FC4 and /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/grub.conf

zillah · #1 3rd January 2006, 01:38 PM

I have got two HDs, each one 40 GB. Connected to one cable to IDE0 (one hard disk master and the other is slave).

First HD (master or hda) is divided to :

15 GB NTFS for XP, 5 GB FAT32 for Storage, and 20 GB NTFS for win2003,,,,I had already installed both windows (XP and 2003).

Second HD (slave or hdb) is divided to :

20 GB Solaris (hdb1,,,to be installed later) , 5 GB NTFS for Storage (hdb2) , 500 MB Linux swap (hdb3), 14.5 GB ext3 Linux (hdb4).

I installed Linux FC4 on hdb4 and chose option for GRUB bootloader to be installed on : " /dev/hda Master Boot Record (MBR) ".

When I finished the installation of Linux, I was greeted by GRUB, but when I tried to boot into windows, I received this error message :

Booting "Windows"

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

chaninloader+1

I tried to modify /boot/grub/menu.lst, but I could not find any informations inside the file,,,When I tried to open /etc/grub.conf, I have got no problem with it,,,,,Do I need to install FC4 again ? Does that indicate an error in the installation ?

***bob*** · #2 3rd January 2006, 01:46 PM

For changes in Grub, you'll want to modify /boot/grub/grub.conf - a good editor is 'gedit', and you'll have to make the changes as 'su'. Here's a tutorial that may help: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=975

zillah · #3 3rd January 2006, 01:49 PM

I have been advised to modify the /grub/boot/menu.lst,,,,but when I found the file is emapty,,,I have been advised to reinstall the FC4,,,,,my question is not how to modify grub.conf .

***bob*** · #4 3rd January 2006, 02:05 PM

Sorry - thought that's what you were looking for. BTW, isn't Windows on (hd0,0) from your configuration?

zillah · #5 3rd January 2006, 02:10 PM

Quote:

BTW, isn't Windows on (hd0,0) from your configuration?

Yes, it is, I have to modify this from hd1,0 to hd0,0.

***bob*** · #6 3rd January 2006, 02:20 PM

Well, I know you've had someone tell you differently, but give this a try just the same:
Open a terminal and sign in as "su' with your password.
then type:
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
This will open a new window that you can modify the boot sequence. For safety sake, I always save my previous one as something like "oldgrub.conf" so I can go back to it in a disaster. Then modify, save and close your new grub.conf and exit 'su' and test to see if that works.

mha · #7 3rd January 2006, 06:16 PM

You need to switch drives (by software) to allow windows to boot. But I would suggest that you connect the HD with FC4 as master and the HD with Windows as slave. I have a similar setup and here is what I did:
Installed WinXP on a hard disk and tested it working perfectly without any problems.
Then moved winXP DH to slave and connectedanother HD as master and installed FC4 on it (ofocourse with manual partition as I hate LVM partitions and file system).
Grub automatically finds out other systems available on the HDs installed and lists them in the boot menu.
There is one problems that grub cannot resolve is, it doesn't map the drives correctly to suit the ugly windows and hence it doesn't boot. You need to do the map manually.

Here is my grun menu.lst file:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1653_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4.img
title Windows XP SP2
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
make_active

## SuSe linux
title SuSe 10.0
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x317 selinux=0 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

Note the map commands for windows part.

regards,
mha

neighborlee · #8 3rd January 2006, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mha

You need to switch drives (by software) to allow windows to boot. But I would suggest that you connect the HD with FC4 as master and the HD with Windows as slave. I have a similar setup and here is what I did:
Installed WinXP on a hard disk and tested it working perfectly without any problems.
Then moved winXP DH to slave and connectedanother HD as master and installed FC4 on it (ofocourse with manual partition as I hate LVM partitions and file system).
Grub automatically finds out other systems available on the HDs installed and lists them in the boot menu.
There is one problems that grub cannot resolve is, it doesn't map the drives correctly to suit the ugly windows and hence it doesn't boot. You need to do the map manually.

Here is my grun menu.lst file:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1653_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.14-1.1644_FC4.img
title Windows XP SP2
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
make_active

## SuSe linux
title SuSe 10.0
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x317 selinux=0 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

Note the map commands for windows part.

regards,
mha

no, he doesn't have to switch anything. XP is on hd0 which is where it should be ( I had swap problems hence performance issues with doing the grub swap lines so I dont advise it ) and linux on hd1,,all he had to do was switch around hd1 to be hd0 and he's set.

your efforts to try to help him are admirable just incorrect. I know becAuse i have FC on hdb and XP on hda as well with grub on hda.

cheers
nl

mha · #9 3rd January 2006, 06:29 PM

neighborlee,
sorry to misguide anyone, but I mentioned that I have FC4 on master and WinXP on slave as a final setup and therefore I needed to map the drvies so XP boots without problems.

cheers
mha

zillah · #10 6th January 2006, 03:27 AM

I am going to post my thread again with more details

I have got two HDs, Segate and Western Digital, each one 40 GB. Connected to one cable to IDE0 (Segate is master and the Western Digital is slave).

