GRUB2 chainload NTLDR from ext4: "Bad Signature"?

[aaron11193]

Hey all, I have been trying to do a dual boot of Ubuntu and WinXP for a while now on and off, my Ubuntu works fine but I can't get GRUB2 to chainload NTLDR from the /boot directory, I get the "Bad Signature" error..

I have no idea what this means and Googling hasn't helped much..

Here is how my partitions are set up on my laptop:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006dbbb

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       24918   200153803+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2           24919       25179     2096482+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3           25180       30401    41945715    7  HPFS/NTFS

I have the 1024 cylinder BIOS restriction so I can't chainload it directly, so I copied NTLDR and boot.ini to /boot on /dev/sda1..

I type this into the GRUB2 console:

root=(hd0,3)
chainload (hd0,1)/boot/NTLDR

and booting that gives "Error: Bad Signature"..

Anyone care to lend a hand?

Thanks, Aaron.

[Lostfarmer]

I have the 1024 cylinder BIOS restriction so I can't chainload it directly,

Have you tried ? If you have a comp with that limit in bios (pre 2000) then I would think XP would not run on it. A lot of partitioning software will give that warning but just disregard it. Once you are in grub the limit would likely not matter any way (only a guess).

[aaron11193]

Yes i have tried chainloading from the NTFS partition but I get the "Out of disk" error

Once in GRUB, the limit still matters because GRUB has to tell the BIOS to load code. The limit only stops mattering when you load a kernel

[HROAdmin26]

Because of the 1024 cylinder limit that NTLDR can't handle, you will probably need to install XP to the first partition.

That will allow NTLDR to work and GRUB can boot Linux from a higher partition.

Example:

/dev/sda1   *           1        1951    15671376    7  HPFS/NTFS   <== XP (C Drive)
/dev/sda2            1952        8453    52227315    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            8454        8465       96390   83  Linux   <== Linux /boot
/dev/sda4            8466       19457    88293240    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            8466        8589      995998+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            8590       10084    12008556   83  Linux   <== Linux /
/dev/sda7           10085       18473    67384611   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           18474       19457     7903948+  83  Linux

[aaron11193]

I've tried having a /boot partition at the start of the disk before, then the NTFS partition straight after that, then the Linux partitions, but GRUB2 gave me the "out of disk" error for the initrd.img, so I had to manually type all the commands to boot Ubuntu.

[devils casper]

I've tried having a /boot partition at the start of the disk before, then the NTFS partition straight after that, then the Linux partitions, but GRUB2 gave me the "out of disk" error for the initrd.img, so I had to manually type all the commands to boot Ubuntu.

Did you re-install OSes or changed partition structure only? Did you execute update-grub2 command after changing partition structure?

[aaron11193]

I reinstall Windows every time but not Ubuntu, and yes I fix GRUB every time too..

[devils casper]

Post the partition structure of your Harddisk here.

sudo fdisk -l

so I had to manually type all the commands to boot Ubuntu.

Which command(s) do you execute at GRUB to load Ubuntu? Does Windows OS boot up fine by default.

[aaron11193]

Already did, see first post.

To boot Ubuntu I had to type in:

root=(hd0,1)
linux /boot/vmlinuz.......
initrd /boot/initrd.......
boot

basically what the grub.cfg has in it except it gets an error on the initrd line, but the boot command forces the boot.

And no, even when I had NTFS inside the cylinder limit it would throw up the dreaded hal.dll error.. Don't know why though.. I used to have Windows on here till I 'saw the light' so to speak

It's not awfully important that I get this working, I would just like to be able to boot XP for my ipod and gaming needs..