GRUB Problem while installing Mandriva 2006 using floppy

[coconutpalm]

Hello. I am trying to install Mandriva 2006 on my Windows XP machine, and I am not able to make any progress. I hope some kind soul can help me with this problem.

Configuration: Windows XP already loaded, single hard drive, CD-RW drive, floppy drive

I have the Mandriva 2006 DVD and using the LAN, I copied the contents of the entire DVD to the only FAT 32 partition on my machine in a directory called "mandrive_source".

My "menu.lst" file:
timeout 0
default 0
title Mandrake Install
root (hd0,6)
kernel /mandriva_source/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=128000
root=/dev/ram3 acpi=ht vga=788
automatic=method:disk,partition=hda7,directory=/mandriva_source
initrd /mandriva_source/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz

I made the boot floppy using instructions on the Mandriva 2006 DVD.

When I insert the floppy and reboot the machine, the machine starts to boot fromthe floppy. So far so good.

GRUB takes over and here are the messages on the screen:

GRUB loading install......

Booting 'Mandrake Install'

root (hd0, 6)
Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xb
kernel /mandriva_source/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=128000
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1e00, size=0x17c8e9]
root=/dev/ram3 acpi=ht vga=788

Error 11: Unrecognized device string

Press any key to continue...

What is this Error 11? After this, I am not able to proceed further with Mandriva installation. Any help would be highly appreciated.

[fingal]

Hello

I've never installed Linux that way. Where did you get the idea from? You can't install it on a FAT 32 partition because Linux has its own filesystem types. Normally you would figure out how much spare room you have on the disk, and allocate partitions from inside Mandriva's installer. You could select a bootloader during the installation process (GRUB or LILO) ...

To boot into Mandriva's installer you need to change the boot order of your disks in your BIOS, so you are booting from the Linux dvd. Then you follow the steps from there ... Being careful not to overwrite Windows in your case.

Edit: I've never dual booted with Windows - so maybe part of what you're trying to do is right. To me though, it looks quite complicated!

[coconutpalm]

Hello

I've never installed Linux that way. Where did you get the idea from? You can't install it on a FAT 32 partition because Linux has its own filesystem types. Normally you would figure out how much spare room you have on the disk, and allocate partitions from inside Mandriva's installer. You could select a bootloader during the installation process (GRUB or LILO) ...

To boot into Mandriva's installer you need to change the boot order of your disks in your BIOS, so you are booting from the Linux dvd. Then you follow the steps from there ... Being careful not to overwrite Windows in your case.

Edit: I've never dual booted with Windows - so maybe part of what you're trying to do is right. To me though, it looks quite complicated!

Sorry I didn't mention the fact clearly that I am trying to dual-boot.

I did not plan to install Mandriva on a FAT32 partition. The reason I created the FAT32 partition was to copy the contents of the Mandriva 2006 DVD. The rest of my partitions are NTFS, but I wasn't quite sure if that would be ok, so I created a FAT32 partition.

My hard drive is 40 GB, and I have Windows partitions on 30 GB space. I have 10 GB free space at the end on which I was planning to install Mandriva.

I cannot boot from the Mandrive 2006 DVD because the machine only has a CD-RW drive. I copied the DVD contents onto the hard drive using a networked DVD drive.

I already changed the boot order, and it does start to boot from the floppy. GRUB takes control, then I get Error 11.

[fingal]

Hi - this isn't so easy to unravel, but I was curious enough to search on Google, and finally to download and read part of the GRUB manual. And what a good manual it is! The effort that must have gone into it!

They even list all the error messages that GRUB can come up with. Apparently you have a syntax error in your GRUB setup ... That's what the Error 11 message means: a string is expected which isn't there. Quite what that 'expected string' is I'm not sure, but it looks like being the path to your kernel, and/or the path to a hard drive, a partition or both. Or, something is named incorrectly: your kernel? Looks like you may have to manually edit a few things.

GRUB is large and needs time to understand, so all I can do is refer you to this excellent tutorial on this site.

[coconutpalm]

Hi - this isn't so easy to unravel, but I was curious enough to search on Google, and finally to download and read part of the GRUB manual. And what a good manual it is! The effort that must have gone into it!

They even list all the error messages that GRUB can come up with. Apparently you have a syntax error in your GRUB setup ... That's what the Error 11 message means: a string is expected which isn't there. Quite what that 'expected string' is I'm not sure, but it looks like being the path to your kernel, and/or the path to a hard drive, a partition or both. Or, something is named incorrectly: your kernel? Looks like you may have to manually edit a few things.

GRUB is large and needs time to understand, so all I can do is refer you to this excellent tutorial on this site.

Thank you. I downloaded the tutorial that you mentioned.

[coconutpalm]

fingal: thanks for taking the time out to respond to my problem.

Summary: Installed Mandriva 2006 on Windows XP machine using Mandriva 2006 source on the Windows XP machine in a FAT32 partition

Post-install: In the Windows XP partition, I installed two programs to access files on Linux Ext2 partitions: Ext2IFS (Ext2 Installable File System for Windows) and Explore2fs

Installation proceeded smoothly and I am able to boot into both Uncle Bill's OS and Mandriva.

I removed the following line from the "menu.lst" file, and everything proceeded smoothly after that:

root=/dev/ram3 acpi=ht vga=788

So my "menu.lst" file was like this:

timeout 0
default 0
title Mandrake Install
root (hd0,6)
kernel /mandriva_source/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=128000
initrd /mandriva_source/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz
automatic=method:disk,partition=hda7,directory=/mandriva_source

Everything proceeded smoothly after that.

Some of the screen instructions:

Welcome to Mandriva Linux release 2006, Sep 23 2005 11:44:39

Please choose...
Please choose the installation method.

NFS server
FTP server
HTTP server
KA server
CDROM drive
Hard disk
Load third party modules

I chose Hard disk and pressed Ok.

Please choose...
Please select the partition containing the copy of the Mandriva Linux Distribution install source.

[bunch of partitions on my hard drive]
hda7 (size: 2990 Mbytes, type: FAT32)
...

I chose hda7 and pressed Ok.

Please enter the directory (or ISO image file) containing the Mandriva Linux Distribution install source.

I entered: mandriva_source, because I had previously copied the contents of the Mandriva DVD onto X:\mandriva_source

Language choice
Please choose a language to use.
Licence agreement
etc. etc.