The only option that brings up anything like Windows is:
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
boot
…and that is the VAIO Recovery, not the installed Win XP we want.<g>
LOL! I understand… my eyes are very tired.
I had deleted my last post because I was a little concerned about the boot.ini file which is why I deleted the following post (whilst you were reading and replying to it):
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am not sure why you think grub does not find your partitions. Grub counts its partitions from zero whilst fdisk counts from 1. Hence:
Ah…
When you get to the grub prompt (grub>) why not try booting your Windows XP directly with the following commands
I just exhausted all the possibilites from 0 thru 5.
4 is the only one that boots up something and that something is the Sony Recovery partition. :sigh:
If that works the solution is fairly simple. We can just change the boot flag to /dev/sda5 using something called cfdisk.
This should be very simple… but, of course, it is on one of MY machines, so it is destined to find some obscure abnormality to plague my day. 
Unless I have not understood what the problem is. However maybe boot.ini needs to be modified as well.
I’m going to try modifying the boot.ini file…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am not sure if the windows boot.ini file lists the partitions in definition order or cylinder order. If it is cylinder order then partition(2) is correct. If it is definition order then partition(3) is correct.
Hence if it is booting into the wrong partition, then I would suggest editing the boot.ini file and changing boot.ini to read partition(3) at the end of the line.
The fact that it is booting into something from (hd0,4) means it is finding an ntldr etc there so we must be close (I hope).
I’m with you on the ‘hope’.
So keep using rootnoverify (hd0,4) and change boot.ini.
Ok.
I may have to quit lest I fall asleep… but will try one chance at it now.
Thanks.
The definition of partition numbers for boot.ini is rather fuzzy. I have read it is all primary partitions fist and then logicals. So I guess try all numbers 1 to 5.
boot.ini has this appended to the [operating systems] line:
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
Is this a problem?
No that looks fairly standard.
/nexecute=optin imposes data execution prevention for possible malicious code and
/fastdetect skips detection of unsupported hardware such as serial mice (mouses?)
The machine I’m posting here with is a Compaq Presario tower which is also loaded with Win XP, but the HOME edition… if I make a bootable CD from it, will it work to get the laptop’s Win XP Professional booted up?
If it works, what do I do …?.. just use the “Run” GUI to enter ‘fixmbr’ with no additional switches at the end, or what?
It may work, I can’t be sure
But check this:
• Windows 2000/XP on the computer: Boot from the XP/2000 installation disk and proceed to the final screen where you have the option to Repair Your Computer. Press “R” for Repair and log onto the Windows installation. When the command prompt appears, enter the command fixmbr. Confirm “yes” and you will receive confirmation of the reinstallation of Windows bootstrap code into the MBR. Enter exit and the computer will reboot.
It may be necessary to copy boot files back too if they have been lost. d: is the cd drive, yours may be different.
copy d:i386
tldr c:
copy d:i386
tdetect.com c:
Ok. Keep your fingers crossed… I’ve emailed this and all my other notes to oldsioux@yahoo.com where I can read this from Window$ when I boot up in it on this machine.
Maybe before the end of the day I will be able to boot up in Win XP Professional on the laptop.
Here’s looking at you…
Sylvia
If the “Windows Recovery Console” is installed in your Windows partition, this might help. (I have a similar configuration as OP). The VAIO Recovery is (most likely) the Windows Recovery Console. This is inserted into the Windows boot ahead of the actual Windows “ntldr”.
Try removing “boot” from
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
boot
to read:
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
This works for my configuration. I believe that the “boot” parameter is bypassing Windows natural choice menu.
boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(**3**)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(**3**)\WINDOWS=" XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
grub menu.lst is as SeanMc98 posted.
With XP on a logical volume only, you will not be able to do a XP install, clean or repair.
Best would be delete linux partitions and use “testdisk” to move the XP partition back to a primary partition. Reinstall linux and be sure it does not change the XP partition.
Yes… I can make the VAIO Recovery boot by doing F10 at the Sony Logo during bootup
Try removing “boot” from
rootnoverify (hd0,4) chainloader +1 bootto read:
rootnoverify (hd0,4) chainloader +1
And then what do I key in to make it restart the boot process…?.. ‘reboot’, maybe?
This works for my configuration. I believe that the “boot” parameter is bypassing Windows natural choice menu.
I do too… here’s a new wrinkle:
Earlier I thought I’d try putting one of my old Window$ install CDs in and see if they booted… keep in mind that the OpenSuSE KDE Live CD has NO problem booting up! I can get into KDE Live, just fine… however…
When I tried booting up with my old Win 95 (not XP) GRUB just flew right on past it as if there were no CD in the drive…
Then I took that out and put in my Win98SE install CD and at least the process halted at just before the GRUB prompt… it froze the process with nothing on the screen but the blinking underscore, without the ‘grub>’.
