The tale of Gentoo, Grub and DualBoot

[RobinVossen]

Well, I wanted to install Gentoo on my system
And I had some spare time so I thought lets start building.
Well, everything went fine during the install.
But when I rebooted the system I got an error.
Grub doesnt load the Splash Image. Well I can fix that myself but..
When I try to boot Gentoo I get: "Error 17" and when I Google for error 17 I get that I have to config Root right.
So, I double check. sdb = linux sda = windows.
root = (hd1,0)

Why do I get this error? Thanks

[oz]

According to the GRUB Manual:

17 : Cannot mount selected partition
This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB.

If you can post the contents of your /boot/grub/menu.lst maybe someone can find the error(s) in it.

[RobinVossen]

Should it give somekind of text?
Since it gives weird signs.
When opened with a HEX editor it gives: "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00"
Well my grub.conf is:

default 0
timeout 30

splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz #This one is wrong but I dont know where I should point it to. Since the file is there.. 

title=Gentoo Linux <- Boot Gives Error 17
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.22-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/sdb3

title=Windows XP <- Gives Boot Error cant Execute.
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

If I can give anymore information to get a chance of fixing please tell me.

Thanks already

[budman7]

Could you post the output of
fdisk -l
and the contents of /etc/fstab?

[RobinVossen]

Well I cant give you a copy since I dont have time now to boot and chroot into a live cd.
But I know it from the top of my head:
sda1 -> NTFS -> WindowsMain (100 Gigabyte)
sda2 -> NTFS -> WindowsGames (50 Gigabyte)
sda has 100 Gigabyte left.
sdb1 -> Boot -> 30MB
sdb2 -> SWAP -> 1024MB
sdb3 -> / -> 40Gig
sdb5 -> /home -> Space thats left
sdb6 -> /usr/portage -> 4Gig

and fstab is:

/dev/sdb1		/boot		ext2		noauto,noatime	1 2
/dev/sdb2		none		swap		sw		0 0
/dev/sdb3		/		ext3		noatime		0 1
/dev/sdb5		/home		ext3		noatime		0 1
/dev/sdb6		/usr/portage	reiserfs	noatime		0 1
/dev/dvd		/mnt/dvd	audo		noauto,ro	0 0
proc			/dev/proc	proc		defaults		0 0
shm			/dev/shm	tmpfs		nodev,nosuid,noexec	0 0

Thanks already.

Edit:
Im not sure if it has something to do with it. But well better to much information then not enough.

The boot sequence in my BIOS is:
sdb, sda, cdrom, usb, net

sda -> Seagate (250Gig) S-ATA
sdb -> Westen Digital (250Gig) S-ATA
hda -> dvd-lightscript-rw
It is a MSI K9N Mainboard.

I want to have Linux on the Good Harddrive. The sdb.
And Windows + a Shared Partition on the sda.
So, well Is this enough information to solve the grub problem?

[budman7]

It is possible that the boot sequence in the BIOS is where the error is.
When I install Linux to hdb, I still put grub on the MBR of hda.
Your drives are reversed.
I believe you should be able to just change the mapping to get them right.

13.3.23 map
-----------

-- Command: map to_drive from_drive
Map the drive FROM_DRIVE to the drive TO_DRIVE. This is necessary
when you chain-load some operating systems, such as DOS, if such
an OS resides at a non-first drive. Here is an example:

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

The example exchanges the order between the first hard disk and the
second hard disk. See also *Note DOS/Windows::.

If that doesn't work, I would just change the boot order, install grub to the mbr of sda.

p.s. I am glad to see you got Gentoo installed.

[RobinVossen]

Ok, well lets try that map (hd0) (hd1) thing when I get home.
I just dont want to install Grub in de mbr of sda. Since well I cant effort to destory Windows XP.
Since my girlfriend lives 400 miles away. I NEED my pc to talk with her every night.
And, I dont have my Backup Disk here. Its out for Repair..

p.s. I am glad to see you got Gentoo installed.

thanks alot.
I just summoned a Friend of mine with a Laptop.
And he was playing the Mirror ^^ for Emerge thanks for all your help this far.

[jcz11]

I hope you got your problem fixed. I have a system with a controller card and 2 SATA drives and 2 SAS drives. I finally did get it to boot, after a few tries.
But regardless, I've installed Gentoo so many times, I could probably do it in my sleep, but grub invariably will not work right for some reason quite often. Sometimes it's because MTAB is not correct, or empty. I've learned most of the little things that seem to affect grub, but at times, I think it's just a matter of experimentation.
The gentoo forum does have a very long "grub error" thread that can be really helpful too.
Good luck !

[RobinVossen]

The gentoo forum does have a very long "grub error" thread that can be really helpful too.

I have seen that, but my problem isnt in there.
Oh and I didnt have time yet to fix it so I still havnt..
Il do it when I get back home in a couple of days..