lost windows option from boot menu

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello,

I’m new to linux and have just installed it on my pc. I already had windows installed on the c drive so linux suse 11.2 has been installed onto d. There was a problem after I finished the install - after I rebooted no menu appeared, the pc just hung on a black screen with flashing cursor, so I put the linux DVD in again and rain a repair. It repaired the boot menu but now there is no option to boot into windows. I can see that windows is still installed but can someone please tell me how I can load my old windows. Thanks and apologies if this has been asked already.

#2

I have taken a look at the boot manager GRUB that I found through YAST and tried to add windows xp but its still not working. Please can someone help.

#3

Get to a terminal in SUSE, then run


su
fdisk -l
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Paste the output here.

#4

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe70ae70a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4865 39078081 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 4866 9729 39070080 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 4866 7821 23736037 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7821 7904 674698+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 7905 8659 6064506 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 8660 9729 8594743+ 83 Linux
linux-535o:/home/rdm # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Dec 4 21:29:47 ICT 2009

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE LINUX
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800AAJS-00PSA0_WD-WMAP99767270-part7 repair=1 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800AAJS-00PSA0_WD-WMAP99767270-part6 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – SUSE LINUX
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800AAJS-00PSA0_WD-WMAP99767270-part7 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: menu###
title Windows XP1
root (hd0,4)
configfile Windows XP

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: menu###
title windows xp2
root (hd0,7)
configfile windows xp2

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: menu###
title windows xp3
root (hd0,0)
configfile windows xp3
linux-535o:/home/rdm #

#5

Remove those 3 windows entries and replace this:

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

You can edit the file with:

kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst

or in gnome

gnomesu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
#6

scuse igorance but I am attempting to do as you say using a terminal window and I get this response:

linux-535o:/home/rdm # kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/msnu.lst
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_klauncher.so
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
KCrash: Application ‘kwrite’ crashing…
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-linux-535o/kdeinit4__0
Warning: connect() failed: : Connection refused
KCrash cannot reach kdeinit, launching directly.
linux-535o:/home/rdm #

#7

Do it in a user terminal not a su one

#8

Well its good windows is still there, its just not loading in GRUB.
I have seen this a few times, its tricky to get it fixed but not impossible.
If it gives you too much of a fuss you can try supergrubdisc, I think it can help with windows dual boots as well

#9

Many thanks+ - that did the trick.

One thing I have noticed in Windows is the cmdagent.exe is using a lot of memory. I had this problem a few weeks ago and found out it was cos of the new AVG antivirus so I unistalled it. Now its come back and the only change I have made this time is the linux install. Any ideas ?

#10

Linux makes no changes to Windows except the boot. This will not effect windows.

#11

Happy that worked for you.

Linux will have nothing to do with windows performance. I should google it:
Let me google that for you

#12

Yeh i doubt installing openSUSE did anything drastic to windows, any app error in windows is usually fault of windows.

#13

You are quite right - It was some ADware that had installed itself which was causing the process to run very high. Absolutely nothing to do with the linux install. I’m looking foward to getting to know linux because at least i will be able to choose what will be installed.