Boot menu does not allow me to choose a OS

[ex-spectator]

I am new to Linux and switched recently after many months of never quite getting around to it. A friend passed a copy of the Linux mint 4.0 live CD to try out on recommendation that it would be the easiest for a not particularly tech-savvy person to get his head around and use. Thinking i would probably won't end up installing it fully for a couple of months or so till i had got used to it i ended up installing it to my computer within 3 days. I have two drives in my computer one 40 GB with windows XP and most of my files on and another which is 160GB which contained my music collection and videos. I created a partition on the second drive onto which i installed Linux. Everything was working great, i passed my music into Amarok and all the other applications are working great and so on.

Unfortunately (or not, depending on your opinion) i can no longer boot windows.

when i turn my computer on a Linux mint menu appears which includes the a timer for around 8 seconds (can't really remember but isn't important) and the options for booting Linux mint, Linux mint in graphics safe mode(?) , other operating systems and windows XP, Linux mint is highlighted so boots once the timer runs out . The problem lies in that but i can't choose any of the other options, i have tried using the arrow keys and more or less every keyboard button but i can't seem to do anything else but boot Linux.

I'm assuming there might be something blatantly obvious that i am missing, any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

(i also have an ipod related problem which i'm not sure to disclose in the same topic or create a new one)

(i also apologize in advance for the misuse of any words or incorrect phrasing relating to Linux which might grate many a Forum-ite over how silly i may be seeming)

(i also apologize for the amount of extra lines i have added in brackets after my main text)

(sorry)

[m5ernel]

Welcome to the forum!
You must add some lines into your Grub loader. Actually it is not very hard for I could do it and I am not very good with Linux. Try this:
1. open the Terminal and enter

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sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

this will open the loader list file.
2. scroll down towards the end. You must have sth. like this:

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title      Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
boot

title      Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro single
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
boot

title      Linux Mint, kernel memtest86+
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

3. add windows menu, whereever within the upper section so it will look sth like:

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title      Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
boot

title      Windows
root      (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader   +1

title      Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro single
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
boot

title      Linux Mint, kernel memtest86+
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

4. save and reboot to try it.

That should do the trick.

[ex-spectator]

Unfortunately this does not solve my problem as when i tried your instructions all that happen was that another "windows" option appeared on my boot menu as well as the options before but i cannot choose it and only Linux mint is highlighted and nothing i do seems to let me choose the option despite it being there. Is there something i am not doing?

[merlwiz79]

Unfortunately this does not solve my problem as when i tried your instructions all that happen was that another "windows" option appeared on my boot menu as well as the options before but i cannot choose it and only Linux mint is highlighted and nothing i do seems to let me choose the option despite it being there. Is there something i am not doing?

Try editing to say this.

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title      Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root      (hd1,0)
savedefault
map      (hd0) (hd1)
map      (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader   +1

[ex-spectator]

Once again the boot menu will not let me do anything with it, i added the code and restarted my computer but no matter what i pressed i still could not select windows, or any other options, when i pressed F1 nothing happened then either, its almost as if the menu was completely ignoring the signals my keyboard is sending and in fact my keyboard acts as if it was "off" (num lock light not lighting when i press num lock until Linux boots) yet before GRUB loads i have a choice between pressing F2 for settings and F11 for boot menu ( which gives me a list of 4 options, which one boots from floppy disk, one loads GRUB one does not do anything and gives me an error message and a fourth which boots from CD. Could it be something do with my keyboard not sending messages to the computer to tell it to select down or something?

if you would like any more details on what exactly I'm doing or anything else , do ask.

[McLovin]

Are you using a wireless, or usb keyboard by any chance? It sounds like your keyboard is not being recognized. Try plugging in a PS/2 (standard) keyboard, and see if it works.