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**Qqmike** · Feb 02, 2008, 12:06 PM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

Looks like no one is catching this one, so here's some stuff you can dig into and work on.

There are many ways to do this.
Decide what drive you will set in BIOS as the boot drive (it is usually Windows—Windows does not like to be on a non-first hard drive; however, my how-to shows how to handle it that way.

One option then is to install GRUB to the MBR of that Windows drive, and have GRUB point at the Kubuntu, where the boot menu is the file /boot/grub/menu.lst (located on the Kubuntu root partition).

You may have to re-install GRUB (using commands root (hdx,y), setup (hd0), and quit –all at a grub> prompt, and where (hd0) is the MBR of the Windows (boot) drive, and (hdx,y) is the Kubuntu partition). See the how-to for getting a grub> prompt.

Make sure all references to the Windows root (in the menu.lst) are of the form rootnoverify (hd0,?) (not “root,” as you have Vista and Vista needs rootnoverify). Also, Vista uses two partitions; make sure all references to Vista in your menu.lst point to the (hd0,?) where Windows boot sector is (and not where Vista's recovery partition is).

Or, boot it all using Vista's boot manager.
Vista *** The definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
http://apcmag.com/dualboot

The basics of GRUB:
How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
(see the posts under it, e.g., Reply #11)

RAID usually introduces complexities in booting; I have no experience with such.

You'll get this, it's quite doable, we hope even easy, just details is all.

**stevedcc** · Feb 02, 2008, 01:21 PM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

Hey, thanks for the reply Qqmike, I've actually semi-fixed this problem using supergrub, but I've got one extremely odd problem:

Grub can now boot any of the installed options, but ONLY if the computer has tried to boot from a cd, then fallen back to the hard drive. If I stick the VISTA or Kubuntu install CD in, then let it boot from the HDD, i have no problems, but if It tries to boot straight from the HDD, I get "partition not found" errors.

Seems extremely wierd to me, and I only discovered this oddity by accident (I was to slow to hit "any key", and then let it boot, and it did!). Any idea how I might be able to fix this? Is there likely to be a bug in supergrub / kubuntu installer which is giving me the wrong drive references?

Thanks very much for your time.

**Qqmike** · Feb 02, 2008, 03:04 PM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

Sounds like your BIOS is different from what I've seen (Intel mobos).
Usually, with Intel, you set BIOS to boot from
(1) CD if there is a bootable CD in the tray;
if there is not a bootable CD in the tray, then
(2) Boot from the first hard drive in the following list: --then you give a list, in the order you want BIOS to check your hard drives drives (or flash drives or whatever)--

What does your /boot/grub/menu.lst look like in Kubuntu?
Just the important parts – showing the title stanzas for Windows and for Kubuntu?
Can you copy/paste it here for us to see?

I have not heard of bugs; however, the Kubuntu installer has been known to “guess” the wrong drives at times

But I don't think that's an issue here.

**stevedcc** · Feb 03, 2008, 05:11 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

ok, here's my menu.lst for kubuntu and windows:

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=850e69c8-b6ae-456b-99f7-937f5f3eb047 ro quiet nosplash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I'm running on an "Asus striker extreme" nvidia 680i motherboard. I should probably explain the problem I have better:

My BIOS is set to boot in the following order:

1) DVD drive
2) sda (this is the vista drive with 6gb linux swap)
3) sdb (this is the linux drive with 6gb windows swap)
4) raid drive (sdc)
5) flash drive

What I find is happening, is that when booting with no cd inserted, I get a message saying something like "Stage 1.5", then "Grub Error 17" without the grub menu ever even being displayed.

However, if there is a bootable cd in the drive, which I don't boot from (either failing to press a key when the vista cd says "press any key to boot from dvd", or selecting the "boot from first hdd drive" from kubuntu live cd), then I can boot any of the images from grub.

To me, it sounds like my BIOS is changing the apparent order of devices when it tries to boot from cd, and since kubnuntu & supergrub have been run from bootable cds, that's what they've set up the menu.lst for.

I think the chances of Asus fixing the bios faster than kubuntu / supergrub developers making a workaround? not very high.

Do you think there's a workaround I can use that will allow me to boot my system normally? I'd even be happy if it booted normally with no cd in the drive, and grub didn't work after a bootable CD had been used....

Thanks very much for your time.

Steve

**Qqmike** · Feb 03, 2008, 06:12 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

The usual thing to try now is to re-install GRUB (which also makes sure it is installed correctly, and it never hurts to do this as often as you like).

Boot into Kubuntu (in any manner you can).
Open Konsole. Type
sudo grub
to get a GRUB prompt, grub>. Type
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
That should return (hd1,1). Then
grub> root (hd1,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
$exit
re-boot to test it * without * having a CD in the tray.

