Grub simply won't load Windows

[Zenith88]

Grub installed from 9 or 10 ubuntu simply won't load Windows.
Ubuntu and GRUB on IDE hdd, Windows on SATA HDD.

Installed all default options, just clicked thru install and when attempting to boot Windows XP screen is blank with a blinking cursor in the left top corner.

Same thing happened earlier when I ran Fedora 11 then 12.

Different version of Grub, same result.

Can't Canonic work with Grub developers to at least make a workable configuration for it's default setup?

Searched the web, in a 1000 places same solution is offered: adding a few lines to menu.lst.
1) the lines are already there
2) this is for the old version of grub.

Does grub actually work for anyone out there? Or is it only supposed to work in weird configurations?

[jayd512]

GRUB works perfect for me.
What version of GRUB do you have? Legacy or GRUB2?
Could you post the content of your menu.lst, as well as the output of

fdisk -l

[devils casper]

Linux installer doesn't add mapping code in GRUB configuration file ( menu.lst or grub.conf ) by default. You have to add mapping code manually.

title Windows OS 
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

[Zenith88]

Linux installer doesn't add mapping code in GRUB configuration file ( menu.lst or grub.conf ) by default. You have to add mapping code manually.

title Windows OS 
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Ha-ha! Those lines are already there added by installer. Have always been there to no avail.
Actually, that's for legacy grub. Since grub2 the file is grub.cfg, which is auto-generated by installer:

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sdb1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a9c03999c036eb7
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

[devils casper]

Which version/distro are you using? Ubuntu 9.04, Fedora 11/12 do not use GRUB2 and thats why I suggested mapping code.

Post the output of fdisk -l command here.

[Lostfarmer]

set root='(hd1,1)'

on mine it is : set root=(hd1,1) with no ' ' around the hdd designation. Do not know if that is the problem or not. Some posts on GRUB2 have problems with {search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a9c03999c036eb7} , removing it works for some problems.

[Zenith88]

Which version/distro are you using? Ubuntu 9.04, Fedora 11/12 do not use GRUB2 and thats why I suggested mapping code.

Post the output of fdisk -l command here.

Currently on Ubuntu 10. Nothing has changed.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00054862

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          26      204800   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              26        2576    20480000   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            2576        3098     4194304   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4            3099       19457   131403667+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            3099       19457   131402752   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x20202020

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       38912   312560608+   7  HPFS/NTFS

on mine it is : set root=(hd1,1) with no ' ' around the hdd designation. Do not know if that is the problem or not. Some posts on GRUB2 have problems with {search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a9c03999c036eb7} , removing it works for some problems.

My point is that the distro installer performs grub configuration and every time it's wrong. If so many different installers in different versions of Linux just can't configure grub properly, and for such a rudimentally simple installation, then something is wrong with communication between gnu and linux teams.

In plain English it's called communication breakdown or negligence on the gnu/grub devs part, who are systematically failing to properly document their product. If not worse (but which I am convinced is the true root cause) and grub is simply a non-functional decoy.

Lilo just worked and I could boot DOS, QNX, OS/2, NT and several Linuxes from a bunch of hard drives. Grub is nothing but problems.

[hatebreed]

did you try lostfarmers sugguestion by taking the search line out? and have you tried to change the device map section to the (hd1) instead of (hd0)? don't know if this will work but I've had a lot of issues with grub 2 as well. I thought that grub 1 worked better and all the scripting and uuid are causing some issues.

[jayd512]

Try updating your grub.cfg file.
It may end up detecting Windows after the fact.
Editing the file by hand won't work, so run this:

sudo update-grub

[Zenith88]

Try updating your grub.cfg file.
It may end up detecting Windows after the fact.
Editing the file by hand won't work, so run this:

sudo update-grub

I lost the count of how many times I did that.
Let me re-iterate: Windows IS detected. It just does not BOOT.

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sdb1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a9c03999c036eb7
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

did you try lostfarmers sugguestion by taking the search line out?

I have no motivation to do so, as the file is generated and the generating program apparently wants those lines to be there.