I'm trying to set up a WinXP Pro/SuSE Linux 8.2 Pro dual boot system. I tried a couple of days ago, and all efforts ended in complete disaster.
Before I get into my story, here's my equipment set up:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Abit KG7-RAID motherboard (not using the RAID)
768Mb PC2100 DDR from Crucial
Radeon 7500 video card
Sound Blaser Audigy sound card
3 Western Digital Hard drives:
80Gb (Main), 100Gb SE (Secondary), and 2.5Gb (Fat32)
Zip250, CD-RW, 16x DVD, floppy
431watt power supply
modem, 10/100 nic
My Secondary and Fat32 hard drives are for content and backup purposes only, no OS's or other programs are installed on them.
I got a copy of SuSE Linux 8.2 Professional on DVD. I backed up all my files and settings from my WinXP on my Main HD. Then I partitioned it into two partitions: one for WinXP (53Gb) and one for Linux (20Gb). I then formated my WinXP partition NTFS and left the Linux partition alone. Installed WinXP, everything went fine.
Then I installed SuSE 8.2 on the other partition, with all the different setting left to default, including (I think) ReiserFS and GRUB as the boot loader. Anyway, I install Linux, and everything looks like it went all according to plan, excpet that Linux didn't see my modem, so I had no way to get onto the net, and it wouldn't see my WinXP NTFS partition.
So I reboot to see if WinXP is still there and all I get is this "GRUB" at the top of the screen and can't do anything, much like several other posts that I've read here. I can't even get into Windows. I put the SuSE DVD back in the drive and boot to it, and it gives me an option to "boot installed system", so I do that, and I can get into Linux. So I assume that mabey the MBR and boot loader didn't get installed right, so I try to reinstall to see if that will fix the problem. Same thing.
Then I try reinstalling it again, this time looking a little closer at the default options, and I change (so I thought) the boot loader from GRUB to LILO and it's location to one of the other hard drives. This time I see my WinXP NTFS partition. I reboot and I get a boot loader screen (don't know which one) and I can get into WinXP. So I shut down, and restart and I get the GRUB at the top of the screen again, no boot options either way.
So I try reinstalling SuSE again, and the same thing happens, just get the GRUB.
All of this is happening, BTW, on my one Main HD that I have paritioned for WinXP and Linux.
I finally just fdisk'ed the whole HD and paritioned a space of about 50Gb for WinXP and left some open space for whenever I manage to get Linux installed. Then I reinstalled WinXP and that's what I'm working with right now.
Also, when I was installing SuSE 8.2, it never asked for the second DVD. Is that bad?
Any advice on how to get the Linux part of my system up and running would be greatly appreciated. I am fairly familiar with computers, have built and troubleshot many myself. But, this is my first experience with Linux.
I loaded up Suse 8.0 so I could do some experimenting with the GRUB. I don't know if Suse 8.2 can handle this better but there seems to be a real problem with using grub on 8.0 . On that same system the LILO works perfectly.
I googled up the ying yang until I found a nice example of the /boot/menu.1st and /etc/grub.conf
I set the grub to use the MBR which is just my personal preference and can be set to use a /boot partition if you want.
In every case when using grub I did not get a boot menu displayed at boot up, just the dreaded grub>
Actually that is not fatal if you know what to do. :) Of course it helps if you write down the information in the /boot/menu.1st so you have it handy. On my computer Windows is on the first drive and first partition
hda1 and Suse " / " is on the second partition of the second drive hdb2 No particular reason for that, it just is set up that way. Change things to reflect your setup! :)
Ok, so you boot up and don't get a boot menu but just the grub>
Type: kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2
Type: initrd /boot/initrd
Type: boot
If all worked out well you should get into Suse. Now that you are in, I would recommend that you get into the config tool, ( YAST2 I think ) and go to the section on booting. Use that tool to setup the LILO and forget the grub unless somebody has a way to make it work. :)
mdwatts
07-13-2003, 10:13 AM
Originally posted by homey
If all worked out well you should get into Suse. Now that you are in, I would recommend that you get into the config tool, ( YAST2 I think ) and go to the section on booting. Use that tool to setup the LILO and forget the grub unless somebody has a way to make it work. :)
If you get the dreaded Grub prompt, then either Grub is not installed correctly or /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf are not configured correctly to boot your system.
In the /boot directory there is only message and not
/boot/message.col31
mdwatts
07-13-2003, 10:38 AM
Originally posted by homey
In the /boot directory there is only message and not
/boot/message.col31
That is actually from the Grub I use that was installed by COL (Caldera OpenLinux).
COL is my 'rescue Linux' of which I am using right now due to the 'rootflags/ext3' options I tried with SCO (SuSE) which corrupted some of my system files.
I'm waiting to reinstall everything when I get the time as I am planning to switch HD's, video cards (dual monitors) and a few other hardware changes/additions.
homey
07-13-2003, 10:47 AM
I think there is a problem with the message but that is what it came with. :(
I'll have to do some more digging around this afternoon.
JCBigler
07-13-2003, 11:22 AM
I assume that once I install Linux, and as long as I haven't inadvertantly installed over my WinXP partition, that both OS's should be intact and it's just a matter of getting the boot sequence right.
