WinXP disappeared from GRUB menu (Debian 6.0 "Squeeze")

[lindsey]

I have WinXP, Ubuntu 10.04 and Debian 6.0 installed on my Desktop.

After installing my latest distro, Debian 6.0 WinXP disappeared from my GRUB menu!

Relevant details are:

root@debian-peter:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd21cd21c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       66046   530508440+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           66046      121602   446253057    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           66046       94882   231630865   83  Linux
/dev/sda6          120781      121602     6589440   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7   *       94883      119960   201434112   83  Linux
/dev/sda8          119960      120780     6589440   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

root@debian-peter:/boot/grub# gedit /etc/default/grub

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

Please help me to restore WinXP to my GRUB menu as I can't access it atm!

[devils casper]

Have you tried to regenerate GRUB Menu? Execute this in Terminal

su -
update-grub

Does it detect Windows OS?

[lindsey]

Have you tried to regenerate GRUB Menu? Execute this in Terminal

su -
update-grub

Does it detect Windows OS?

root@debian-peter:~# update-grub 
Generating grub.cfg ... 
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png 
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686 
Found Microsoft Windows XP Professional on /dev/sda1 
Found Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS (10.04) on /dev/sda5 
done

And yes, WinXP now appears on the boot menu. Thank you kindly Devil's Casper!

[glaston]

Is it necessary to have 2 swap partitions?
Debian and Ubuntu can't use the same one provided that they aren't trying to access it at the same time?

Also, it surprises me to see the dev/sda1 partition as HPFS/NTFS.
HPFS is the Mac filesystem.

[devils casper]

Also, it surprises me to see the dev/sda1 partition as HPFS/NTFS.
HPFS is the Mac filesystem.

There is nothing surprising in it. HPFS (High Performance Filesystem) and NTFS are of same type and and fdisk cannot say which one it is by just looking the partition table. Therefore it lists both in output.
Have you ever checked fdisk -l output yourself?

Is it necessary to have 2 swap partitions?
Debian and Ubuntu can't use the same one provided that they aren't trying to access it at the same time?

That's not necessary at all. Single SWAP partition should be used/shared between all installed Linux OSes.

[lindsey]

That's not necessary at all. Single SWAP partition should be used/shared between all installed Linux OSes.

I was under the impression this would create problems when hibernating in one Linux OS while actively using another? I use hibernate most of the time, preferring not to shut down my computer, and since I alternate between Linux systems, couldn't sharing the same swap partition create issues?

[glaston]

When you put a machine on hibernate all it does is saves everything from RAM to disk as a session and then loads that session next time you boot that OS.
It's still powered down, it just bypasses normal boot when resumed.

You can't have both Linux OS' running simultaneously on the same machine unless 1 is a virtual machine.
Hibernate shouldn't be used as a complete replacement for shutdown.
You can also save the current session and resume it later from the login manager.

[lindsey]

I also read that two separate swaps can set up to work together in a coordinated way that takes swap to a whole new level. Can't seem to find the link, but I'm sure I read it somewhere half credible...


And - really? I always though I couldn't hibernate/suspend on one Linux OS and boot up another, if both were sharing the same swap space. If what you say is true, maybe I should ammend my swaps. Should I merge the swaps now and get both OSs to use the same enlarged swap? What would be optimal?

[devils casper]

You have installed Debian after Ubuntu. Debian must be using both SWAP spaces. Ubuntu should be using it's own SWAP space. You can add an entry in /etc/fstab of Ubuntu to use both.
Check the output of free and df -h commands in both distros.

[glaston]

And - really? I always though I couldn't hibernate/suspend on one and boot up another, if both were sharing the same swap space.

There's a difference between suspend and hibernate, although there are discrepancies in the terminology used by some. Suspend is sleep mode, hibernate is "suspend to disk" where the system powers down after dumping the RAM data to disk.
Since RAM is volatile, when the system powers down it clears.
Which is why all the data in RAM has to be written to disk to hibernate, and it's why 2 different OS' can use the same swap space.

If what you say is true, maybe I should ammend my swaps. Should I merge the swaps now and get both OSs to use the same enlarged swap? What would be optimal?

The rule of thumb is that swap space should be twice the amount of actual RAM. It's arguable though.
When the system starts using swap(virtual memory) it slows everything down to the speed of the disk, which is much slower than physical RAM and not what you want to happen.
I always try to keep my swap at a modest size and on a seperate physical disk from the OS that uses it. You don't have to do that but it's the optimal way. I always partition the disk with a swap at the beginning and the rest is used as the /home partition, with the / partition on the 1st disk in the system.
I personally don't like dual boot systems, I'm a little OCD though so I like it clean and dual boot doesn't feel clean to me.
I buy older systems at auctions alot and use them for testing new distros. I actually got 3 P4 Dell desktops for $10 each because a few of them out of the lot had water in the cases. None of the ones I got had water though, 1 had a bad disk and another had a bad logic board but for $30 it was a steal.

I'd wait on merging your swaps until someone more knowledgeable than I can weigh in on the possibility that Linux writes the data from RAM to the swap partition for hibernate.
That wouldn't cause havoc even if it's true but it would clear your swap of the data taken from RAM.
You see what I'm saying?