boot loading.. dual boot info

[R4NG3R]

here's my setup:

Computer #1
40GB XP Pro
12GB RH9

i'm in the midst of the redhat9 installation on the 12gb hard disk with GRUB. but anyways, i was wondering what is going to happen when i hook both hard disks up at the same time?

i was thinking
40GB XP Pro: Master
12GB RH9: Slave

and when i turned my PC on GRUB would give me the option to choose which OS to boot on. or am i completely wrong? what do i need to do to get that option?

[R4NG3R]

ok. rh9 installed. heres' what i have

Computer 1
40GB XP Pro
12GB RH9

heres what i did though.. i took out the the 40GB drive and put the 12GB drive in by itself, then i installed rh9. it works fine, then i took out the 12GB drive and put in the 40GB by itself, it works fine, but now... how can i have both of them hooked up at the same time.. and when i boot, have the option to choose which one i want to boot into... do i...

Computer 1
40GB XP Pro MASTER
12GB RH9 SLAVE

is the rh9 configured to do this? i'm confused and scared to do something. help please. : )

[Trillian]

Erm.. grub can boot from multiple hard disks.
Just add the partition you want to boot to the menu.1st file, and there you go!

Tho, you might want to alter the master/slaves.
Make RH the master, and make XP the slave, coz you see, grub is the linux bootloader, and can load multiple OSses (not at the same time ).
When you set RH to master, your computer will automatically start looking on that hd for a bootloader. The bootloader will direct you to a OS.

Usefull:
Default grub menu.1st file

  # grub.conf generated by anaconda 
  # 
  # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file 
  # NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that 
  #		  all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. 
  #		  root (hd0,1) 
  #		  kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3 
  #		  initrd /initrd-version.img 
  #boot=/dev/hda 
  default=1 
  timeout=10 
 #splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz 
  title Red Hat Linux 9.0 (2.4.20-8) 
  		root (hd0,1) 
  		kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ 
  		initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img 
  title Windows Xp 
  		rootnoverify (hd1,0) 
  		chainloader +1

this is a /etc/grub.conf, notice the entry default=1
if you have default = 0, linux will boot and default = 1 means windows will boot.this is because linux is the first entry and windows is second entry in the grub.conf file

http://www.start-linux.com/forum/rea...=2&i=137&t=104

[R4NG3R]

ok well heres what i got
12GB rh9 Master
40GB xp pro Slave

when i boot it goes into the GRUB Bootloader with my options of RedHat 9 or XP Pro
when i click RedHat 9 it boots into linux, but when i click Windows XP Professional it gives me this:

Booting 'Windows XP Professional'...
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

and it just stays there, it will not boot into windows, so i'm guessing it's in menu.1st tthat's not letting it boot. heres my entire menu.1st after i edited what you told me to.

PHP Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdb
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8bigmem)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8bigmem ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
    initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8bigmem.img
title Red Hat Linux-smp (2.4.20-8smp)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
    initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
title Red Hat Linux-up (2.4.20-8)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
    initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows XP Professional
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    chainloader +1 


another question... why do i have 3 redhat 9 options... i would love to get rid of those, can't i just remove them from my menu.1st?

[R4NG3R]

now when i try to boot into windows i get

root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
chainloader +1

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Press any key to continue

then i press a key and it brings me back to GRUB. hmm... help please?

[Trillian]

Originally Posted by R4NG3R

another question... why do i have 3 redhat 9 options... i would love to get rid of those, can't i just remove them from my menu.1st?

My first question: where is your XP partition located?
On a SCSI drive?
First hd? second hd? first/second partition?

Coz it grub doesn't load it, it's not the menu.1st fcking things up, it's just the OS.
If you have only 1 hd, and grub's installed on the mbr, xp's bootsector might be messed up.



