boot

[jonniemuk]

am running mint8 & winxp dual boot but to use mint i have to first boot into windows then restart and go into linux else if i don't and directly go to linux from the menu in the grub the system just shows a black screen and doesn't load x. why is it so and what can i do to resolve this problem.

[Jonathan183]

try booting mint in text mode and see what error messages you get

[th1bill]

Regularly dual boot windows and various linux distros, including mint and this is truly an odd bird. Without the machine or some of the messages, I donīt believe anybody can help. Just as jonathon183 has stated, the messages are needed to begin.

[anotherzeb]

Also a copy of your menu.lst and details of partitions that the different OSs are on might help

[elija]

I have heard of a similar effect where a piece of hardware requires firmware to be loaded by Windows and then a warm restart keeps the firmware loaded. Never heard of that with a graphics card though

[jonniemuk]

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme ###
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe
insmod png
if background_image /boot/grub/linuxmint.png ; then
set color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=white/light-gray
else
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Linux Mint 8 Helena, linux 2.6.31-14-generic (/dev/sda5)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Linux Mint 8 Helena, linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=0a6a4c60-45c2-4a2e-a31b-2e3dd1049bfe ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 901433ee1433d646
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

thats my copy of grub.cfg in mint thats what its called, menu.lst is for open suse. but i intend to sweep of xp and go purely linux after your reply.

[twoHats]

That looks like GRUB 2 to me... have you installed GRUB 2? I don't believe Mint 8 came with GRUB 2...

Now if you could give us the results of:

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

you may need to use a different hard drive - like hda.

[devils casper]

Post the output of these commands too

cat /etc/lsb-release
lspci | grep -i vga