Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

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dmj99

Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by dmj99 »

After a weekend of experimenting I finally got grub 2 to boot up all my operating systems. My setup is as follows: Disk 1, Win7 and Mint 8 (with grub 2 installed on (hd0); Disk 2, XP and Vista in a dual boot configuration. After installing Mint, I notice that XP would not boot up properly. I copied and then edited the original windows menuentries from grub.cfg and came up with a 40_custom file that works perfectly. I also turned off execute on 30_os-prober and 20_memtest86+.

Code: Select all

menuentry "Windows 7" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 883ee7c23ee7a780
	chainloader +1
}

menuentry "Vista" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8684e6a784e698c7
	chainloader +1

}

menuentry "Windows XP" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8684e6a784e698c7
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
Where the UUID of the Vista and XP entries are the UUID of sdb1. Well worth the effort :D
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
bobd13045

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by bobd13045 »

I'm running Mint 8. I have Mint on one partition and Windows on the other partition. Currently my system boots Mint 8 by default.
How do I make it boot to Windows 7 by default? In other words change the boot order.

Bob
dmj99

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by dmj99 »

The file /etc/default/grub allows you to edit the default OS that is booted up as well as some other variable. Use gksudo gedit to open the file and change the line GRUB_DEFAULT=0, replacing 0 with the number corresponding to the OS you want as the new default (i.e., if Windows 7 is the 5th line in the grub menu, you would set GRUB_DEFAULT=4). Then run sudo update-grub. Should be all set. Might have to fiddle with permissions a little bit.
breaker

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by breaker »

dmj99 wrote:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Windows 7" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 883ee7c23ee7a780
	chainloader +1
}
Well, I tried to do it this way to play with uuid, but whenever I used the search, it would cause chainloade to be not loaded. I guess I would have to add insmod chain. Also, I think the set root= is redundant if you already have search --fs-uuid --set 883ee7c23ee7a780, but I'm not positive, I guess there is only one way to find out....
dmj99

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by dmj99 »

Your UUID in grub needs to be the ID of your win7 installation. Windows 7 creates two paritions, a small 100 MB one for system files and a larger one. On my system, I use the UUID of the first windows 7 partition (the small one). Seems to work for me. BLKID will show you your UUID's.
breaker

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by breaker »

dmj, if you are talking to me, I know all of that already, but thanks anyway. :)
..
I'm saying the setup above works for me, just as long as I leave off the "search" line OR put it above the menu entry. Yup blkid, I know how to useit, etc.

To clarify, if I put the search --fs--uuid line with my Windows bootloader uuid, it does a "unknown command chainloader." If I use search in a linux menu entry, I get unknown command linux. Unless boot, I drop to a console and play around with it; resetting the "set root=" to the boot partition of win, doing a makeactive, doing an insmod chain, doing chainloader +1, then finally typing a "boot" command. Well, at first I did that to figure it out, but I could have added insmod chain and insmod ntfs to my entry before boot. The problem with search screwing up what's loaded populates to all menu entries after I try one with the bug, that is until I ctrl-alt-del to reboot out of grub. When I'm back in grub, my good menu entries work, or I can go in and remove the search line from any of my chainloader entries and the work fine. Fortunately, I don't need to use search on my system to find the partition I need to boot, but I was trying it out to see if I could get it working. I am using the grub-pc version from the Gloria repository, which is older than the Helena version, so I am going to boot into Helena and install that version instead.
breaker

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by breaker »

Search works now. I upgraded to GRUB1.97beta4 to first fix the strange search bug, then used search with the shorthand switches; -n = --no-floppy, -u = --fs-uuid, etc.) The -s switch sets the found uuid as root. This makes a line like set root= unnecessary.

UUID example that works on my system:

Code: Select all

menuentry "WinXP64 (test UUID)" {
	search -n -u 06e4a1eae4a1dbe5 -s
	chainloader +1
}
Tjabo

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by Tjabo »

I've been fighting for a week trying to get a dual boot setup (XP and Mint) working again on the Compaq Presario sr1720nx desktop my daughters use. Previously this computer had XP Home edition in a proprietary installation from Compaq, and on top of that I had Mint, probably Helena I think. . .

Everything worked well until one day when I used GParted to move some partitions around a bit. After that, XP wouldn't boot up past the initial screen where the little blinking cursor shows up in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Over the past few days I have reinstalled XP Pro over and over again, and every time I install a version of mint, the XP stops booting. Does anyone have an idea? It might be a piece of hardware that has gone bad, but I have no clue.