First HD Segate (master or hda) is divided to :

15 GB NTFS for XP, 5 GB FAT32 for Storage, and 20 GB NTFS for win2003,,,,I had already installed both windows (XP and 2003).

Second HD Western Digital (slave or hdb) is divided to :

20 GB Solaris (hdb1,,,to be installed later) , 5 GB NTFS for Storage (hdb2) , 500 MB Linux swap (hdb3), 14.5 GB ext3 Linux (hdb4).,,,I used Knoppix cfdisk to create partitions utility for this HD.

I installed Linux FC4 on hdb4 and chose option for GRUB bootloader to be installed on : " /dev/hda Master Boot Record (MBR) ".

When I finished the installation of Linux, I was greeted by GRUB.

When I tried to boot into Linux no problem, but when I tried to boot into windows, I received this error message :

Code:

Booting "Windows"

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

chaninloader +1

I was able to see the information /etc/boot/menu.lst ,,,I stated before I could not,,,I do not why.

Why was the partition for windows numbered with hd1,0,,,,it should be hd0 because both windows were installed on first hard disk (i.e hd0, not hd1) ?

When I modified from hd1 to hd0, I tried to boot windows, I received another error message :

Code:

Booting "Windows"
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

Eorro 13. Invalid 
or unsupported executable format.
Press any key to continue

Why was the root showing hd(0,3), I had installed Linux on hdb (hd1) not hda (hd0) ?

fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40016019456 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
Device Boot	 Start		 End	 Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1			 1		1824	14651248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2			1825		2432	 4883760	c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda3 *		2433		4865	19543072+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
 
Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
Device Boot	 Start		 End	 Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1			 1		2432	19535008+ af Unknown
/dev/hdb2 *		2433		3040	 4883760	7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb3			3041		3101	 489982+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb4			3102		4865	14169330 83 Linux

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Code:

# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
#		 all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#		 root (hd0,3)
#		 kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb4
#		 initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdb
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,3)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
	root (hd0,3)-------I said it should be hd1,3
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows
	rootnoverify (hd1 ,0)-----I said it should be hd0,0
	chainloader +1

When I checked the setting for BIOS (F1) to check which one is master and whcih one is slave, I found these information only :

IDE Drive 0 40016 MB
IDE Drive 1 40021 MB
IDE Drive 2 CD/DVD-ROM
IDE Drive 3 Not Installed

Form the BIOS information I could not distinguish between master (Segate) and slave (Western Digital),,,I had opened the case and checked that.

leadgolem · #11 10th January 2006, 11:38 PM

I was having a similar problem.

Two 40gb seagates formatted as follows:

Master:
Windows xp on 20gb partition
Fat32 20gb partition (For trading files between linux and windows)

Slave:
Fedora 4 only

I was getting the same errors as Zillah. I tried changing the boot partion numbers. No effect. Tried adding the mapping info the way mha has it. Nothing. Then after I added the mapping I tried booting to other, just to see what would happen. Bam windows.

I took a good look at the difference between my windows entry and my other entry. The only difference I could find was that windows was set to (hd0,0). Removed the mapping entries, no boot. Now I'm absolutely sure that the master drive is the windows hd. The grub.conf though has it set as (hd0,0). This makes no sense to me.

Anyway, it is all working now. Here's my grub.conf maybe it will be helpful.

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1656_FC4)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4.img
title Windows
	map (hd0) (hd1)
	map (hd1) (hd0)
	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
	chainloader +1
title Other
	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
	chainloader +1

zillah · #12 11th January 2006, 04:32 AM

leadgolem

Quote:

title Other
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

Have you added the above to your configuration or it was there by default,,,,because I do not have this entry in my the a/boot/grub/menu.lst ?

Quote:

The only difference I could find was that windows was set to (hd0,0)

Mine is hd(1,0) by default,,,not hd(0,0).

imageinc · #13 11th January 2006, 06:02 AM

Zilla
did u try changing grub.conf to

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

one more thing- frm ur fdisk output it seems that ur /dev/hda3 is the active primary partition...so u also read this (bottom part)
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...OS_002fWindows

i think that may be the problem
-John

zillah · #14 11th January 2006, 06:07 AM

Quote:

did u try changing grub.conf to

Not in grub.conf,,,but in /boot/grub/menu.lst,,,whcih I believ it is same,,,Am I right ?

Quote:

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Do you mean I do not have to add map statement to the above configuration ?if so ,,,Yes I did, and it did not work.

And When I add map statement to the above configuration, it did not work as well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

imageinc · #15 11th January 2006, 06:10 AM

not the mapstatement but the 'makeactive' and 'hide' stuff