EasyBCD Documentation/Dualboot Linux-vista

aranth

Member
Ok, so maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've been trying to get EasyBCD to work with the NeoGRUB loader, but simply copying over the GRUB menu.lst file I used before I installed Vista (I haven't booted to Linux since...:s) isn't working (I get a black screen after selecting neogrub). I'd love to fix whatever I've done wrong, but the "documentation" link gives me a login page to access the wiki. So, essentially, I have no idea how this is supposed to work.

I'm posting this here, rather than the bugs forum, because my first priority is really to get this to work, followed by the wiki being accessible :tonguewink:

One of the bigger problems is it's been so long since I've been booted into Linux that I barely even know what my partition layout is right now. Vista is telling me that I've got 5 primary partitions, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong :tonguewink:. If I remember right, I have:
||Vista(sda1)||Data(sda2)||(there is no partition 3)||extended(sda4)||'boot'(grub and stuff)(logical)(sda5)||swap(logical)(sda6)||'root'(logical)(sda7)||
I installed Vista fresh on partition 1, and I haven't booted into Linux since. What do I need to do to make this work? Do I need to boot to Knoppix and install GRUB to somewhere weird?
 
Hi aranth, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Sorry for the late reply.

Do you already have GRUB installed to a bootsector? In that case, just use the "Add Linux Entry" mechanism to get it booting by pointing it to the drive where GRUB was installed.

If you want to use NeoGrub, you'll have to figure out exactly what your drive layout is (use cfdisk in kanotix or another live CD), and configure neogrub accordingly.
 
No, GRUB isn't in the boot sector because Vista's loader overwrote it (as far as I know- I only have one disk).

I just booted into Knoppix from VMWare and it turns out I got the scheme right, except sda3 and sda4 should be switched. My menu.lst file reads:
Code:
default 0
timeout 7

title=Gentoo
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/gentookernel root=/dev/sda7

What happens is I select "NeoGrub Bootloader" in the menu provided by the windows boot manager, and then the system flashes a blank screen and reboots (as I mentioned before).

EDIT: For more information, I'm using a bog-standard Sony Vaio VGC-RB40. VMWare also has the same problem, when I give the virtual machine access to the entire physical disk.
 
That's why.
NeoGrub is - rather unfortunately - not compatible with reiserfs.

You should install GRUB to the bootsector of a partition and then add it using the add linux entry option.
 
Okay, I did that- GRUB's installed to sda7's boot sector now. Only problem is, apparantly in between when I uninstalled my old version of EasyBCD to install 1.52 and now, my C:\NST directory emptied itself. When I choose the Linux option in the boot menu, it complains about some .mbr file not being in that directory... I uninstalled EasyBCD and then reinstalled 1.52 again, and the file is still missing- how do I resurrect it?

Thanks for all the help, I'm sure I'm a pain with all these problems :tongueout:
 
No aranth, it's no problem at all :smile:

EasyBCD no longer automatically installs/creates nst_grub.mbr.
Instead, you have to delete any existing Linux entries in EasyBCD, then choose to create a new Linux entry.
Tell it Drive 0 Partition 7 == hda7 where you say GRUB has been installed.

Be careful though, is sda7 *in Windows* really Drive 0, Partition 7? Do you have other non-sata/scsi drives installed?
 
Yes, I'm sure it's drive 0 partition 7- I had to do some fiddling to get an ext2 partition to mount as a Windows drive a while back.

I've tried removing all of the Linux entries and creating a new one (and even restarting the program in between once), but each time it continues to complain about a missing \NST\nst_grub.mbr. The program creates C:\NST\, but never puts anything in it- could this be linked to a broken GRUB install? I installed it off of a semi-old Knoppix dvd (5.0), so maybe GRUB is an old version- should I find a way to install a newer version of it?
 
If it doesn't create a C:\NST\nst_grub.mbr that means that it's not considered Drive 0 Partition 7.
So long as the partition *exists* - whether or not GRUB is installed - it'll create that file. Whether or not the file actually *works* depends on whether a proper GRUB bootsector is indeed available.

Bottom-line: double-check the partition name and number.
Try this: CP -> Administrator Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management
Try to find out what drive it's being seen as.

Version 1.6 will contain a "Drive listing" feature for such purposes.
 
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