Can't boot Windows using grub2

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi everyone!

I work on Suse 12.3 with KDE 4.10.3.

I have Suse and Windows (7) installed on two different (physical) hard disk, and I want to have double boot.
I tried to use grub2 in order to do so, and while I have no problem in accessing the grub menu at the beginning of each session, I can’t find a way to boot windows.
When I select the entry windows from the grub menu I receive an error message telling me that the “hd0,3” (or any other hd I tried to enter in the configuration file of grub2, is not existent.

Here is the configuration file that I saved in the /etc/grub.d directory, named 15_windows

#! /bin/sh -e
echo “Adding Windows” >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry “Windows” {
set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader (hd0,2) +1
}
EOF

And (I think may be of interest) the output of fdisk -l :

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0bc85b25

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1640447 819200 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 1640448 219627519 108993536 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 219627520 465387519 122880000 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda4 465387520 488394751 11503616 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda5 219629568 465387519 122878976 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on ‘/dev/sdb’! The util fdisk doesn’t support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 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: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT

Windows is installed on /dev/sda2.

Can anyone give me a tip ?

Thank you in advance

Alain

2

I have a grub 2 bash script that can help you can find here:

GNU Grub2 Command Listing Helper with --help & Input - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

When a Windows menu does not or is not created, my bash script will do it for you. Make sure to read all of the blog as I have a Copy of the YaST / System / Boot Loader screen. There is a check block for “Probe Foreign OS” must be checked or Windows will not get added for you.

Thank You,

3

I’ll give it a try!
Thank you for the fast reponse. I’ll keep you upadate if this fix my problem.
Alain

4

Please do not hesitate to ask for more help if it is needed.

Thank You,

5

Hi jdmcdaniel3!

You’re script look great, and indeed it eased my many tests, but actually did not work for me.

The option named “Create Custom Windows Boot Menu (Not for GPT/EFI)” give me a message which says “BIOS Mode Windows Booting is not supported in GRUB2-EFI!”, so I suppose I have grub2-efi and the script is not able to automatically scan the disk and generate a boot.
Nonetheless I used your script to change the entry in the “set root=()” part of my custom script for windows booting.
I think I can’t really find out how to “call” the hard disk or the partition where my windows is installed, I tried with various notations as “set root=(hd x,y)” with x and y varying, but every time, when I perform the upadate of the grub.cfg, when it comes to the windows file, I see the message
“Generating grub.cfg …
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
Adding Windows
No volume groups found
done”
That suggests me that grub2 can’t find the disk (or better that I’m not able to point out to grub 2 the correct disk).

Any other suggestion ?

Thank again for your time

Alain

6

In such a case were Windows is an efi boot, you must select Windows to boot from your PC UEFI boot and unable to make it work from grub2. I am not am expert on efi booting. I have my laptop setup as MBR dual booting with Windows. Unless the hard drive is larger than 2.2 TB, there is no reason to use a GPT formatted disk unless the disk is large, but conversion is a pain as you must reload Windows. That means you need an external Windows boot disk. In my case I called Dell and they sent a Bootable Windows 8 Thumb Drive that used the number on the bottom of the machine like a champ and was upgradable to version 8.1. My laptop came with a 128 GB SSD and it was GPT formatted and in secure boot. I reloaded to a new 480 GB SSD I purchased in MBR mode and not secure boot. It now dual boots from Windows 8.1 and openSUSE 12.3 for now. Anyway, just something to consider.

Thank You,