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GRUB fails to boot Win98
From: |
Graham Smith |
Subject: |
GRUB fails to boot Win98 |
Date: |
Sun, 19 May 2002 09:40:41 +0100 |
User-agent: |
KMail/1.4.1 |
Dear GRUB gurus,
I have having problems booting my system using GRUB. It is a dual boot system
running RedHat Linux 7.3 (though I was having the same problem with 7.2) and
Microsoft Windows 98SE. The system will boot quite happily if I use a GRUB
boot floppy or if I use LILO from the hard disk but if I put GRUB on the hard
disk then while Linux boots OK Win98SE fails with the error 'Error 25: Disk
read error'.
The machine has two IDE hard drives, the first (/dev/hda, hd0) is a 13Gb disk
with a single partition dedicated to Win98SE, the second (/dev/hdb, hd1) is a
20Gb disk with three partitions, the first is ~13Gb and is also dedicated to
Win98SE. The second is ~6Gb and is used as the Linux root filesystem, the
third is ~600Mb and is the Linux swap partition. (detailed information output
from fdisk and GRUB is below).
GRUB (version 0.91-4 as supplied in redHat 7.3) is installed in /boot/grub and
I have tried putting the stage1 image both in the MBR of the first disk (hd0)
and also at the start of the (hd1,4) partition and then chain loading it from
LILO installed in the MBR of (hd0). Both locations for the stage1 image
cause the problem. But the same version of GRUB on a floppy works OK.
The commands used to boot Linux and Win98SE using GRUB are shown below in a
copy of my menu.lst file. If I issue these commands when booted from a
floppy everything is OK, if I issue these commands by hand when booted from
the hard disk then everything is OK for Linux and is OK until I get the 'Disk
read error' when I enter the 'boot' command at the end of the sequence to
boot Win98SE. The system then prompts me to continue and returns me to the
GRUB command prompt. From there if I try to boot either Windows or Linux the
machine locks up and requires a hard reset.
I have checked through all the documentation and searched the web and while I
have found other people with very similar configurations I haven't found
anyone else with this problem. I am probably doing something silly but would
apreciate your help in diagnosing the problem.
I wondered if the problem is something to do wih having GRUB on the second
disk and then trying to boot Windows from the first, but I have seen others
doing this successfully. I am prepared to try and diagnose the problem - I
am a software enginer by trade - but I'm not sure where to start!
GRUB is an ace tool, keep up the good work.
Graham Smith (address@hidden)
Contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst:
===================================================
#boot=/dev/hdb5
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-4)
debug
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-4 ro root=/dev/hdb5
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-4.img
title Windows 98
debug
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
=====================================================
Disk geometry as reported by fdisk -l
=====================================================
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1582 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1582 12707383+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2495 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 1700 13655218+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 1701 2495 6385837+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 * 1701 2415 5743206 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 2416 2495 642568+ 82 Linux swap
=====================================================
>From the grub-shell (which matches info obtained when using grub boot floppy):
=====================================================
grub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 1582/255/63, The number of sectors = 25429824, /dev/hda
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xc
grub> geometry (hd1)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 2495/255/63, The number of sectors = 40088160, /dev/hdb
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xc
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
=====================================================
- GRUB fails to boot Win98,
Graham Smith <=