Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

[Objekt]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

I'm beginning to think that one of these two things must be true:

1) The hard drive I've been trying to use for Win XP (currently on SATA port 0, seen as hd1 by GRUB) is really messed up;
2) the updated BIOS is seriously broken.

This morning, just for grins, I removed all drives from the system except the one SATA drive I used to boot Win XP from. I proceeded to install Windows XP the old-fashioned way, using the setup disc, driver disc for my SATA controller, and lots of patience.

I went ahead and trashed my existing C: partition on that drive, where Win XP resided, reformatted it, and had Win XP install itself there.

This should have yielded a fresh, barebones install of XP that would boot. I specifically set BIOS to look first to SATA drives at boot time. That wasn't strictly necessary, since the single SATA drive was now the only hard drive in the system, but I wanted to be sure.

I should have booted into Windows with a very low screen resolution, but with the basic desktop, Explorer, etc. there. Instead I got another "DISK BOOT ERROR, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."

So yeah, something is really, really messed up with this BIOS.

Abit's tech support hours are still in effect today. I think I'll give them a call. I don't know what else I can do. It's clearly the "new and improved" BIOS that is causing all this hassle. What you guys said should have worked.

[Qqmike]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

Ah, thanks for the feedback. nilsA's suspicion re BIOS psychosis is about on-track.
In addition to setting BIOS to boot from the SATA as you have done, are there any other settings in BIOS concerning the HDD that you can check; for example, the hardware page (or whatever it's called in BIOS setup) where it lists your CD, DVD, and hard drives and maybe some specs. That might also give some clues.

"DISK BOOT ERROR, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."
Yep, that (usually) means that BIOS can't find anything in the boot list that it can boot from.

[Objekt]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

There's been some drama in the past few hours. I figured out what was going on and (mostly) fixed it.

Here's the key: The bastards at Abit named one of their other motherboard models almost EXACTLY the same as mine. I have an NF7-S v2; there is another model called NF7-S2. Both are Socket A motherboards from roughly the same period. They're similar enough that you can flash the first with the BIOS of the second.

However, it is different enough that flashing mine with its BIOS messes things up. None of the SATA drives were visible to GRUB at boot time, nor could I boot Windows, though there was a perfectly healthy boot volume on one of the SATA drives.

I'm rather surprised I was able to boot & run Kubuntu at all, considering I flashed my system with the wrong BIOS. I'm further surprised that I was able to access the SATA drives under Kubuntu. It's a good thing I was able to, because I needed to make backup copies of some files on one of the SATA drives.

At one point I thought I was totally screwed. I learned that not only will the Award flash utility let you flash your motherboard with the wrong BIOS, it will also refuse to re-flash it with the correct BIOS later. Unless you use a special parameter, which I eventually found out about.

So now I'm almost back to where I was before this mess started. I still have to restore the Windows XP image to one of the SATA drives so I can boot Windows.

[nilsA]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

nilsA, I'm about ready to yield to you!

First, though, after re-reading the thread, I'm still not convinced that he has set the BIOS right << for how he wishes to re-install GRUB >> (if you know what I mean).
Example: Set BIOS to boot from the Kubuntu drive and then re-install GRUB to the MBR of the Kubuntu drive => that exact combination sequence. (Or, the other way: set BIOS to boot from the XP drive, then re-install GRUB to the MBR of the XP drive.)

I quite agree: There is most probably something wrong in the BIOS settings. I don't know how SATA thing is done. But if it, like RAID and SCSI, has some functions on it's own - all kind of things seem to possibly confuse Grub.

[Qqmike]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

Holy cow! Good investigative work.

So, we are back to the two choices you were working on above:

Set BIOS to boot from the Kubuntu drive (= hd0) and then re-install GRUB to the MBR of the Kubuntu drive. So Kubuntu is on (hd0,0) and XP on (hd1,0).
root (hd0,0), setup (hd0), quit
AND XP's boot menu must have the map dance:
root (hd1,0), map (hd1) (hd0), map (hd0) (hd1), chainloader +1


Or, the other way:
Set BIOS to boot from the XP drive (= hd0), then re-install GRUB to the MBR of the XP drive. So Kubuntu is on (hd1,0) and XP on (hd0,0).
root (hd1,0), setup (hd0), quit; and XP's menu.lst is just root (hd0,0), chainloader +1.

Again, good work so far; not many folks could sort that out as you have done (or would persist to do so!).

[Objekt]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

This is just weird. I still get that "Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition" thing when I try to do "setup (hd0)."

Must be something wrong with the hardware. I've ruled out everything else.

[Qqmike]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

Which one are you doing? Is BIOS set to boot from the Kubuntu drive or the XP drive?

Also, you might check
sudo fdisk -lu
(again)
and see how that looks.

[Objekt]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

Some time on Wednesday, I figured out I had simply flashed my motherboard with the wrong BIOS.

It's a very easy mistake to make. The bastards at Abit named two almost, but not quite identical motherboards with nearly identical model numbers. I have an NF7-S v2.0, but there is also a model designated NF7-S2. They are similar enough that flashing the v2.0 with the S2's BIOS will not brick the system, but things will work slowly and poorly, or not at all. I had downloaded the last BIOS for the NF7-S2 (dated 2005) and thought I was downloading a newer BIOS for the NF7-S v2.0. The last BIOS revision for my motherboard was published in late November 2004, so that's what I'm using now.

So, for a few days, I was running with the wrong BIOS. It's not surprising I was unable to use the SATA drives in the normal fashion.

Kubuntu deserves major credit here. Despite having the wrong BIOS loaded, it saw the SATA drives and allowed me to copy files to and from them. The copying was very, very slow, but it did work.

I restored the correct BIOS and my Windows XP boot volume, and things have been fine since. No more bluescreens, so far. Perhaps the problem, whatever it was, is fixed.

[Qqmike]

Re: Yet another XP/Kubuntu dual-boot thread

Good. So, basically, it became a matter of sorting out the right BIOS update/version. A good example of how BIOS affects these things.
Thanks for the feedback.