Thanks in advance!
wayne128

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by wayne128 »

Tjabo wrote:I've been fighting for a week trying to get a dual boot setup (XP and Mint) working again on the Compaq Presario sr1720nx desktop my daughters use. Previously this computer had XP Home edition in a proprietary installation from Compaq, and on top of that I had Mint, probably Helena I think. . .

Everything worked well until one day when I used GParted to move some partitions around a bit. After that, XP wouldn't boot up past the initial screen where the little blinking cursor shows up in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Over the past few days I have reinstalled XP Pro over and over again, and every time I install a version of mint, the XP stops booting. Does anyone have an idea? It might be a piece of hardware that has gone bad, but I have no clue.

Thanks in advance!
Start by taking a look at your hard disk partitions.
To do that, use your Mint Live CD and boot with Live CD, then, on terminal, type sudo fdisk -l and post the result.
Tjabo

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by Tjabo »

Oh shoot, I started doing another version of re-install already! :oops:

For what it's worth, I had done full reformats of the entire hard drive with the Windows XP Pro install on two of these installs, and then I did the "install side by side" option with Mint 10, and gave it about 130gigs of the 160gig drive. Does that help, or is it still possible there was something funny with the partitions?

So, if I'm going to reinstall everything again, is there anything I should keep in mind as I go? (I've got two other computers running nicely on very similar setups with XP Pro/Mint 9 and XP Pro/Mint 10, and a third computer running XP Pro 64bit/Mint 8)

Thanks for the help!

Thad
linuxuser159

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by linuxuser159 »

why 4 operating systems !!!

i am too lazy to reboot my system and always use suspend mode.

just wondering
lmintnewb

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by lmintnewb »

Why ask why ... try bud dry ?

People just want things, for whatever reasons. I'm up to 3 operating systems now. Might stay here ... might install some more. People are always looking for better this n that. The last OS I installed really looks like the only one I'll be using the vast majority of the time. But that could change, people are saying this one is great and that one is great.

Makes you wonder if there really is summin better out there. This last OS is night and day ... More than I expected by far. Will never know unless someone tries em out. Though in this case, having 3 M$ OS's installed seems to me to be going in the wrong direction. Wanting more M$ craptasticness in my life is not something I want. But each their own I guess. :D
linuxuser159

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by linuxuser159 »

i was just wondering out of curiosity.

I think it is practical to have 3/4 OSs. Today, I needed to fill a pdf form and could not find a suitable app in linux. I ended up using gimp and losing some of the form resolution. I think it is practical to have two linux systems and two windows systems:

- One stable and lean linux OS for productivity (e.g. scientific computing)
- One desktop oriented up-to-date linux OS for daily desktop use
- One win XP 32-bit for certain legacy 16bit apps, 32bit apps, gaming - apps that have no linux alternative or does not run properly on wine
- One win 7 64-bit for certain apps that have no linux alternative as well (eg. engineering) or does not run well on wine

at the moment i only have linux mint debian and my xp partition which I am still trying to boot. but i am thinking about deleting the xp partition anyways.

there is no right or wrong when choosing a distro. it depends on your personality, your hardware, and your purpose for use. i have tried many distors in the past years, enough to reach a point where i see all distros basically as the same (linux kernel with a desktop environment). the only possible combination i would have is one lean stable distro and one up-to-date desktop distro. beyond that it is just for the fun of it.
CyberNerdz

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by CyberNerdz »

Please move this if it needed but I saw this topic regarding "Quadruple boot". which I thought might be relevant.

I have been evaluating different distros this past few weeks to determine which I will be moving my desktops to. I started with Ubuntu (Wubi) install , which was on the same partition of my laptop's 750GB drive that also ran Windows 7 Ultimate 64. I was urged this weekend to try other distros and see how I would like it. The third OS I installed was OpenSuSe 11.4 on a separate newly created partition. This went smoothly as it installed Grub 1.5 loader that gave me the choice to go to my Windows bootloader with the option to boot to Windows 7 or Ubuntu 11.04:

Image

Pushing my luck even further, I wanted to install Mint on a new partition. After shrinking my Windows partition I was able to gain another 20GB partition for my Linux Mint 10 install.

Now the problem. I'm suspecting while installing Mint that I should have not have chosen the Windows loader as one of the options during install. What is happening now when I chose Windows 7 or Ubuntu 11.04 from OpenSuSe Grub 1.5, it takes me to GNU Grub 1.98+20100804. This menu gives me options to boot to Mint, OpenSuse or Windows. When I choose Windows it just loops back to the same screen after a few seconds.

