cannot access linux partition after hd install


Forum: HD Install
Topic: cannot access linux partition after hd install
started by: mdynac

Posted by mdynac on Sep. 14 2005,00:23
okay i ran the dsl live cd and i liked it.
so i did a hd install on my second hard drive (hdb).
chose the grub bootloader and it installed it. (on drive hdb i suppose)
drive hda has win2kpro on it....(grub asked me if i had doze on hda1 and i said yes...)

i now have dsl installed on hdb but i cannot access it, even with a boot disk....nor will win2k find it....
i tried a mount -t /dev/hdb at the dsl boot disk command prompt and no joy....



i think i need to put grub on hda in the mbr....
does anyone know how to do this, so i can boot win2k and dsl?

win2k has a bootloader....
can i use that?

i searched and found no real answers....

or maybe i'm just brain dead today...


any help would be appreciated.


just a note:
i liked dsl so much that i finally was able to put it on a pentium 120MHz machine with 24megs of ram.....and it runs okay....finally blew win95 off of that old laptop !!!! and relaced it with a snappy linux system.
Fujitsu Lifebook 420D

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Sep. 14 2005,00:33
It sounds like the bootloader script didn't uncomment the appropriate lines for Windows in grub's menu file. This is easy to fix.

sudo beaver /boot/grub/menu.lst

look for where it says

Code Sample
#title Windows
#root (hd0,0)
#chainloader +1
#makeactive
#boot


or something similar, and remove the hash marks (#).

Save the file and reboot, and you should be able to select windows now.

-J.P.

Posted by mdynac on Sep. 14 2005,00:38
i think you didn't quite get my problem....

i can boot into windows all day long, i cannot boot into dsl....it doesn't even give me the option to boot into dsl....the win2kpro bootloader gives me the same 2 choices...win2kpro or win98....
grub never runs...... i am guessing that grub is installed on hdb, not hda....

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 14 2005,02:17
the windows bootloader isn't going to see linux.  You can plead and beg, and it won't see it.  I've heard one or two people say it's possible, but i never learned or cared to learn whether or not this is true.
You'll have a much easier time installing grub or lilo to mbr and using that to boot both, or use a boot floppy or CD to boot.

Posted by friedgold on Sep. 14 2005,03:08
Quote (mikshaw @ Sep. 14 2005,03:17)
the windows bootloader isn't going to see linux.  You can plead and beg, and it won't see it.  I've heard one or two people say it's possible, but i never learned or cared to learn whether or not this is true.

Actually it is possible. Much in the same way as grub can chainboot the Windows bootloader to allow Windows to load, the Windows NT/2k/XP bootloader can be setup to chainboot a special version of grub in order to load Linux. See < here > for more details.

As for getting grub running it might be worth seeing if your BIOS lets you change which hard drive it boots off. If it doesn't let you choose this then you'd need to install grub to hda. You might want to take a look at the instructions < here > on installing grub manually which were writen before it was included in the DSL install scripts.

Posted by mdynac on Sep. 15 2005,15:15
well i got it working....
first i went and got a program called wingrub, and used it via doze to configure and install grub on hda.

re-booted and i got the grub menu and selected dsl on hdb and it came back with an error stating that it could not identify filesystem   0x7

i then read some more and went and downloaded an iso of a prg called systemrescuecd
i burned the image and booted into a debian rescue mode.
i selected qtparted and deleted the linux pation and re-created it and identified and formatted it as an ext2 filesystem.

rebooted with dsl and install it to hdb again, selecting no bootloader....as i already installed grub on hda.

rebooted and grub came up and i selected dsl and it booted up fine....

thanks for all the help.

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