there really a question in your post since you say you've actually got them both installed.

i've got xp install on a partition, i've got suse 9.2 installed on the rest of the drive but i cannot install grub or lilo, if i do when i boot up i just get 'Li' if lilo is installed printed on the screen and 'GRUB' if grub is installed. so i can only use nt loader (which runs ok). so i read that i can use nt loader to start linux i need to use dd to create a file that contains linux boot sector (or something close) and i need to xfer this to windows but i dont have a floppy drive

I really like "GRUB for Windows". AFAIK it was created for use with Topologilinux (a Slackware-based distro you can install on your NTFS-formatted drive w/o repartitioning), but it can load any distro on any partition.

It works by modifying C:\boot.ini and installs its files on your NTFS partition in C:\boot. It doesn't mess with NTLDR (you only get to the GRUB menu through the Windows boot menu). Its "menu.lst" is configured just like for regular GRUB. So if "normal" LILO and GRUB won't work, you might try it.

(Caveats: It can't work if installed to a compressed folder, and if you defrag your NTFS partition, you have to rerun the installer.)

ok, so now when i boot i get option for Windows xp and grub
i select grub i get options:

*SUSE 9.2
*windows
*Failsafe
*memory test

if i select windows i go back to the first menu (the nt loader ) - Good
if i select tany of the other optiosn i just get the command from menu.lst printed on screen ie. kernel (hd0,5)/boot.vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 etc.......
and there it just .... hangs

now the menu.lst was generated by suse and copied from the boot/grub folder to where i needed it to be...n e ideas?

is there a way just to make a boot cd (as i have no floopy) i think this would save hours for me ;)

SuSE has instructions on how to create a boot CD using ISOLINUX here. (I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for it.) Also, there's a section in the on-line help in the "Administration Guide" (chapter 7, under Boot Managers, I believe) that tells you how to make a boot CD that uses GRUB.

FYI, GRUB does have a command line (including Tab completion). A good way to find out which commands aren't working correctly is to print out or write down your "menu.lst" from within Linux, then type in the commands at the GRUB prompt and watch for error messages.

ok, n e reason i would be missing the whole syslinux folder?

Probably because the "syslinux" package isn't installed (as root, type "rpm -q syslinux" to find out). You can get it from here and install it (as root, type "rpm -ivh syslinux*.rpm").

I tried following SuSE's directions for making a boot CD, and, amazingly enough, it worked! Here are the steps:

- Start a console & become root

cd
mkdir bootcd
cd bootcd
cp /usr/share/syslinux/isolinux.bin .
cp /boot/vmlinuz ./linux
cp /boot/initrd .

- Edit/create "isolinux.cfg" to contain:
(The "append" line is all on one line, and after the "initrd=initrd" statement and starting with "root=", it's copied right out of my /boot/grub/menu.lst. Substitute yours.)

- Create the ISO image:

mkisofs -o bootcd.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table .

(There's a dot "." at the end there)

- Burn it to CD using K3b (to start K3b as root, type "/opt/kde3/bin/k3b")
- Reboot and set BIOS to boot off CD

Now I'm going to have to try doing the same in Debian. ;)

cool, shall try when i get home, thx dude

More ideas and thoughts:

The best solution would probably be to just get grub working in the mbr/boot partition. I cant say why it didn't work but I have some ideas.

lilo prints out it's name a step at a time. It starts up and prints 'l', then it does something else and prints 'i', and so on. If you look up lilo's documentation you may be able to figure out what your system is having trouble doing.

I was having trouble with grub a few days ago. After posting, the screen would sit black for about 10 seconds. Then it would say "grub loading stage 2" for about 10 seconds. After sitting through this, my system booted normally. In my case grub was having trouble detecting my hard disk. I had the jumper set wrong on the drive. It works perfectly fine now.

If you eventually want to try loading from the windows boot loader, I would tell SuSE to install grub to the boot sector. If you have SuSE in the second partition for example you could install grub stage 1 to /dev/hda2 instead of /dev/hda. Then you could try modifying your windows boot.ini file.

Just a few thoughts.

ok, so i scrub windows completely and i can install grub, put windows on, and i cant :( how wierd

???

Come again?

I'm not sure I understand you. Typically the best way to install a dual boot with windows is to start with partitioning, install Windows, then install linux. The reason for this is that the Windows installer overwrites the master boot record. Even so, you should be able to use the recovery function on the cd to reinstall grub. Grub's boot menu is stored in the linux partition as /boot/menu.lst . You will need a "chainloader +1" command in the windows entry (SuSE should do this for you).

Windows relies on the mbr to pass control to the boot sector of it's system partition. Grub can do this with the chainloader command. Windows loads itself the rest of the way from there. The windows installer overwrites the mbr, but windows itself ignores it. If Windows has overwritten the mbr, you will need to use a recovery tool to reinstall grub stage 1.

Well it will not install grub if if windows is installed on the system. its the most bizarre prob :(

i've tried using the install cd to re-install bootloader but no go :'(

Yeah, that would be bizarre.

What behavior do you see? Are there any error messages? If you can, make sure that it is trying to install grub stage 1 into /dev/hda (not hda1 or hda2, those are useful only if you want to use another boot loader as your primary boot program).