I also followed the exact directions for creating a bootable WinXP CD (CD, not floppy… I don’t have a floppy on this laptop). I wasted my time with that… it never got so much as a glance from GRUB, just flew on part that, too.
So, I’m thinking that the problem is in GRUB and it has somehow permanently attached itself to something it ought not… and whatever it is, it is ignoring that there is anything else on the machine but grub>
Sorry, I already tried to reply to this and it got messed up…
Anyway…
The VAIO Recovery routine is a 4 step process… mine is doing just fine until it reboots the system and should go to screen/step 3. So, the place where I’m supposed to be able to do a “R” (Repair) never comes up because GRUB is snatching it away from the VAIO Recovery reboot, see?
I think Grub needs to be uninstalled and forget about it, and just let me do an “F10” at the Sony Logo Screen during the BIOS bypass… then at least GRUB won’t be stopping Sony Recovery from ever getting to Step 3 and Step 4. See?
Now, what is the ‘code’ in grub to uninstall GRUB?
And then what do I key in to make it restart the boot process…?.. ‘reboot’, maybe?
After removing “boot” from GRUB, the Windows selection should present the Windows Boot menu (aka “boot.ini” (q.v.)). Yours specifies
Timeout=30
You can a) wait 30 seconds or b) hit “Enter” or any key except “ESC” and Windows should boot normally. If you have the Windows Recovery Console, you normally have to move the cursor to that entry.
From the Windows Boot menu, all Windows boot options should be available, such as Windows Safe Mode, Command Prompt, etc.
As for the 30 seconds, that is your choice. I use “Timeout=2” (I am not sure whether Redmond ever corrected the “Timeout=0” value.
During my slumbers in Oz events seemed to have taken a new turn and I am a little confused about what is working and what is still a problem. Could we just recap on where things got to after my last post #24?
-
Did you manage to boot into Windows XP from the grub> prompt and was the correct partition number ‘3’ in boot.ini?
-
Did you then try and change the boot flag to the Windows XP partition from the Linux partition to bypass grub?
-
A comment on your various attempts at booting various CDs:
3a) Windows 95 was never a bootable CD since it came out just before the adoption of the El Torito standard. For that OS, you had to have an embryonic DOS system installed before hand and, using that, you generated 2 or more installation floppies from a program on the CD.
3b) Windows 98SE is bootable but could eventually give you a DOS command prompt under certain circumstances. Did you try typing the ‘dir’ command at the flashing cursor.
-
The grub ‘boot’ command is only required when you use grub interactively. When you boot via a menu.lst it should attempt to boot the selected item automatically. I will recheck that however.
-
When you talk about making a bootable CD from the Compaq for the laptop, what do you mean? There is a method of booting a recalcitrant Windows 2000/XP partition from a floppy containing ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini. Did you mean that?
So can you give a brief update to questions 1) and 2) if you would?
Thanks.
NO, and I’m still not sure.
Just so I can keep track of where things are, here are the grub and fdisk findings:
grub> root (hd0,
Possible partitions are:
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x12
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x83
I have no idea what happened to Partition num: 1, or 3, nor do I know how to
find them if they are even in there somewhere and merely playing “Hide 'N
Seek”.
Here’s fdisk -l
linux:/home/linux # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf9b5d149
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 784 6297448+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 * 785 14401 109378552+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda3 14402 14593 1542240 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 785 3395 20972826 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 3396 14401 88405663+ 83 Linux
linux:/home/linux #
I’m not sure if I’m entering the stuff at the grub> prompt like I should be, so here is how it looks after I enter the things you’ve told me:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,2)
grub> chainloader +1
And at that point nothing else will happen unless I enter:
grub> boot
Should I be opening some type of file, or config file with grub and entering all those lines inside the file…?.. and then save it some way?
- Did you then try and change the boot flag to the Windows XP partition from the Linux partition to bypass grub?
Nope. Never got that far. :sigh:
- A comment on your various attempts at booting various CDs:
3a) Windows 95 was never a bootable CD since it came out just before the adoption of the El Torito standard. For that OS, you had to have an embryonic DOS system installed before hand and, using that, you generated 2 or more installation floppies from a program on the CD.
Oh, yes… that was ages ago and I’d forgotten… Win95 had/has some ‘setup’ file or whatever that I had to run from Win for Workgroups 3.11. Then it would do a very lengthy installation routine.
3b) Windows 98SE is bootable but could eventually give you a DOS command prompt under certain circumstances. Did you try typing the ‘dir’ command at the flashing cursor.
