Problem with GRUB

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Problem with GRUB
started by: nicom

Posted by nicom on Nov. 30 2005,07:02

My old Pentium 133 has 2 HDs one loaded with DSL2.0 the other with an older DSL (0.8 I think). I installed the newer one complete with GRUB which allows me to boot to the new versions successfully. When I try to start the old version I get an error message that fsck failed and that the partition may not be a true EXT2 partion.

I have also another disk with windows 98 on it. When I try to boot to it I get an error message that it could not find the operating system. Note I have to physically change the drive to try thjs so both disks that fail to boot are hdb1.

The relevant parts of my menu.lst are

Quote

title DSL 2.0
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

title DSL 0.8
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hdb1 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

title Windows
root (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
boot

This is my first foray into grub and I am probably doing something very basically wrong and would appreciate any help. My reasons for booting to the 2 versions of DSL is for purely acedemic reasons to give me some experience with grub.

Posted by ivrobi on Nov. 30 2005,11:45

Hi!

From the GRUB manual: (http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html)

Quote

If you have installed DOS (or Windows) on a non-first hard disk, you have to use the disk swapping technique, because that OS cannot boot from any disks but the first one. The workaround used in GRUB is the command map (see map), like this:

grub> map (hd0) (hd1)
grub> map (hd1) (hd0)

This performs a virtual swap between your first and second hard drive.

Hope it helps.
Greetings!

Posted by larkl on Nov. 30 2005,12:42

Here's a link to my notes from my dual drive install (frugal) with WIndows, might help:

< Dual boot >

Posted by nicom on Dec. 01 2005,10:41

Thanks ivrobi & larkl,

The grub mapping works fine for the windows disk.

I was in the process of writing a response saying I was still having a problem with booting my older version of dsl. In the process of describing the error message I realised that the fsck error I was getting was due to the fact that my old version has changed location in the computer from hda1 to hdb1. I then altered the reference to it in the fstab file to hdb1 and now it works. It's amazing what you can do if you read the error messages properly.

So thanks again and it's onward to my next problem.