openSUSE 10.2:problem dual booting windows (recognizing /dev/hda and more....)

[Dreamlocked]

Greetings.

INTRODUCTION

I apologize aforehand if this question has been asked before, but I didn't manage to find an answer to my exact situation in these forums/google using the keywords I used... So... who am I? I'm a newbie in linux. I recently got curious about this operating system, so after some base research, I figured I'd give openSUSE a go.

So I downloaded openSUSE, ran chkdisk and defrag on windows and then proceeded to installing from the DVD. I resized my windows (fat 32) partition to allow 15 GB for linux. All is fine till here, but when the installation is done, I can't manage to boot from both Operating Systems.

At this point, I play around a bit...
I try to give different configurations to GRUB loader,
run the repair system tool from the openSUSE DVD
reinstall openSUSE several times

I often manage to either be able to boot from windows or from linux, but never from both.

THE PROBLEM

After a new reinstall of openSUSE, just when I think I understand what I'm supposed to do, I realize I can no longer access the /dev/hda1 (windows partition) from My Computer in linux. And I can't mount it either.

At this point, I learn more about fstab. I edit it from:

/dev/hda3            /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/hda1            /windows/C           unkown    defaults              0 0
/dev/hda2            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0

to

/dev/hda1            /windows/C           vfat    defaults              0 0

(I only included the second line, which I modified).

I start my system, and while still unable to boot under windows, I can at least check my drive.

SOLUTIONS I TRIED

Under the installation DVD, I try to repair by doing:

tool : REPAIR FILE SYSTEM
I get this error:
“The partition /dev/hda1 contains a valid unkown file system”

tool : START PARTITIONING TOOL
I get this error when I try to resize /dev/hda1
“You cannot resize the selected partition because the file system on this partition does not support resizing.”


QUESTION

So what must I now do to be able to dual boot? Perhaps I should've sought help earlier, but I thought I could do it....


EXTRA
Oh, and if it's useful to anyone,
When I run

sudo fdisk -l

I get

Disk /dev/hda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       10247    82300995    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2           10248       10489     1943865   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3   *       10490       12161    13430340   83  Linux

Thank you for even reading this far! If you can somehow offer some tidbits of help, I'd be really grateful.

Regards,
- Dreamlocked

[Vergil83]

ok, I am a little confused about what is the problem (they may both be). Is it that you have suse installed and now you can't boot into windows or that on suse you can't access your windows partition? For question 2, I think your permission on windows is the issue. Try changing default to rw,noauto,user in you fstab. For question #1, pust your

/boot/grub/menu.lst

so we can have a look at it.

[devils casper]

according to output of fdisk -l command, /dev/hda1 is an Extended Partition. there isn't any /dev/hda5 or hda6 partition. it means Extended partition is Blank. Windows OS is not installed in your System.
post the output of 'df -h' command too.






Casper

[Dreamlocked]

Is it that you have suse installed and now you can't boot into windows

yes

on suse you can't access your windows partition?

I can now, that I edited fstab

according to output of fdisk -l command, /dev/hda1 is an Extended Partition. there isn't any /dev/hda5 or hda6 partition. it means Extended partition is Blank. Windows OS is not installed in your System.
post the output of 'df -h' command too.

I had windows installed before I started installing Suse. I even managed to boot under it once, after installing suse, but never again.
Now I can only access the files in C:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3              13G  3.7G  8.4G  31% /
udev                  633M   76K  633M   1% /dev
/dev/hda1              79G   37G   42G  48% /windows/C
/dev/hdc              3.7G  3.7G     0 100% /media/SU1020.001

I'd like to thank you both for taking interest in this thread.

[Dreamlocked]

For question #1, pust your

/boot/grub/menu.lst

so we can have a look at it.

Sorry, almost forgot:

When opening media:/hda3/boot/grub/menu.lst:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Dec 15 07:39:55 CET 2006
default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.2
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.2
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
    initrd /boot/initrd

title WindowsXP
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader (hd0,0)+1
Type  :quit<Enter>  to exit Vim                               1,1           All

[devils casper]

execute this command in terminal/konsole

less  /boot/grub/menu.lst

Casper

[Dreamlocked]

execute this command in terminal/konsole

less  /boot/grub/menu.lst

Casper

Thanks. Nice to learn new commands.
Edited my previous post though. Managed to get the info with "vi"

[devils casper]

change this part in menu.lst

title WindowsXP
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

on selecting WindowsXP title in GRUB, what does it display? any error message?






Casper

[Dreamlocked]

change this part in menu.lst

title WindowsXP
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

on selecting WindowsXP title in GRUB, what does it display? any error message?

Casper

Before changing menu.lst, I get

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

GRUB
Initializing gfx code...

After changing menu.lst to what you suggest, not much changes

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

GRUB
Initializing gfx code...

After this brief message, I get back to the 3 choices (suse10.2, failsafe, windowsXP)
If I keep selecting windows ==> Endless loop.

I doubt it's of any use, but this line

Initializing gfx code...

lasts only a fraction of a second.


I'd like to requote myself from the opening post:

SOLUTIONS I TRIED

Under the installation DVD, I try to repair by doing:

tool : REPAIR FILE SYSTEM
I get this error:
“The partition /dev/hda1 contains a valid unkown file system”

tool : START PARTITIONING TOOL
I get this error when I try to resize /dev/hda1
“You cannot resize the selected partition because the file system on this partition does not support resizing.”

I have a hunch that there's a hint in solving the problem in these error messages. Then again, I'm a newbie, so I could be wrong.

I also remind that in this installation, under fstab, filesystem on /dev/hda1 was unknown. I manually edited it to vfat to be able to mount and explore C: under linux. This "error" (unkown filesystem) started happening after one of the many reinstalls of openSUSE I did; after that point, the "error" happens systematically if I try to reinstall.

[Vergil83]

you might also add makeactive before the chainloader line