I just rebooted so that grub> would appear if the Win98 failed… at the flashing cursor I typed in ‘dir’ and of course it went straight to grub>. :sigh:
- The grub ‘boot’ command is only required when you use grub interactively. When you boot via a menu.lst it should attempt to boot the selected item automatically. I will recheck that however.
‘menu.lst’…?.. I have yet to find that with any of my attempts at the grub> prompt. How does one open that file and make any changes?
- When you talk about making a bootable CD from the Compaq for the laptop, what do you mean? There is a method of booting a recalcitrant Windows 2000/XP partition from a floppy containing ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini. Did you mean that?
Er, um… I spent most of the day trying to follow the instructions from several places on how to copy all the files from the volume on the laptop of all the Windows files including the /i386 folder that are IN the C:\ drive… and put all these files in a subdirectory named ‘home/Documents/XPSetup’
I’m not explaining this very well, sorry…
Forget about the Compaq computer… I booted up the laptop with the KDE Live CD and then used Dolphin to copy the required files from the obviously correct “Volume” into a subfolder under KDE Live’s /home/sylky/Documents/XPSetup/’ which then I used K3b to make a bootable CD from files already on the laptop. Does that make any sense.
I wish I knew this stuff better so I could explain it more concisely. :sigh:
Regardless, all my efforts to make a bootable CD failed. Grub just simply won’t let any other CD boot the system but the KDE Live CD. :sigh:
OK just to go through this.
A)
I have no idea what happened to Partition num: 1, or 3, nor do I know how to
find them if they are even in there somewhere and merely playing “Hide 'N
Seek”.
I covered that in my, what is now, post #19. Grub counts partitions from 0 and fdisk counts from 1. If you add 1 to all the grub partition numbers, partitions 1 and 3 are there.
B) You say you are entering:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,2)
Are you sure you don’t mean:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,4)
which is what we were using last time?
C) How did you try editing the ‘boot.ini’ file?
Can somebody come up with a better method than this?
What you should be doing is, from the openSUSE CD,
-
Run the Live CD option. Alternatively run a PartedMagic CD if you have that.
-
When the Live version of openSUSE eventually boots up and presents you with a welcome screen:
-
Run Dolphin File Manager (the Superuser version might be best) and click on the entry, in the list of volumes that can be mounted, that applies to Windows XP (may be listed as NTFS). You may have two options one for the recovery partition and one for the actual XP partition. Make sure you get the correct one.
-
The XP partition will probably be mounted at /media/sda5 (guessing here - will try and simulate this situation later if required) but Dolphin will probably take you to that when you mount the partition.
-
Browse to /media/sda5 (if not already there) and see if you can spot ‘boot.ini’. Click on it to open. View the contents and tell us what the number of the partition is in on the boot line(s).
-
Editing the boot.ini file can be carried out with kwrite. I think you have to run this separately and get it to load the file from the File menu. Anyway, open /media/sda5/boot.ini and change the partition number to (I think) 3. Then save the ‘boot.ini’ file. What may go wrong here is that Windows XP partition is mounted read only and it will not allow you to save boot.ini. Tell us if that is the case.
-
Close kwrite and try rebooting the system without the CD. If it doesn’t work try 4 then 5 and maybe 2 in the partition number.
Any questions? It seems a bit of a mouthful but what you are doing is relatively simple. When we know it has a good chance of booting into XP successfully we can change the boot flag via a later post.
Good luck.
oldsioux: yes. I remember you telling me that…
B) You say you are entering:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,2)
Are you sure you don’t mean:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,4)
oldsioux: unless I need to add 1 to that “4” and come up with “5”, “4” is the Sony VAIO Recovery partition/drive.
If we boot up in it, it will only do the same thing it does when I do an F10 at system logo on bootup: it starts the Recovery routine, which is a 4 step process that only gets through the first 2 steps… when it finishes installing the recovered files, it does a reboot that only gives grub> the opportunity to override things and the VAIO System Recovery never gets a chance to go to Step 3, or Step 4. See?
This is why I think we need to delete GRUB from the whole works and simply let me redo the F10 on bootup to allow VAIO Recovery to complete all 4 of the steps it should… then when it gets to the 3rd or 4th step it is supposed to give you a choice of “R” (Repair) to repair the mbr, among other things. See?
which is what we were using last time?
C) How did you try editing the ‘boot.ini’ file?
Can somebody come up with a better method than this?
What you should be doing is, from the openSUSE CD,
- Run the Live CD option. Alternatively run a PartedMagic CD if you have that.
