bootloading vista from grub

[aanchal8]

I have installed fedora and using grub as a master boot loader,how to add Vista's boot entry to grub.On googling i found this-

and added entry in /etc/grub.conf or /boot/grub/menu.lst as
title windows vista
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Adding this shows me an entry of windows vista in grub,but when i click it
o/p-
MBR missing
press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart
How can i boot my windows then,
also in fedora when i try to open any other drive it tells me unable to mount,see the attached screenshot(file extensn-.png)
Please reply if someone can help me out

forgot to attach the snapshot,here it goes..............

[Tylon Foxx]

on which linux disk and partition is Winodows located at?

you've got:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,1)

the above may be what you did wrong. This marks that Windows is located on /dev/sda2.

an example:
(hd0,0) is sda1
(hd0,1) is sda2
(hd1,0) is sdb1
and so on

you need to know which sdXY contains Windows. X marks disk and Y marks partition.

so you would need to enter:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hdX,Y)
makeactive
chainloader +1

just tell me which disk contains Windows and i'll write the proper GRUB booter for you.

[aanchal8]

on which linux disk and partition is Winodows located at?

you've got:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,1)

the above may be what you did wrong. This marks that Windows is located on /dev/sda2.

an example:
(hd0,0) is sda1
(hd0,1) is sda2
(hd1,0) is sdb1
and so on

you need to know which sdXY contains Windows. X marks disk and Y marks partition.

so you would need to enter:

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hdX,Y)
makeactive
chainloader +1

just tell me which disk contains Windows and i'll write the proper GRUB booter for you.

its sda3 where vista is located

For your information-
on doing fdisk -l
device boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 25 200781 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 26 1984 15728640 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1984 26871 199906300 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 26871 38914 96733184 f W95Extd(LBA)
/dev/sda5 32899 38914 48311296 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 26872 26896 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 26897 32898 48211033+ 8e LinuxLVM

//here my c(vista) drive is of the order-
//195GB of memory

Partition table enteries are not in disk order
Disk/dev/dm-0:44.1 GB,44124078080 bytes
255 heads,63 sectors/track,5364 cyliners
Units-cylinders of 16065*512=8225280 bytes
Disk identifier :0x00000000

Disk/dev/dm-0 doesnt contain a valid partition table

Disk/dev/dm-1:5200MB,5200936960bytes
255 heads,63 sectors/track,632 cylinders
units=cylinders of 16065*512=8225280bytes
Disk identifier:0x30307800

Disk/dev/dm-1 doesnt contain a valid partition table

[Tylon Foxx]

I assume sda2 is the c drive, am i right?
at least you need to use one of the drives listed as with HPFS/NTFS.

so it's either:
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)

or
rootnoverify (hd0,4)

...that needs to be inserted in GRUB

you can test it in GRUB itself.

/dev/dm-x has nothing to do with hard drives

[aanchal8]

nope sda3 is my c drive

Thanks Tylon,i tried with (hd0,2) and it worked

now how to mount vista on linux??????????
Refer the attached snapshot in the beginning
Do reply

I assume sda2 is the c drive, am i right?
at least you need to use one of the drives listed as with HPFS/NTFS.

so it's either:
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)

or
rootnoverify (hd0,4)

...that needs to be inserted in GRUB

you can test it in GRUB itself.

/dev/dm-x has nothing to do with hard drives

A problem occurred
I installed linux from a DVD
Grub is booting vista but,i didnt check this,linux is not able to boot without dvd in cd drive,i mean i am no where selecting to boot from cd it goes to grub but does not successfully boot if i eject dvd from cd drive and gives o/p as

Reading all physical volumes.This may take a while.....
Found volume group "vg_jesus" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_jesus",now active
mount:could not find file system '/dev/root'
usb 3-1.1:new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address3
usb 3-1.1:New USB device found,idVendor=413c,idProduct=8157
usb 3-1.1:New USB device strings:Mfr=0,Product=0,Serial Number=0
usb 3-1.1:configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input:HID 413c:8157 as /devices/pci000:00/0000:00:1a:0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.0/input/input8
generic-usb 0003:413c:8158.0002:input,hidraw1:USB HID v 1.11
Mouse [HID 413C :8158 on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2/input0

[Tylon Foxx]

that is very strange indeed. Sure you didn't do anything wrong @ GRUB installation?

Are you sure the Kernel and Initrd paths are 100% correct?

If you can get access to your existing Linux install, then you can go look in the /boot folder. The initrd and kernel files should be there unless the Fedora crew changed that somehow.

The main problem is that GRUB cannot find /dev/root (it should be /dev/sda6 if i'm not mistaken).

Can you copy/paste or attach the menu.lst and/or the grub.conf file?. The /boot/grub/menu.lst is the one I would prefer.
could be nice to have a wee look at it

now how to mount vista on linux??????????
Refer the attached snapshot in the beginning
Do reply

in order to mount the Vista partition on Linux, first make sure you have ntfs3g installed (you should have if running the newest fedora version). ntfs3g is an NTFS read/write driver.
then restart and boot into fedora. if you have automounting enabled, it should be there already, else enter the terminal and type in "mount /dev/<vista drive> /mnt/vista (or /media/vista)" (sans quotes). This should mount your vista drive filesystem to the path /mnt/vista. I can't remember, however, if this requres root privileges. If so, add "sudo or su" in front of the command.

