Can't boot 12.1 after WXP reinstall (dual boot), insane partitioning

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Maybe this is hopeless, but have unusual partitioning (now unreadable) i saw in another thread so maybe its worth investigating.
i did a fresh install of WXP SP3 w/ long format and then 12.1 and all seemed OK. Then had to reinstall WXP -activation issue not operation- and then wouldn’t boot WXP (missing …hal.dll) and no boot menu.
Using live CD,Yast partitioner said error :can edit, mount, etc. but can not resize… To restore sanity, use create and lose data in all partitions. Yast bootloader said because of partitioning, bootloader can’t be installed. Tried Systemrescue, i think testdisk gave a warning and offered a fix, but no help. Used the grub fix from SDB:All about grub… and now get a text boot menu and WXP boots but selecting 12.1 says:
root (hd0,4) filesystem unknown, partition 0x82
kernel …
error 17 cannot mount

fdisk -l shows:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdd7667d7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 67399271 33699604+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 67399680 98649679 15625000 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 98650112 153145343 27247616 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 153147645 156312449 1582402+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 153157632 156301295 1571832 82 Linux swap / Solaris

grub find said (hd0,1), so i typed root (hd0,1) yet the boot error says (0,4).
If i edit to hd0,1 get logo then txt and says some file corrupted
But more important is why did this mess occur? This has taken hours, days of my time and still not fixed.
Should the Ext’d partition be #2? is this likely to happen again?
I’ve seen several posts, but i know most users would give up rather than going thru the time to post here, so i’m not alone.
As for chksum, from Yast it says OK, but from install menu it just goes to term within seconds and says press to reboot.
if one does it does live install. Menu should say what to expect!
thnx,
roman, tired &:frowning:

2

So I have found if your create a Extended Partition such as /dev/sda4, load grub into it and mark it active for booting, then run the Windows XP Partitioning on it, you will end up with a mess. My suggestions at this point, if Windows XP boots, is to remove all partitions except for /dev/sda1, for Windows XP and start over again. Only do this if Windows XP is good now and you are done loading service packs and suck. I might even suggest you download a LiveCD and manually remove all other partitions, leaving Windows XP alone and the rest just blank space and then reinstall openSUSE 12.1 one more time, but this time do it with feeling …

Thank You,

3

Thanks for the reply. But if you are suggesting i did the steps in your first sentence, i did not. i listed my actions as best i could. i tried to do what you go on to suggest, but if u would read my post, liveCD Yast partionr said it cannot resize… without first “restoring sanity” and losing everything.
I know i can reinstall, but looks like have to do WXP also, so i thought maybe we could learn something from this fairly common scenario.
So, as i asked, is the partioning incorrect?
How should the result of the “Check media” appear? is it md5 and adequate?
How about the media check from Yast?
And exactly how do enter “feeling”

thnx

4

OK. When you boot from live CD, open a root terminal (or type su -l) and run the command grub, you get in the Grub Shell.

If you type

grub > find /boot/grub/stage2

What does it say? (hd0,1) ?

If so type:

grub > root (hd0,1)

then

grub> setup (hd0,1)

What does it say?
It’s not going to boot until you set the bootflag on the partition on which you just installed the boot Grub loader. In this case, it is (hd0,1) or sda2.
If Grub installed successfully (it will tell you), exit the Grub shell with

grub> quit

Then type

sfdisk /dev/sda -A2

Remember that you have to do it in a root terminal. As non root user, you would need to type:

sudo /sbin/sfdisk /dev/sda -A2

Then reboot. Either you will see Grub menu and you will be able to start Linux. Or it won’t work (we don’t have enough info to tell you why). If it doesn’t work, don’t panik. Boot from a live CD, open a terminal and type:

sudo /sbin/sfdisk /dev/sda -A1

Reboot and you’re back in Windows. Nothing got broken.

We won’t tell you until you post the output of fdisk -l in CODE tags. It’s too hard to read.

5

If you still can boot Windows 1) defrag 2) be sure to shut down properly. A message of sanity may indicate that Windows may not have been properly shut down. ie the file system is not in a stable state.

6

Thanks for your help. Yours is like the SDB steps i mentioned and did before.
yes, hd0,1
but this time i saw these failures that i don’t recall:

grub> setup (hd0,1)
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage1” exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage2” exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5” exists… yes
Running “embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,1)”… failed (this is not fatal)
Running “embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,1)”… failed (this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,1) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu
.lst "… succeeded
Done

the SDB did not mention your sfdisk steps, but i have not rebooted yet b/c wanted to show above.
Looking at the txt boot menu i did get before said:

root (hd0,4) filesystem unknown, partition 0x82
kernel …root=…part5 resume…part6
error 17 cannot mount

looks like it thinks root is swap partition??
will reboot now
thnks dammit, it says i don’t have permission but i’m logged in, many problems with this forum!!!

7

reboot gives same text menu and same:
error 17
WXP boots fine when selected
so why is it booting from part6 -see previous post

is it something leftover from Kubuntu 11.1 install - i would bet my life i did the Win long format since then
thnx again

ps will try Code tags next

8

If you mean these warnings (in red), this is normal when you install Grub in a partition boot sector. It just says that some part of grub (stage1.5) is not going to be installed because there is no room for it. This stage1.5 is useful but not required. Most Windows dual booters don’t use it because they don’t want to install Grub in MBR (for good reasons). That’s why I told you to install Grub in a Linux partition, which I assumed is your / partition (but it didn’t matter because you can install the boot loader (with the command “setup”) in any Linux partition and even in the extended partition.

It is the swap partition, and it is used in the “resume” option of the kernel boot entry, although not essential. Sometimes removing the resume option will just solve the problem.
You should boot from live CD and post the output of this command:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

But pleeeaaase … in CODE tags!