Image

I went to press "e" for edit on the Windows to see the settings:

Code: Select all

instmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0.msdos1)'
search - - nofloppy - - fs-uuid - - set 880cfd860cfd6f94
chainloader +1
Choosing Linux Mint is now giving me an error and wont let me boot to Mint anymore. I get this:

Code: Select all

Gave up waiting for root device
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - check rootdelay
   - Check root= 
- Missing modules ( cat /proc/modules;ls/dev)
Alert! /dev/disk/by-uuid/alff754d-a4343-8b7b-c0c87e755558 does not exist
Dropping Shell!

(init tramfs)
From OpenSuse:

Code: Select all

df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                 15G  4.0G   11G  29% /
devtmpfs              1.8G  196K  1.8G   1% /dev
tmpfs                 1.9G  2.7M  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda6              15G  4.0G   11G  29% /
/dev/sda7             8.1G  1.3G  6.5G  16% /home
/dev/sda1             660G  392G  268G  60% /windows/C
I know this is not the best way have a quad-boot OS and quite honestly I blame myself for not planning it more carefully. My question now is, is it possible to recover booting to my Windows bootloader and get a working menu between Windows and Ubuntu? How can I fix my boot problem with Linux Mint?

Any help will be greatly appreciated and desperately needed.
SkinnySeal

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by SkinnySeal »

I had a similar problem a few years back when I deleted my Linux partition and I was left with a useless grub boot loader. I was running Windows XP at the time. I was able to restore the Windows boot loader separately, but I don't recall if this was done from via booting from some Windows CD or possibly something in the BIOS menu. Once the Windows boot loader is re-installed, you should be able to re-install Mint, and then the grub2 loader should then recognise the other O/S systems on your hard drive - leaving you with a corrected grub2 boot loader with access to Windows 7, Mint and Susie.
Terrel Shumway

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by Terrel Shumway »

linuxuser159 wrote:why 4 operating systems !!!

i am too lazy to reboot my system and always use suspend mode.

just wondering
why? For me, it is security by isolation: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/qub ... ,3009.html

BTW: Fedora 15 wiped out my win7 bootloader (yes, I know it was my fault: NO WARRANTY yada yada) about a month ago and I have been too lazy to fix it. Funny thing, though -- I don't miss it. I fire up windows XP inside VirtualBox when I need it, which isn't very often.

I do, however, have 6+ different Linux installs that I have been playing with...
paladin_knight

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by paladin_knight »

I was once a MULTI BOOT maniac. I have 8 operating systems installed including Windows. I got 5/6 Linux versions. But then, I realise that one operating system can ENOUGH do many things. Why would I bother my time to reboot and change operating system just to do same thing?. SO, I decided to pick up my Ubuntu as my champion LINUX.. at that time. Until now, I have been using Ubuntu as my trusted Linux distro. I am trying Linux Mint though now. :D
StingRayz

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by StingRayz »

dmj99 wrote:After a weekend of experimenting I finally got grub 2 to boot up all my operating systems. My setup is as follows: Disk 1, Win7 and Mint 8 (with grub 2 installed on (hd0); Disk 2, XP and Vista in a dual boot configuration. After installing Mint, I notice that XP would not boot up properly. I copied and then edited the original windows menuentries from grub.cfg and came up with a 40_custom file that works perfectly. I also turned off execute on 30_os-prober and 20_memtest86+.

Code: Select all

menuentry "Windows 7" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 883ee7c23ee7a780
	chainloader +1
}

menuentry "Vista" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8684e6a784e698c7
	chainloader +1

}

menuentry "Windows XP" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8684e6a784e698c7
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
Where the UUID of the Vista and XP entries are the UUID of sdb1. Well worth the effort :D
Name one thing that Vista is good for at this point, that 7 or XP can not do faster and better? Bye the way, XP and mint 8 are completely obsolite, though some of the games they still play might be fun.
horacio_chiarella

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by horacio_chiarella »

A simple question. If i have the grub from linux and i have windows too, i should keep anyway de "system" partition, usefull to initalizing windows?
Ionix

Re: Quadruple boot, XP, Vista, Win7, and Mint 8--SOLVED

Post by Ionix »

I much like my sleeper install, I installed the grub loader on a 4 GB sd card (along with mounting my home partition to it) during mint installation, set the grub timeout to 0 and set my Bios boot order to load from the multi-reader first, then try the hard disk. As long as my card is inserted, it will boot directly to Linux. :D

When I was playing with multi-boot menus I used EasyBCD to edit the windows boot menu (still with grub timeout=0 so I didn't see it) and it would be incredibly easy to multi-boot since the windows entries are built into it. Of course, not the best way if you're a fan of the grub menu over the basic windows boot loader menu.

Horacio, I wouldn't recommend doing anything to the system reserved drive for windows, 100mb shouldn't be a big deal these days and it may still be used to initialize windows. I'd say it's better leaving it as is rather than risk destroying windows.
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