To slim down the linux-loading. How much memory has your computer got?
Very, very much? Or just the standard amount?
If it's the standard amount, you can erase the first bootoption:
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8bigmem)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8bigmem ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8bigmem.img

Don't just delete this out of the menu.1st file, but delete it from your system:

 rm

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8bigmem
 rm /initrd-2.4.20-8bigmem.img

Btw, have you got a splashimage on grub? If not, you want to comment (put an "#" at the beginning of the line) the line: splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

Now, your other post:

now when i try to boot into windows i get
  
  root (hd0,0)
  Filesystem  type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
  chainloader +1
  
  Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

What have you changed? You changed something, because you did not get this message the first time, right?
Your system just tells you that the 'file' (xp) it wants to execute, can't be executed, because the format is wrong.
A note on that one:
Windows works on ntfs filesystems, and with FAT32/FAT16 filesystems. Windows ME and higher use the ntfs filesystem, win(* and lower the FAT32/FAT16.
Linux works on ext2, ext3 and reiserfs filesystems. Mandrake prolly gave you the option to choose between reiserfs and ext3.
Linux can read from ntfs, fat32, fat16 filesystems, but it won't work on it.

So what you might have done wrong, is telling your system the wrong location of the XP partition. Can that be true?

[R4NG3R]

ok let me answer these questions:
Windows XP Pro: Primary IDE Slave ATA Hard Disk 1st Partition
RedHat 9 /boot: Primary IDE Master ATA Hard Disk 1st partition

yes it does show the splashimage

my computer has 256MB SDRAM
RH9 12gb / XP 40gb

and well heres my current grub.conf

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda1
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
fallback=1
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8bigmem)
      root (hd0,0)
      kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8bigmem ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
      initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8bigmem.img
#title Red Hat Linux-smp (2.4.20-8smp)
#    root (hd0,2)
#    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
#    initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
#title Red Hat Linux-up (2.4.20-8)
#    root (hd0,3)
#    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
#    initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

but hey... the RedHat Linux (2.4.20-8bigmem) is what i use to boot into linux.
and yes that error came up because it showed XP to (hd0,1) when its really located (hd1,0). i fixed that error. but still having trouble.

[R4NG3R]

ok... something not good, i just added

root (hd0,1) to my first redhat boot option, and now i can't boot!!! i need someway to edit my... GRUB.CONF how can i do that when i can't boot into linux! or is there some way to boot into linux from the grub command line so i can edit the grub.conf

[R4NG3R]

ah with a little help of the redhat grub manual i fixed the conf and i can now boot into redhat. : ) now, what were you saying about deleting those other options? i thought 1 was /boot
2 was /
and 3 was some swap space

[Trillian]

As for the deleting:
You can delete /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp and /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8.img I think.
BUT! Have you got a shared memory multiprocessor machine? Read this:
http://www.linux.org.uk/SMP/title.html
Learn something about your kernel(s).
Find out whether that applies to you or not, if so, dun delete it, and use it.
It it does not apply to our system, delete it.
You could have found out about this yourself by using google. Be ashamed.

The other vmlinuz..
google it. I dun think it is swap. Why? because if it was swap, there cannot be a OS on it. It is PART of a os, not a single os on itself. not a kernel. not boot-able. you find out what it is. it's prolly a spare kernel.

root (hd0,1) to my first redhat boot option, and now i can't boot!!! i need someway to edit my... GRUB.CONF how can i do that when i can't boot into linux! or is there some way to boot into linux from the grub command line so i can edit the grub.conf

I can't do anything with this. Hun, be nice and read that link i have in my signature. It will help. And I dun mean 'look at it', I mean read it. Learn it.
Because, if you do that, you will be able to post clear, good error-messager, with input, output, and the exact fault.
By telling me "and now i can't boot!!!" I know you can't boot. That's it. You cannot boot. Your computer might have been blown up, and that could be the reason why you can't boot. Or maybe, the power supply is dead, and that's why you can't boot.

What is the friggin' console saying? Did you choose the right kernel, the right vmlinuz?
Are there no typos in your grub.conf (menu.1st)?

You want to acces the menu.1st. I dun know *** you've done wrong, but i suggest you burn yourself a live-cd and mount the linux partition, edit the menu.1st, save changes, umount and shutdown -r now.

[R4NG3R]

ok well, i fixed that issue with the edit option in GRUB. only problem i have now is getting windows XP to boot while both hard disks are in the computer. xp will boot if the linux disk is out, but when the master linux disk is in, it just boots into grub and my system just hangs when i click on the XP OS

Booting "Windows XP Professional (hd1,0)'
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

it just hangs there, do i need to edit something on my XP machine? the boot.ini perhaps?

[Trillian]

following link will answer your question
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

utfs.