Can't get Dual Boot to work

[wjwheels]

I have this 7 year old computer that is running Windows 2000 on a Raid-0 set up. There are 2 20 gig drives in the array. The bios lists the array (for boot purposes) as "RAID 100". Well I added another 20 gig drive (HDD-0) to the box and installed Mint 4.0 on it. The original boot after installation of linux went straight to Windows 2000. The only way I can boot linux is to change boot device in CMOS from "RAID 100" to "HDD-0". When I do that, I get the Grub menu, but it does not give an option to boot Windows 2000. How can I either fix this or edit Grub to include a boot to Windows?

[muskratmx]

I'm not fomilar with RAID setup so you'll have to modify what I say to your raid.

But it would appair that when you installed mint, you installed grub to the MBR of that drive. You have two choices depending on wether or not mint can see that drive.

There should be an example stanza in your grub for booting windows but if not here's mine. You'll have to modify it to your setup.

Code: Select all

# Windows installation on /dev/sda1
title      Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root      (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader   +1

Your other choice it to install grub onto the mbr of the windows drive.

[wjwheels]

Thanks for the quick reply. I think in a Raid array, there is no single THAT drive. The two are intermingled. Anyway this is what my boot.ini file says:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Does that help? What should my "stanza" be in Grub to boot windows?

[muskratmx]

That's a path I couldn't help you with. There is a way. But you got to have grub installed to the boot sector of the linux partiton, which I doudt you have.

I was taking about your linux loader not your windows loader.

Ok if your raid can pick disk. Load your linux disk to boot. After your booted in linux, open the file /boot/grub/menu.lst you must be root to edit it. There's a good grub manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html If you can change your cmos to boot grub then all you need do is edit that file to boot windows.

You would add the afore mentioned stanza edited to fit your array, as I said I know nothing of arrays and addresses for them.
But here is a clipped portion of my menu.lst file showing all three OSs installed.

Code: Select all

title      Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root      (hd0,4)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
boot

# Windows installation on /dev/sda1
title      Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root      (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader   +1

# linux installation on /dev/sda6.
title      Vector Linux
root      (hd0,5)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro hdc=ide-scsi vga = 791 append = "splash=silent hdc=ide-scsi
initrd      /boot/initrd
savedefault
boot

Of course all mine are on one drive (hd0,?) Yours would have one on (hd0,?) and another on (hd1,?) if arrays are the same as regular drives. Grub numbers the drives and parttions starting with 0 as the first.

[muskratmx]

OOOOOK;

Now the lights are coming on REDUNDANT. Raid

So if that's the case your linux and windows are duplacated? each drive has a copy of each?

But apparently the MBRs aren't!

[wjwheels]

Duplicated drives would be an array called Raid-1. My two disks are set up in Raid-0, which in essence makes a 40gb drive out of the 2 20s. Windows shows the boot.ini file to be on Drive C:. Linux (GParted) shows the drives as /dev/hdd and /dev/hde. Both are shown as unallocated space.

I have edited my Grub menu.lst to show the correct menu when Mint 4.0 boots. My problem is that when I arrow down to my Windows line, I get an illegal operation. I just have to find the code, if possible, that will start windows up.

Thanks for your work muskrat.

[muskratmx]

My problem is that when I arrow down to my Windows line, I get an illegal operation

illegal operation? What error exactly is grub giving you?

The grub manual has a list of errors and explanes them.

A raid like that is interesting, is that something your cmos does or you have special software?

[wjwheels]

This is built into the board. It has separate and special ide sockets for the ribbons to the drives. I found a packet called dmraid and installed it. I said my boot.ini was in the Windows C drive, well, after installing dmraid, GParted identifies that partition as "/dev/mapper/lsi_cdabhgiaaaa1". It is the #6 listing in GParted. I since added another drive to possibly make a small partition to move all the boot files to. So now my drives are:

/dev/hda (18.65 GiB) - Linux Mint 4.0 installed here)
/dev/hdb (37.27 GiB) - Newly installed hdd
/dev/hde (19.11 GiB) - 1st drive in Raid-0 array
/dev/hdf (19.11 GiB) - 2nd drive in Raid-0 array
/dev/mapper/lsi-cdabhgiaaaa (38.23 GiB) - Raid Drive as indicated by dmraid program
/dev/mapper/lsi-cdabhgiaaaa1 (12.20 GiB) - Primary partition of Raid Drive as indicated by dmraid program
/dev/mapper/lsi-cdabhgiaaaa5 (26.01 GiB) - Extended partition of Raid Drive as indicated by dmraid program

As indicated, windows has the boot.ini file on the Primary partion of the Raid Drive. Does this make any sense? I'd like to edit the windows "stanza" to show the proper command for root. Instead of (hd0,0). Maybe "root hd5,0). Help! Help!

[muskratmx]

As indicated, windows has the boot.ini file on the Primary partion of the Raid Drive. Does this make any sense? I'd like to edit the windows "stanza" to show the proper command for root. Instead of (hd0,0). Maybe "root hd5,0)

I'm sorry i can't help much with your raid. But your root hda5,0 would sound right if gparted sees it as #6 drive

[wjwheels]

Thanks for the effort. I'm giving up too... for a while anyway. I'll just use it for Linux, and if I want Windoz, I'll just change the boot in the CMOS. I tried putting everything from (hd2,0) to (hd6,0) and the only one I got a response other than "no such disk", was (hd2,0) when it returned something about unknown disk structure 7.0; that isn't exactly what it said, but it was something like that. I do appreciate all your time & work. From what I can google, no-one else seems to have a decent solution either..

[muskratmx]

Sata is still rather new and raids were never intended to be booted daily like a desktop, their main purpose is servers, so you have a rather unique problem.

[nepmak]

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles.php ... _and_linux

Maybe this gives some hints on how to tackle the matter.
BTW. what you described is tmho a description you find when typing "initconfig" in the Windows terminal. This information should not be in a Grub..

[wjwheels]

Thank you nepmak. There's some interesting stuff in that article. I'll have to digest it and do some experimenting. I like the part about putting the boot files on a "separate" hard drive. As noted above, I did add another drive for that purpose. Maybe I can get it to work.

I did find some other stuff on duel-booting when using raid, but it was too complicated for me to tackle. If it ain't p&c, I get lost in a hurry. If anyone can diagram exactly how to move grub to a different disk, please do it.