GRUB, RAID and WinXP

Hi,

I’m having difficulty getting a dual-boot system (suse and xp) working. I’ve been trying for a while and am pretty stumped on what to try next. The only complicating factor I can think is that the machine is running two hd in RAID1 - its my first time running a machine with this hd configuration so maybe I’m missing something.

Anyway, here is the output from fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          10       80293+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sda2   *          11        7160    57432375    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            7161       19451    98727457+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            7161        7169       72261   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            7170        7431     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            7432       19441    96470293+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          10       80293+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdb2   *          11        7160    57432375    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3            7161       19451    98727457+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5            7161        7169       72261   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6            7170        7431     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7            7432       19441    96470293+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/dm-0: 159.9 GB, 159996968960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19451 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/dm-0p1               1          10       80293+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/dm-0p2   *          11        7160    57432375    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/dm-0p3            7161       19451    98727457+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/dm-0p5            7161        7169       72261   83  Linux
/dev/dm-0p6            7170        7431     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/dm-0p7            7432       19441    96470293+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/dm-1: 82 MB, 82220544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8a42b4c3

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/dm-1p1            1880      111816   883058677+  cd  Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/dm-1p2   ?       33873      138704   842053558   72  Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/dm-1p3   ?       69058       69060       10020+  45  Unknown
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/dm-2: 58.8 GB, 58810752000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7150 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x69205244

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/dm-2p1   ?       13578      119522   850995205   72  Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/dm-2p2   ?       45382       79243   271987362   74  Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/dm-2p3   ?       10499       10499           0   65  Novell Netware 386
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/dm-2p4          167628      167631       25817+   0  Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order
omitting empty partition (6)

Disk /dev/dm-3: 101.0 GB, 101096916480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12291 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/dm-3p1               1           9       72261   83  Linux
/dev/dm-3p2              10         271     2104515    5  Extended
/dev/dm-3p5              10         271     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/dm-4: 73 MB, 73995264 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-4 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-5: 2154 MB, 2154991104 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 261 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-5 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-6: 98.7 GB, 98785580544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12009 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-6 doesn't contain a valid partition table

sda and sdb are the two RAID1 drives, the /dev/dm-? entries I’m assuming are to do with the RAID controller.

Here is my menu.lst:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Jul  8 09:51:45 BST 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2 (default)
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/mapper/isw_gjjbdejdf_ARRAY_part7 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/mapper/isw_gjjbdejdf_ARRAY_part6 splash=silent showopts
    initrd /initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2 (default)
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/mapper/isw_gjjbdejdf_ARRAY_part7 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
    initrd /initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)
    chainloader (hd0,1)+1

I edited the rootnoverify line from hd0,4 which YaST gave to hd0,1 by hand but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. When I select ‘Windows’ in the GRUB menu at boot I get:

rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

printed to the screen and then it hangs indefinitely.

I other point: I can boot into the XP partition by running it as a VM (I’m using VirtualBox) from within Suse and there it seems to run fine.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I could try next?

Just one other thing. I’ve found this page on the Wiki:

SDB:Prefered bootloader options - openSUSE

Which suggests making plenty of changes to the default GRUB setup. The article is slightly unclear and pretty blase about the details so I’m a little hesitant about following it blindly. The Suse partition is my work stuff so I really don’t want to hose the whole system…