Let's see if that works (what we have done here is the usual--normal--install of GRUB).
Now, I haven' t used Vista – so, is the (hd,0,0) the right partition for Vista? The “main” bootable partition containing the bootloader and the OS?; i.e., it is not the so-called Vista “recovery” partition or whatever they call that second Vista partition, right? We want to make sure we are booting a bootable OS and not some weird Vista recovery partition.

(Error 17 suggests we are trying to boot Kubuntu but are getting a Windows ntfs partition instead)

Note the space after root, after setup, after find.

BTW, your menu.lst has Kubuntu in (hd1,1). That is the second hard drive (i.e., hd1), the second partition (partition "1"). Is that correct? The first partition is (hd1,0), the second is (hd1,1), the third is (hd1,2), etc.

**stevedcc** · Feb 04, 2008, 06:37 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

Hi,

I tried the suggestion in your post, by booting onto live cd then performing those actions.

Now, if I boot directly from the HDD, i get a grub error 15, with no boot menu coming up ("loading stage 1.5" then "grub error 15", isn't that file not found?), whereas if I fall back to the HDD from the CD, I get a successful boot.

Very odd... I guess it can't find menu.lst.

any suggestions?

**manolis.K** · Feb 04, 2008, 06:58 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

I am not an expert, it's only 3 months that i have been running kubuntu, but i think your menu.lst is wrong. You have the first partition on the 2° disk as root partition? Right? Then your menu.lst file should be
root (hd1,0).
not
root (hd1,1)
When grub appears hit the "e" key in order to edit grub. You may have hit e" a couple of times. Then edit root root (hd1,1)
into
root (hd1,0).
and hit the "b" key in order to boot. If you can boot by doing this you should edit your menu.lst file too, so than grub will always find the correct entry.

**Qqmike** · Feb 04, 2008, 07:25 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

At this point, agree with manolis.K.

From your Live Kubuntu CD, can you run at Konsole this command:
sudo fdisk -lu
which will show us your drives and partitions.

Try what manolis.K said, which is to edit the menu.lst "on the fly," trying different things; if something works, then you can make it permanent by editing menu.lst as root and saving the changes.

Strange, as we have both said, that Kubuntu ended up on the second partition of that second drive.

**stevedcc** · Feb 04, 2008, 07:33 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

I've performed the fdisk -lu command, my linux drive really is sdb2:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 58474495 29236224 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 58476600 72292499 6907950 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 37.0 GB, 37019566080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4500 cylinders, total 72303840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0d7fdf7b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 58370048 72300543 6965248 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 63 58364144 29182041 83 Linux

I think the reason for this is the manner in which the partitions ended up being created, there was a certain amount of resizing and playing going on in windows when I first built the machine.

**Qqmike** · Feb 04, 2008, 08:39 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

One obvious issue: Vista needs rootnoverify, NOT root.

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

(with XP, it doesn't really matter; but Vista needs what I said)

I'll look at this partitioning, cylinder/sector stuff, too. Your boot flag is weird on sdb -- should be in MBR sdb2, but that's not an issue right now.

**stevedcc** · Feb 04, 2008, 11:46 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

I know what the boot flag on sdb is about: I tried installing ubuntu 7.04 with grub on sdb some 6 months ago, because i was having so much trouble with the install and I was fed up of having to repeatedly using Mbrfix64 to restore my windows partition. I also tried making that drive boot and installing kubuntu there more recently.

Thanks for all your help so far in trying to resolve this btw.

Steve

**Qqmike** · Feb 04, 2008, 11:58 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

don't forget the rootnoverify fix, too -- that does seem to be a show-stopper for Vista booting from GRUB

**stevedcc** · Feb 08, 2008, 09:09 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

I have found the root cause of my problem, and thought I should post to keep other informed.

I tried installing grub2, which instead of locking up at "Stage 1.5", gives a command line that can be manipulated, and can be used to identify which drive is which.

This showed me that if I boot directly from my HDD, sdb has the label hd2,2. If i start a bootable cd then tell that to boot from my first HDD, sdb has the label hd1,2.

I know from my grub1 setup file that if I boot from cd, sdb has the label 1,1 (grub 2 doesn't start partitions at 0,0, it has hd0 for the drive, then hd0,1 and 0,2 for the 2 partitions on it)

I've been told that this is a BIOS problem (I'm going to email ASUS). I'm going to try setting up my grub1 menu.lst using this information to avoid the cd boot problem

Thanks to Qqmike for all his help: I don't think this is one that could be solved without the hardware and the legwork.

**Qqmike** · Feb 08, 2008, 09:15 AM

Re: Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

GRUB2 is not ready yet for everyday use.

Don't forget the rootnoverify.

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Dual boot installation on system with multiple HDDs.

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