Hey guys i’m new around here and a newbie using Linux.
After i installed OpenSuse everything was cool.Installed my drivers and everything.After a restart i wanted to boot my XP (i’m dual booting XP and OpenSuse.i’m using a 10Gb partion for OpenSuse) when i went to boot XP i got a error with hal.dll missing.i managed to get it fixed but after that i cannot boot in OpenSuse :’(
also in windows i cannot see the partions for OpenSuse.
i dont really want to install again i just want to get it up and running.
To use the Repair System you need the DVD; it’s not on the Live-CD. But, we can probably still get things right with what you have. First, we need some information.
When you boot now, are you going straight into Windows (or seeing a Windows menu)?
Boot from the Live-CD. Open a terminal window, and su to root. Do this command and copy/paste the output back here:
fdisk -l -u
Now you need to know which partition is your openSUSE root partition. The fdisk listing may help you. You need to mount that partition (below the question mark is the partition number) and then list several files. Here are the commands. Then copy/paste the output of each back here:
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda? /mnt
cd /mnt
cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /mnt/boot/grub/device.map
cat /mnt/etc/grub.conf
Once we know how your disk is laid out and how grub was originally installed, we can give you the commands to use in the Live-CD that was fix the problem.
fdisk -l -u
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcab10bee
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 191252879 95626408+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 191252880 212496479 10621800 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 212507820 216716849 2104515 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 216716850 234436544 8859847+ 83 Linux
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 191252943 212496479 10621768+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda? /mnt
Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount -t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a -t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
One can change the type of mount containing the directory dir:
mount --make-shared dir
mount --make-slave dir
mount --make-private dir
mount --make-unbindable dir
One can change the type of all the mounts in a mount subtree
containing the directory dir:
mount --make-rshared dir
mount --make-rslave dir
mount --make-rprivate dir
mount --make-runbindable dir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: -nfFrsvw] -o options] -p passwdfd].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .
linux:/home/linux/Desktop # cd /mnt
linux:/mnt # cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat: /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory
linux:/mnt # cat /mnt/etc/grub.conf
cat: /mnt/etc/grub.conf: No such file or directory
Please note that in my instructions above I indicated to replace the “?” in “sda?” within the mount command, with the actual partition number (because I could not know what the number was). Not doing that resulted in errors in all the output except the fdisk.
From your fdisk it looks like it is sda4. So the commands are:
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda4 /mnt
cd /mnt
cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /mnt/boot/grub/device.map
cat /mnt/etc/grub.conf
Also, there is some strangeness in the partition table. How were these partitions all created? When you fixed your hal.dll problem, did you do a repair install or modify partitions or anything like that? You appear to have 2 NTFS partitions; the 2nd is a logical partition (#5 in the table) inside an extended (#2 in the table); but there is unallocated space between that partition and the 2 linux partitions that follow it (#3 and #4). This may be due to creating/changing partitions in both OS’s or with another tool?
i never changed the name or the partitions.here is the methode i used to get it working
Use the Bootcfg utility in the Recovery Console to correct the Boot.ini file:
1. Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer.
2. When you receive the message to press R to repair Windows by using the Recovery Console, press the R key.
3. Select the Windows installation that you want, and then type the administrator password when prompted.
4. Type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER.
5. When the Windows installation is located, the following instructions are displayed:
Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
[Type Y in response to this message.]
Enter Load Identifier:
[This is the name of the operating system. Type Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition.]
Enter OS Load options:
[Leave this field blank, and then press ENTER].
After you perform the preceding steps, restart the computer, and then select the first item on the boot menu. This should allow Windows XP to start normally.
After Windows XP has successfully loaded, the Boot.ini can be modified to remove the incorrect entry.
For more information about how to edit the Boot.ini file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
I failed to ask you this before: Do you have a way of booting into Windows without using the openSUSE boot loader (grub)? That is, do you have a Windows installation CD? If you do not, does your computer have a floppy drive; can you make a Windows boot floppy? If we can, we should have a backup method of booting Windows. Also, before we work on the grub problem, would you also please do this:
Boot again from the Live-CD. Open a terminal window, su to root. do the followng EXACTLY - be EXTREMELY CAREFUL. A mistake could make the system unbootable:
cd /root
dd if=/dev/sda of=winmbr.bin bs=512 count=1
You should see a message that 512 records were written. You now have a copy of the Windows MBR (openSUSE should have made one when you installed; this is for extra safety). If there is a problem we should be able to restore booting to Windows with this.
Post back and I will give you some commands to try.
EDIT: In your first post you asked about seeing your openSUSE partition from Windows. Answer: openSUSE is installed on a ext3 file system. Windows can only see data in FAT32 and NTFS file systems. openSUSE can be installed on FAT32, but that is a very bad idea; it cannot be installed on NTFS. So the short answer is, no, you will not see the data in openSUSE from inside Windows.
before i do this.yes i have a windows XP CD and i can boot into windows.here is the last command you give to me.
linux:/home/linux/Desktop # cd /root
linux:~ # dd if=/dev/sda of=winmbr.bin bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.02669 s, 19.2 kB/s
After the root command you should get a message back like: Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83. Grub will write several lines after the setup command (don’t worry if one or two lines have “fail” in them). Then it is important to do the quit, for grub to complete its work.
