Help with Dual Boot

[slap]

I'm trying to get a dual boot setup, currently I can not boot into windows. When I installed Debian, by mistake I put Grub onto the MBR. (or something like that.) From what I've read online I can use Grub to boot XP but I'm having a little trouble. FYI...Debian in on the Samsung IDE and XP is on the SATA raptor.

Here is the output of fdisk -l

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 851 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 852 9733 71344665 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 852 1037 1494013+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 1038 9733 69850588+ 83 Linux

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4499 36138186 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 4500 4500 8032+ b W95 FAT32

Here is my grub menu.list
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic Default
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic Default (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0 single
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0 single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic

title Windows XP
root (sd0,0)
chainloader +1

When I reboot and choose Windows XP I get
root (sd0,0)
Error 23: Error while parsing number

Thanks in advance for you help and suggestions.

[faulkner132]

Try:

title Windows XP
root (sd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

[ffreeloader]

I have one more entry in my menu.lst file for Windows that was generated automatically by the Debian installer: savedefault

[slap]

Okay after a few more google searches I've made some progress but now I've hit a wall. Now I have the following in menu.list...

title Windows XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

I reboot, select XP and get no errors but the contents of menu.list and a blinking cursor.

Any ideas?

[ffreeloader]

It looks to me like you are telling Grub that XP in on your IDE drive.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 851 6835626 83 Linux /dev/hda2 852 9733 71344665 5 Extended /dev/hda5 852 1037 1494013+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/hda6 1038 9733 69850588+ 83 Linux Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 4499 36138186 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 4500 4500 8032+ b W95 FAT32

I think what I bolded above, compared to what follows shows your problem. I'm not sure what you're mapping, but shouldn't at least part of show your sata drive? How else is grub going to know to look for it?

title Windows XP map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) rootnoverify (hd1,0) chainloader +1

[slap]

No that didn't work either, although I haven't had much time to work on this problem this week.

From what I read on other forums Grub has a file that maps (hda) to (hd0) and (sda) to (hd1). Those map lines are supposed to trick XP into thinking it's on the first hard drive. I guess windows wont boot from a second disk.

My real problem now is the lack of an error message. I just get a blank cursor. I know the error I made was loading Grub onto the master boot record but from what I've read Grub can boot windows.

[ffreeloader]

From what I read on other forums Grub has a file that maps (hda) to (hd0) and (sda) to (hd1). Those map lines are supposed to trick XP into thinking it's on the first hard drive. I guess windows wont boot from a second disk.

Yes, you can map drives in grub, but from what I can see you aren't mapping anything from sd(x) to hd(x) anywhere. You're simply mapping from hd(x) to hd(x). That's what I tried to point out. Yeah, the grub examples I've seen use hd(x) to hd(x), but they are using two ide drives in their example, not a sata drive and an hde drive.

[ffreeloader]

Here is a link that should help you. Part of the problem on this archived thread has to do with RAID, but that shouldn't make a difference to you as they aren't booting Linux or Windows off of Raid. There's a trick shown here about how to make sure the sata drive gets mapped correctly.

It looks like the solution to your problem to me, but I've been wrong before. Once.....

[SiathLinux]

Can you boot to Debian with no errors?

[slap]

SiathLinux- Yes I can boot Debian with no problems. I can also mount the sata drive and read files so I think debian install is fine.

ffreeloader- That link didn't solve the problem but it did help.

Now when I try to boot XP I get- Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.
A quick google search and I found this thread.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedo.../msg02835.html

It's a bit over my head but I think it might explain my problem. Here is the output of fdisk -l /dev/sda1

Disk /dev/sda1: 37.0 GB, 37005502464 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4498 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1p1 ? 13578 119522 850995205 72 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p2 ? 45382 79243 271987362 74 Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p3 ? 10499 10499 0 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda1p4 167628 167631 25817+ 0 Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

The thread I linked recommended using fdisk -t to select a new file system but I have no clue what I'm doing and I am leary because I don't know which file system to select.

[ffreeloader]

What does your menu.lst file look like now?

[ffreeloader]

The thread I linked recommended using fdisk -t to select a new file system but I have no clue what I'm doing and I am leary because I don't know which file system to select.

Hmmm.... I can't even find that option for fdisk in the man page for fdisk on my Debian machine. I wonder if that is an FC-only option.

[slap]

Here is my current menu.list

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I found option t.

debian:/home/sammy# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4500.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): m
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): l

0 Empty 1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix be Solaris boot
1 FAT12 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris
2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 84 OS/2 hidden C: c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx
6 FAT16 42 SFS 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data
7 HPFS/NTFS 4d QNX4.x 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility
9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt
a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access
b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O
c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor
e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a0 IBM Thinkpad hi eb BeOS fs
f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a5 FreeBSD ee EFI GPT
10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a6 OpenBSD ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a7 NeXTSTEP f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a8 Darwin UFS f1 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor a9 NetBSD f4 SpeedStor
16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys ab Darwin boot f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fd Linux raid auto
18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fe LANstep
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid ff BBT
1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX
Hex code (type L to list codes):


That's as far as I've gone. Thanks again.