GRUB Bootloader no longer comes up

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I installed a Dual Boot system with Vista and Suse 11.1. I had trouble with a Windows Server Pack install and backed out of it. Someone had suggested making the C partition in Windows as Active in order to get the SP to install.

After I did that Grub no longer comes up. Instead it heads directly to the Windows boot screen. All my Linux partitions still exist thankfully. But how do I resolve this issue? Would merely making the C drive in Windows Inactive solve this or do I have to restore Grub?

Thanks

2

A utility disc like Parted Magic and take the bootable flag off the Vista Partition.

The flag will then have to go, probably to your root partition.

Ideally, you should get the

fdisk -l

info. You could boot a live cd and run that. Then post it here.

3

Within Windows I can bring up the partitions within the DISKPART utility, which is essentially the FDISK for Vista.

It’s showing a total of 5 partitions.

Partition 1 Primary (this is the windows)
Partition 0 Extended
Partition 2 Logical
Partition 3 Logical
Partition 4 Logical

So it appears that partitions 0,2,3,and 4 represent the Linux partitions. However, I really don’t know which one of these represents the boot partition?

If I can’t do this within this utility then I will attempt this on the Linux side.

4

Partition 0 is an extended partition, it just the container for 2,3,4

2,3,4 will be

swap ~2GB
/ (root) ~20GB
/home ~all the rest

But not necessarily in that order.

fdisk will give proper details. That output is pretty hopeless.

I’m not sure about this. But might I be correct in thinking the flag will need to go on the extended partition 0?
I just have a feeling about booting from logical partitions? Need some guru advice. Be patient for replies. But there is no harm in trying. Just be careful.

5

Yes, 2 is swap and 3 is boot.

6

see my edit to previous post.

7

I also found this link GRUB Boot Multiboot openSUSE Windows (2000, XP, Vista) using the Grub bootloader., which provides a how to on restoring the GRUB bootloader. But I am not sure if I need to restore this or simply set the appropriate partition to active.

I’m not doing anything yet until I’m confident which method would be best.

8

It can’t hurt to reinstall Grub’s boot code to the MBR – It’s all reversible anyway. So I’d be inclined to just reinstall Grub as per the tutorial you cited.

Once you have Grub code in the MBR pointing off to the Grub menu in the Suse root partition, it doesn’t much matter which partition has the boot flag.

Reinstalling grub (which has a high probability of success) results in a more versatile situation than the other way IMO.

9

That’s a good tutorial by @swerdna

I can’t see any reason why not to follow it. You need the install DVD.

I had issues with a Vista service pack not installing because of grub. I just deleted Vista, I never used it anyway. Chances are if you managed to get the SP to install, it probably messed up grub anyway - maybe.

It doesn’t really matter what you try, so long as you don’t format anything. Hopefully you know enough to proceed.
I would probably try the boot flag first. But it’s up to you.

EDIT: John just posted before me. Go with him, it’s his tutorial.

10

I’m not so sure that GRUB works at all. Of course, it works all write if you put it to MBR. But that trick is not so far from what Ntldr can do.
But if you have multiple disks, lots of partitions (and I have to work with different OSs), it becomes quite unpredictable, depending, I suspect, on the distro you’re using. I don’t feel like telling about the pranks it played.
I’m even beginning to think of LILO.
And I need a real disk editor, showing the WHOLE of the disk, e.g. from 0 0 1, (not from 0 1 1!). If I don’t find one, I feel I’m gonna write it myself. Sick and tired of this “grand” loader. Maybe GRUB2 will be better…

11

I was able to reinstall the GRUB Bootloader and now I can boot into SUSE. I set it to boot from the MBR. However, now it doesn’t display Vista as one of the items on the boot menu. The Windows partition still exists.

I’m assuming I need to edit a file in order to display Vista as a boot option at startup?

Thanks

12

I went back to the tutorial and it suggested editing the menu.lst file. So I brought that up and this is what I found.


# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Jun  3 15:33:34 EDT 2009
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS543225L9A300_080816FB0F00LLC60MVB-part6  devfs=mount,dall   resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS543225L9A300_080816FB0F00LLC60MVB-part5 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31A
    initrd /boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
    rootnoverify (fd0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS543225L9A300_080816FB0F00LLC60MVB-part6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31A
    initrd /boot/initrd

So I simply need to add an entry for Windows?

13

I added this line and now I can get the Windows up.


title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
14

Congratulations. It’s a tricky subject.

15

Your tutorial was indispensable in helping me resolve this issue. This is why I like the Linux community. You often get quick responses.

I found I had to set the first partition active in order to install the Windows SP.

16

I would like to contrast this with Windows support. I had received a Stop error after trying to apply Vista SP2. On the Microsoft support site, they cited this issue but could not produce a resolution.

The resolution to that issue was simply to make the Windows partition ACTIVE.

17

I spoke with a windows support engineer recently. Total waste of space!
I was telling him how to sort the problem in the end.