[aanchal8]

that is very strange indeed. Sure you didn't do anything wrong @ GRUB installation?

Are you sure the Kernel and Initrd paths are 100% correct?

If you can get access to your existing Linux install, then you can go look in the /boot folder. The initrd and kernel files should be there unless the Fedora crew changed that somehow.

The main problem is that GRUB cannot find /dev/root (it should be /dev/sda6 if i'm not mistaken).

Can you copy/paste or attach the menu.lst and/or the grub.conf file?. The /boot/grub/menu.lst is the one I would prefer.
could be nice to have a wee look at it



in order to mount the Vista partition on Linux, first make sure you have ntfs3g installed (you should have if running the newest fedora version). ntfs3g is an NTFS read/write driver.
then restart and boot into fedora. if you have automounting enabled, it should be there already, else enter the terminal and type in "mount /dev/<vista drive> /mnt/vista (or /media/vista)" (sans quotes). This should mount your vista drive filesystem to the path /mnt/vista. I can't remember, however, if this requres root privileges. If so, add "sudo or su" in front of the command.

pls find the attached doc

that file was not opening in text format,here it goes...........

[Tylon Foxx]

Thanks a lot
This is your GRUB.conf. Everything looks like it's in order.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,5)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/vg_peace/lv_root
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,5)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586)
        root (hd0,5)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586 ro root=UUID=d09330fb-1720-455b-b6b1-07d2219f3b54 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586.img
title windows vista
        rootnoverify (hd0,2)
        chainloader +1
~

Except for a few things:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586 ro root=UUID=d09330fb-1720-455b-b6b1-07d2219f3b54 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586.img

first off, kernel and initrd images are supposed to be in /boot, not in root (/). It's been like that in EVERY single distro i've used over the years (White box enterprise, DSL, Ubuntu 6/7/8, Gentoo, Yellowdog, Slackware, Wolvix, Sabayon and Gentoo). However, this is only if you didn't create a seperate /boot partition.

Second, I don't know if it's because of some formatting the text program did, but every parameter needs to be written on one line only.

Third, the "ro" parameter only needs to be there IF Fedora boots off of a JFS filesystem.

Fourth, If you use a seperate /boot partition, you need to add a parameter that states the real root (where / is supposed to be)

so try:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,5)/grub/splash.xpm.gz #does this load correctly?
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586 ro root=UUID=d09330fb-1720-455b-b6b1-07d2219f3b54 rhgb quiet root=/dev/sda7 #needs to be configured to where your OS root really is. If Fedora uses Genkernel for kernel compiles, use real_root instead
initrd /initrd-2.6.29-0.66.rc3.fc11.i586.img
title windows vista
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

[aanchal8]

Not working and now even if i try booting form cd its not working,I m not even able to enter set up
something same as this appears -
Reading all physical volumes.This may take a while.....
Found volume group "vg_jesus" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_jesus",now active
mount:could not find file system '/dev/root'
usb 3-1.1:new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address3
usb 3-1.1:New USB device found,idVendor=413c,idProduct=8157
usb 3-1.1:New USB device strings:Mfr=0,Product=0,Serial Number=0
usb 3-1.1:configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input:HID 413c:8157 as /devices/pci000:00/0000:00:1a:0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.0/input/input8
generic-usb 0003:413c:8158.0002:input,hidraw1:USB HID v 1.11
Mouse [HID 413C :8158 on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2/input0

Booting now from cd,i didnt change anything just ejected cd and inserted it again,but the previous issue is still there.......,and system is not booting without cd in harddrive

I tried to reinstall linux before what u said to try out,when it came to drive selection,i selected the option of replacing existing system and it showed the the partitions and drives present in my system,just check that out,i ma attaching the doc

[Rudra.J]

Just do this and it will work for sure. Install windows again by formatting windows nad linux partitions. Then when windows is installed, install Linux on the other partition. Then when done, reboot and check if both the boot options are show. This is the common and most preferred way of dual booting a computer system.

[aanchal8]

problem is not of dual booting,it shows me both options on grub and evn boot if i have my fedora alpha cd in harddrive(both vista and linux) though i dont select booting from cd.It boots from my harddrive but if i eject that cd it doesnt boots
and says cannot mount /dev/root(refer previous comments)

And as far as installation is concerned i did it in the same way as u said,vista and then linux

[aanchal8]

Thanks tylon for all your help,i got it done,i reinstalled linux and reset the partitions and again created them(one swap and other ext3(wid / as my mounting point).Previously it was /boot as a mounting point and also some LVM volume groups also created,donno how..................,i mean i just referred one of my friend's installation and then reseted my partitions to create new ones
Thanks for all who tried helping me and tylon ofcourse 1nce gain