I can only get PartedMagic downloaded to the this computer because the ‘problem laptop’ won’t connect to the Internet… I thought about trying to download PartedMagic to an SD card, and then get it into the laptop… but…
When the Live version of openSUSE eventually boots up and presents you with a welcome screen:
Run Dolphin File Manager (the Superuser version might be best) and click on the entry, in the list of volumes that can be mounted, that applies to Windows XP (may be listed as NTFS). You may have two options one for the recovery partition and one for the actual XP partition. Make sure you get the correct one.
The XP partition will probably be mounted at /media/sda5 (guessing here - will try and simulate this situation later if required) but Dolphin will probably take you to that when you mount the partition.
In the lefthand column of Dolphin under “Places”, there are three “Volumes” listed. 2 of them are ‘ntfs’ the 3rd is ‘ext4’. Under /media/ there is NOTHING! Yeah, I know… there are NO listing under /root/media/ … empty folder. I think it is because the “Volumes” are getting treated as if they are external drives listed as ‘folders’ under the left hand column.
- Browse to /media/sda5 (if not already there) and see if you can spot ‘boot.ini’. Click on it to open. View the contents and tell us what the number of the partition is in on the boot line(s).
Thanks to “My Computer” plasmoid, I have determined that the necessary partition IS /media/sda5… BUT, it is NOT showing up in the /media/ folder. It is only showing up as a folder in the Places column in Dolphin. :sigh:
[qoute]
6) Editing the boot.ini file can be carried out with kwrite. I think you have to run this separately and get it to load the file from the File menu. Anyway, open /media/sda5/boot.ini and change the partition number to (I think) 3. Then save the ‘boot.ini’ file. What may go wrong here is that Windows XP partition is mounted read only and it will not allow you to save boot.ini. Tell us if that is the case.[/quote]
Apparently this ‘folder’ is assigned to my user name… superuser Dolphin can’t open boot.ini. Regular Dolphin can, though.
- Close kwrite and try rebooting the system without the CD. If it doesn’t work try 4 then 5 and maybe 2 in the partition number.
I’ve tried everything from “0” to “7” and still all I get is grub>
{quote]
Any questions? It seems a bit of a mouthful but what you are doing is relatively simple. When we know it has a good chance of booting into XP successfully we can change the boot flag via a later post.
Good luck.[/QUOTE]
Of course, in Yast, BootLoader gives an error:
“Because of the partitioning, the boot loader cannot be installed property.”
I still think we need to get GRUB completely out of the machine and do the F10 System Restore… without grub taking over at any reboot attempt, VAIO Recovery will probably work just fine.
OK I will make one last attempt to explain this.
For the moment you will always get the grub prompt. Changing the boot.ini file doesn’t change that part. Removing or bypassing grub can be done by changing the boot flag so that it boots the Win XP partition directly.
Unfortunately the Win XP partition says what boots next is whatever partition is defined in boot.ini. This appears to point to the recovery partition which is why when you do
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
(which is really /dev/sda5 as per fdisk -l) etc, you end up in ‘recovery’. That may be why you are now convinced (hd0,4) is the recovery partition - which it isn’t. The recovery partition is the place you currently end up in with the current definition of boot.ini in the Windows XP partition.
The resolution to your problem can be done in two stages:
-
Edit the boot.ini file in the Windows XP partition to change the partition to the Windows XP partition itself. You will still get the grub prompt (temporarily) and have to do ‘rootnoverify etc’. However, when we know this stage of the process has been sorted out we can then:
-
Just change the boot flag so that grub is bypassed completely. You then boot straight into Windows XP as on a normal Windows computer.
Does that make sense?
A further comment on your last post:
Thanks to “My Computer” plasmoid, I have determined that the necessary partition IS /media/sda5… BUT, it is NOT showing up in the /media/ folder. It is only showing up as a folder in the Places column in Dolphin. :sigh:
You have to click on the ‘folder’ in the places column. It will then attempt to mount it. If not try right clicking on the folder to get an options menu which will allow you to mount. I am surprised that the super user Dolphin does not allow you to do that.
More later maybe. Time for tea.
Just change the boot flag so that grub is bypassed completely. You then boot straight into Windows XP as on a normal Windows computer.
Will not work, if grub is installed in the MBR ,very likely, then you must use grub and the boot flags are not used. If it has a standard MBR, and grub was installed in the ‘W95 Ext’d’ ‘it is set bootable’ , still will not work as a standard MBR will not boot into a logical volume.
As I stated in prior post, you can NOT do a install be it a clean or repair. MS windows must have a primary partition to install the boot files to ‘fat or NTFS’. XP will boot from a logical volume as you have but boot.ini file must be correct. Post your current boot.ini or change it to the one in prior post.
Best would be convert sda5 to sda4 using ‘testdisk’.
It may be in the suse install or on many live cd’s.