Yes, dammit! (among other things).

9

Because it’s trying to resume … whatever. You’ll solve it if you delete the resume option. But we would like to see your /boot/grub/menu.lst … and /etc/fstab as well.

10

[CODElinux:/home/linux # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdd7667d7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 67399271 33699604+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 * 67399680 98649679 15625000 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 98650112 153145343 27247616 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 153147645 156312449 1582402+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 153157632 156301295 1571832 82 Linux swap / Solaris
linux:/home/linux #]

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

cat: /boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory
linux:/home/linux #

linux:/home/linux # cat /etc/fstab

devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
/dev/root / defaults 1 1
linux:/home/linux #



But this isn't what my notes say - there must be 2 files
  Dolphin  shows on the left, lines for home, netwk,root and my 3 partitions. the above fstab is in Dolphins /root.
With Dolphin my 14.9G part has etc/fstab which contains:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part5 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part7 /home ext4 defaults 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0



Gentlemen maybe this is the result of installing Kubuntu 11.1 over Suse 12.1 and suse again due to several disappointments.
I'm quite sure i formatted / each time and then when i did the WXP long format i probably only did the C:/ to save /home.

To help future users, it would nice to have an obvious page of READ FIRST on web where common situations were addressed:
 don't reinstall Windows on multiboot...
if you want to install another distro ....
if suse update changes your video driver....
if the forum page loses your post attempt for the 2nd time...
etc
this might save you and me many hours.

thanks all,
    ps.   the dammit was meant for the forum software which would not let me reply before,  never logs me in the first time, and twice now has lost half my post.  wish me luck
11

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:46:02 +0530, roman6
<roman6@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

> To help future users, it would nice to have an obvious page of READ
> FIRST on web where common situations were addressed:
> don’t reinstall Windows on multiboot…
> if you want to install another distro …
> if suse update changes your video driver…
> if the forum page loses your post attempt for the 2nd time…
> etc
> this might save you and me many hours.

there’s a internet recent upstart called “google” (http://google.com),
which i find helpful in such situations. specially with the site modifier,
"site:opensuse.org " as the beginning of your search term, it often finds
relevant pages better than the integrated forum search.

that said you are right, things could be better organized. there’s efforts
going on, specially on the wiki i think, and i’m sure those working on
that would be glad to have your help.

–
phani.

12

Hmm … I forgot to tell you to mount your partition first. That would be probably sda2. What we se here is the live system - not interesting. Sorry.


$ su -l
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
# cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
# cat /mnt/etc/fstab

We’ll probably get it sorted. Don’t worry!

Or do it ten times and you will know how to handle it. It’s not that complicated.

I know, and I seconded your “dammit”. You can read my complains in the Forums Feedback subforum. Feel free to add yours!.. Well… it won’t help though.

13

please-try,

linux:~ # cat /mnt/etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part6 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part5 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part7 /home                ext4       defaults              1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part1 /windows/C           ntfs-3g    users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
linux:~ #

looks like what i posted from Dolphin.
i seem to recall that the Kubuntu installer did not recognize the existing suse install, so not sure if it or i made things worse.

thanks again

14

Now compare your /etc/fstab with the output of your fdisk -l


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 67399271 33699604+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 * 67399680 98649679 15625000 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 98650112 153145343 27247616 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 153147645 156312449 1582402+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 153157632 156301295 1571832 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Something’s completely messed up here. fstab is looking for the root partition in what is now a swap partition and the other partitions don’t exist (anymore).
What do you intend to do? Reinstall (what?) Use openSUSE, Ubuntu or both?

15

Please- try,
i forgot to get this from term:

linux:~ # cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Mar 19 23:18:29 EDT 2012
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 12.1
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part5 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part6 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00ETA0_WD-WCAHL5404774-part5 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x31a
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default
linux:~ #

i can reinstall (WXP and (suse or kub) i guess). i was hoping we could learn how to do(or not do) these basic operations.
You say WXP reinstall can be fixed, so what do i / others have to do when changing distros?
I may need to change. Both distros have their shortcomings. See my post about my frustrating recent history:
I spent a lot of time with earlier suse&kub(11) to get suspend to work with no success.
then tried latest kernel live suse CD and it worked
but after install suspend stopped working not even hibernate
so i tried Kub 11.1 LIVE & suspend works , but not after install but hibernate OK. then did update & it hung twice.
so back to Suse, spent more time found nvidea driver might be cause. nouveau gave me hibernate at least
Then did suse update& no more hibernate!! hours later i saw it changed drivers. only found a crazy hard way to change back.
learned about blacklist and did driver reinstall: it worked and much easier.
So suse still has issues:
1-hard to get wireless started especially when only have wifi,
2- horrible printer driver for HPlaser5, Kub’s foomatic much faster
3-media check is vague, again if 1 searches forums there is a crazy hard way not meant for mere mortals like me(with my EE degree)
What do you recommend?

thanks so much,
i may try to change the part # to see…

16

Posts #13, #14 and #15 highlight the problem. Try to edit ($mountpoint)/boot/grub/menu.lst and ($mountpoint)/etc/fstab so that the partitions used here match the ones shown in your fdisk -l output. Again, if you edit these files from a live system, you’ll have to mount the root partition first (sda2), as I explained in another post. Once the partition is mounted, files on the HDD will be accessible under the mount point (I used /mnt in my previous example). If you click on a file in some file manager, the partition will get automatically mounted somewhere else … I dunno because I don’t do that. I just mount partitions from the command line. But it doesn’t matter how an where you mount the partition. What matters is to edit the files on your HDD and not the ones on the live system.