Re: Dual boot issue: GRUB/NTLDR etc.

Douglas Mayne wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:23:05 +0000, BlueGecko wrote:
Douglas Mayne wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 20:18:00 +0000, BlueGecko wrote:
Douglas Mayne wrote: 
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:18:39 +0000, BlueGecko wrote:

I'm deeeeply frustrated, guys... :o(

I'm struggling to dual boot my Debian Sarge with a pre-existing Windoz XP. After seeking any good info all 'round the web, I'm begging your attention... 

<snip>

My configuration is:
Motherboard: ASUS P4P800-X;
Primary IDE master: LG CD-ROM CRD;
Primary IDE slave: Western Digital DVD-RW SOHW;
Secondary IDE master (hdc): Maxtor 6B160P0 (PATA 160GB);
Secondary IDE slave: (void);
3rd IDE master (hde): Western Digital WD1200JD (SATA 120GB);
4th IDE master: (void).

Windoz XP is in 3rd IDE master (hde), while Debian Sarge is in Secondary IDE master (hdc) with 2 partitions (root and swap).

This situation is dismaying me...

Any suggestion? 

<snip>

What really puzzles me is that the debian installation just successfully completed its tasks, in spite of its boot!

I don't have a lot of experience with SATA, and I don't have any specific
experience with your board.  To continue this trend of the blind
leading the blind, I am not running Debian.  I looked at the manual for
the ASUS board, and you should look at page 2-13, "Onboard PCI IDE
Operate Mode", and page 2-14, "Enhanced Mode Support On."  These pages are
at page 49-50 in the pdf version of the manual (E1718).  There are
settings which may be required for linux.  This information may not be
true if you are using a very recent 2.6.x kernel.  There have been updates
to the kernel involving SATA, and the ata_piix module.

IMHO Linux shouldn't care about my SATA disk (that contains Windoz XP) as I installed it onto a PATA one.

Please, read the manual pages that I referenced above.

Forgive me, Doug: I'm really a lazy guy! ;-D Now I've promptly downloaded the pdf E1718 from ASUS website...

In any case, the problem is with the loader.  Can you boot linux with a
floppy disc to determine what is going awry?


As I stated at the 3rd point:

[quote]
3) desperate, I installed GRUB on a floppy disk: at boot time it came with this error message: "GRUB Geom Error".
[/quote]

Is there a brute-force way to load Linux despite these issues?
Linux is waiting for me, but I can't reach it! :o(

Thank you, Douglas!

Note: comment above.

Another idea: Disable SATA in BIOS to verify if you can boot using ide
support only. As you wrote above, Linux should work without SATA support
because XP is on that disc.  The only problem you might have is
/etc/fstab has already been written by setup. You might have to boot a
rescue disc to modify the "root" and "swap" entries if necessary.  If
using IDE, then fstab should be set to use a partition on hdc.

Hopefully, you will be able to boot even though you hard disc is a
secondary channel (your primary channel is being used by optical discs.)
Probably, that is ok (with SATA disabled.)


OK, Douglas, I'll try it.
Thanks again.
.

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