Dual booting Suse and XP with windows bootloader

[Maniac0Maniac]

Hi peeps.

I'm trying to get Suse 10.1 to dualboot with XP. I can do this no problem with grub, but I need it to load from the XP bootloader... Simple... or so I thought.

I have 1 HDD so I split into partitions. I installed XP on the 1st partition, and suse on sda5 to sda7... I ended up with the following partition setup.
/dev/sda1 ==> XP (NTFS) (primary & bootable)
/dev/sda2 ==> Clean (Fat32) (primary)
/dev/sda5 ==> Linux (Swap)
/dev/sda6 ==> Linux (reiser ==> /)
/dev/sda7 ==> Linux (reiser ==> /home )

I installed grub on /dev/sda6, ran "dd if=/dev/sda6 of=/linux.bin bs=512count=1", and copied linux.bin to the windows root partition. I then added the following line to boot.ini: "c:\linux.bin" = "Suse Linux 10.1"

I thought that would be it... but Nooooo... that would be to easy!! After rebooting the Windows selection works, but when I select Suse I get en error message and the system reboots:

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

Any Ideas?

[devils casper]

how did you add an entry for Linux in boot.ini file?
post the output of these commands

bootpart
bootpart list

casper

[Maniac0Maniac]

As I understood it, windows bootloader would load, and display the OS choices. Then, if I select Suse, the XP boot loader would pass over to Grub. I added the entry to the boot.ini file in the Windows partition... It currently looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
"c:\linux.bin" = "Suse Linux 10.1"

I will bost bootpart & bootpart list as soon as I get home. Thanks!

[devils casper]

okk !

Error : "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

create linux.bin file again.
i can suggest you only after checking the output 'bootpart' and 'bootpart list'.




casper

[Maniac0Maniac]

OK Getting a little annoyed now... Rebuild the whole thing and still not working!
Here is some outputs....

Linux: fdisk -l
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5099 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5100 6374 10241437+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 6375 9729 26949037+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6375 6636 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6637 7159 4200966 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 * 7160 9729 20643493+ 83 Linux

Windows: Bootpart
Physical number of disk 0 : d0f4738c
0 : C:* type=7 (HPFS/NTFS), size= 40957686 KB, Lba Pos=63
1 : C: type=c (Win95 Fat32 LBA), size= 10241437 KB, Lba Pos=81915435
2 : C: type=f (Win95 XInt 13 extended), size= 26949037 KB, Lba Pos=102398310
3 : C: type=82 (Linux swap), size= 2104483 KB, Lba Pos=102398373
4 : C: type=5 (Extended), size= 4200997 KB, Lba Pos=106607340
5 : C: type=83 (Linux native), size= 4200966 KB, Lba Pos=106607403
6 : C: type=5 (Extended), size= 20643525 KB, Lba Pos=115009335
7 : C:* type=83 (Linux native), size= 20643493 KB, Lba Pos=115009398

Windows: Bootpart list
List entry in BOOT.INI
0 : multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
1 : "c:\linux.bin" = "Suse Linux 10.1"

Cheerz

[phisics]

XP has a nasty little habit of messing around with competitors software. So I suggest you, do a paritional installation in a different partition. Install XP first then in a different partition linux. Because if you try to install linux first, XP messes it all up, I know, I have try.

[Maniac0Maniac]

True -- Windows does like to overwrite any bootsectors you have installed. I did install XP 1st, and linux on a seperate partition. I even reinstalled it all last night and it's still not working correctly...

What am I missing ?!?!?

[devils casper]

re-installed? hmmm....
okk... whats error message now? did you install GRUB?






casper

[Maniac0Maniac]

Still the same error message, but this time round I installed Grub on /dev/sda7. Same thing happened

[devils casper]

install GRUB in MBR of disk... boot up from SuSe installation CD/DVD and select 'installation'. in next screen, select 'Upgrade' and click next next ... dont change anything anywhere. this will install GRUB in MBR and you will have dual boot........





casper