Error 17 when installing netinst CD

[sofasurfer]

I'm a new guy. Nothing but trouble from Mandriva. So I downloaded the Debian netinst iso. Installed it and all went fine...I think.

I have WindowsME and Mandriva 2006 installed and I put debian along side them.

On rebooting I got this message...'Grub loading stage 1.5. Grub loading, please wait...Error 17'. This really freaked me out cause I couldn't restart my other OS's to get online for help.

I reinsterted the debian netinst cd and when I got to the partitioning part I deleted the debian partitions (/, swap and /home). I then clicked on 'save changes' and I got a message telling me that my Mandrive swap partition would need to be reformatted.
So I went ahead and when it was done I rebooted with my Mandriva CD and reinstalled the / and /usr partitions to get my MBR back the way it was. Now I have just WinME and Mandriva again.

Yes, I know theres probably a better way but I don't know it. The only thing I care about now is whats up with that error 17 stuff and can I handle it?
Thanks...

[IsaacKuo]

I've had a lot of frustrations with GRUB error 17, and never really figured out exactly what caused it. However, I did fix it by partitioning exactly ONE primary partition (Windows) and having ALL other partitions be logical partitions. This is what I had before:

hda1 - primary - Windows
hda2 - primary - /
hda3 - primary - swap

This setup worked fine with LILO, the bootloader that Knoppix used. Does Mandriva use LILO? The last time I tried it, it was still called "Mandrake" and it used LILO.

That setup FAILED MISERABLY with Grub. I always got Error 17. I was able to sort of work around the problem by figuring out a way to install LILO, but this was never pleasant and I've forgotten how to do it.

This is what I changed the partitioning scheme to:

hda1 - primary - Windows
hda5 - logical - /
hda6 - logical - swap

This setup worked perfectly with either LILO or Grub.

[sofasurfer]

My windows partition is primary. All others, which are Mandriva, are logical. The partitions for Debian were swap: log, /home: log and /: prim.
How do I create the / partition as logical? My choices are extended, primary and extended_0x85. Or is extended the same as logical?

[IsaacKuo]

In the Debian partitioner, "extended" is the same as "logical".

It sounds like the problem was that "/" was a primary partition, and grub just couldn't deal with that.

[edit--added:]

Actually...I'm pretty sure that "extended" is NOT the same as "logical" in the Debian partitioner. If I recall correctly, first you create an "extended" partition, and then you can put "logical" partitions within that extended partition.

[sofasurfer]

Got it!!
I reinstalled debian. This time at the partitioner I deleted the / (primary) partition and then recreated it as a logical. When I was all installed I rebooted and did not get error 17...I got error 18!!!

Ok, so I put the disk back in and during the reinstall, when I got to the partitioner I deleted all the debian partitions. I then did a ctl+alt+delete and inserted the Mandriva cd. I went through the reinstall process (remember I can't get anything going after debian error messages) but I unchecked the partitions to be formated. The mandriva reinstall went real fast since nothing needed to be reinstalled since none of the partitions were formated.
This got my bootloader working again.

NOW, I reinstalled debian AGAIN. But this time, where I have a choice of a desktop machine or a single partiton machine (I forget the exact terminology), I choose the single partition machine (everything on one partition). This actually created 2 partitions, / and swap (no /home on this method). Again, the / was formated as a primary. So I deleted it again and recreated as a logical. This did the trick. I rebooted and so far everything is running fine.

The trick to get rid of error 17 is to set up as a everything on one partition, the 'recommended method'.

Well, now I have to go get the internet connection going.

Thanks...