When I got that GRUB prompt before, I couldn't type anything, it just sits there with a blinking cursor. So, I have to use my SuSE install disk to boot the system. Once I'm in SuSE, where do I go to view and modify those boot menu setting?
Also, is it more advisable to try to install the SuSE Linux on a different hard drive all together, or will it work on different paritions of the same hard drive? (which is what I'm trying to do)
many great thanks,
homey
07-13-2003, 12:53 PM
If you didn't goof up and put the linux install over the xp system, then you should have both systems available to boot from. Yes you can put both systems onto the same hard drive with no problem.
Normally you could use YAST boot section to modify the boot menu settings but on my install of Suse 8.0 there is no option to use the grub even though grub is installed. I make changes by editing the /boot/menu.1st file.
I setup the grub with the following commands when already in the Suse operating system......
type: grub
Then you enter a command to tell the grub where the root partition is. In my case it's hdb2 or in grub language that is (hd1,1)
type: root (hd1,1)
Then you enter a command to tell the grub to use the MBR.....
type: setup (hd0)
Then you type: quit to get out of the grub utility. Reboot and try it.
mdwatts
07-13-2003, 03:30 PM
Originally posted by JCBigler
. So, I have to use my SuSE install disk to boot the system. Once I'm in SuSE, where do I go to view and modify those boot menu setting?
Do just that, post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst and you partition layout (Linux and Windows) and we can give you advise on what needs to be changed (if anything).
Then you just need to boot again using the bootdisk, make the menu.lst changes and run
grub-install /dev/hda (to install Grub in the mbr)
or
grub-install /dev/hda1 (to install Grub in the /boot partition - if you have one)
JCBigler
07-14-2003, 12:29 AM
When I boot to my SuSE 8.2 DVD, and get into the YaST2 installation screen I see the following options (among others):
Partitioning
* create swap partition 1.0GB on /dev/hde2
* create root partition 21.7GB (/hde3 with reiser)
* set mount point of /dev/hdd1 to /windows/C
* set mount point of /dev/hde1 to /windows/D
* set mount point of /dev/hdg1 to /windows/E
My system is set up as follows:
Abit KG7-RAID motherboard (not using RAID, just extra IDE connectors).
On IDE1 I have my CD-RW and DVD. On IDE2 I have my ZIP250 and my 2.38GB WDC hard drive.
On IDE3 I have my "Main" 80GB WDC hard drive with WinXP and Linux partitions (which is where I want it). And on IDE4 I have my "Secondary" 100GB WDC hard drive which only has files and documents on it.
So, by this configuration /dev/hdd is my 2.38GB hard drive on IDE2. And my WinXP is on /dev/hde1 (???). And, my 100GB hard drive (with only one parition) is /dev/hdg1 (???).
This also means that perhaps I should change the location of the Boot loader to /dev/hde1? Since that's where the master boot record for WinXP is?
When I go into the Boot Loader Setup I see the following information:
Boot Loader Type GRUB
----------
boot loader location 1. IDE, 2.38GB, /dev/hdd
disk order /dev/hdd, /dev/hde, /dev/hdg
default section Linux
available sections Linux (default), Windows 1, Windows 2, Floppy, failsafe, memtest86
Activate boot loader partition YES
replace code in MBR Leave untouched
----------
color white/blue black/light-grey
gfxmenu (hd1,2)/boot/message
timeout 8s
When I go to change the boot loader location, I get a dropdown menu with the following options:
* Master boot record of /dev/hdd
o boot sector of boot partition /dev/hde3
o boot sector of root partition /dev/hde3
o floppy disk
o other
-/dev/fd0
-/dev/hde
-/dev/hde3
-/dev/hdg
Keeping in mind that I doan't have any software installed on any hard drive other than my "Main" 80GB Western Digital, and it only has (at present) WinXP on it at the /dev/hde1 parition, where should the boot loader be located? And, what is the whole thing in the Boot Loader Setup about replaceing code in the MBR?
I hope this information is helpful enough to everyone to help me out. I had to copy it all down by hand, so I hope I didn't make any serious typos.
many, many great thanks,
mdwatts
07-14-2003, 10:28 AM
Are you sure XP's bootloader boots directly off hde and not hdd?
I would say hdd is the first IDE HD boot device and where XP boots from, so hdd is where you would want to install the Linux bootloader.
I always prefer to have a 20mb /boot partition at the beginning of my boot device (hda in my case) where the Linux bootloader (Grub) is installed and of which I set as the active partition. This prevents having to restore the Linux bootloader in the mbr of the boot device if Windows needs to be reinstalled.
If you can, move the first primary partition of hdd over to the right by 20mb and create a ext2 primary /boot partition for the Linux bootloader as I described above.
If not, just install the bootloader into the mbr of the main boot device (hdd?).
ChaseMod
07-14-2003, 10:55 AM
This may be Easier ( or Harder, depending on how you look at it) thank you think. I had almost the same issue. I was using a similar computer and Xp/SuSe. What I did was blank the machine, partition it in half, and then install xp on the front. Then, I boot loaded the SuSe. I chose the LiLo, and then installed SuSe on the back side. Now, whenever that machine boots, I get a Suse Menu asking me which OS I want to boot. Works for me.
Not sure if this will help or not...
-CHase
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