Multiboot problems mostly Linux

Muskt said:
Coolname007

I got home a bit earlier than anticipated.

Let's get going.

First, on your most recent post (about 3 up) I can do those things, easily, I think. Question. My install is on SDB1. What does that translate into with the hdx.x terminology? Would that be hd1,0?
Click to expand...
Correct. :smile: It would. They are both the same thing. Hard drive 2 (as seen from the BIOS), and the 1st partition (in the partition table in the MBR).
Next. That modified menu.lst you listed above. Should it go in the Mepis install or in the NST in Vista? (or both?)
Click to expand...
Forget about that for now, since you reinstalled Mepis. :wink: Just copy the entries from your Mepis menu.lst into your NeoGrub one, replacing whatever entries exist there currently. Since I'm hoping that the Mepis menu.lst was configured correctly automatically this time around, when you reinstalled Mepis, it seems to me the easiet thing to do now is copy the entries from your Mepis menu.lst into your NeoGrub one. That should work perfectly fine.
Next. I tried a boot into Mepis after only doing the fresh install, & it went farther than before. I got to the pretty colorful screen that asks which screen res I desire to load. I selected "default", and a couple of seconds later I got the black screen that says "hd1,0 error 17 cannot mount selected partition" --or something very close. It sounds like the drive designator is still incorrect to me, but then if I had a clue I wouldn't be asking all these questions.
Click to expand...
Did you perform that attempted boot with Grub installed to the MBR, or was it from the entry in your Vista boot menu?
Next. This is strange (although it works). My original Vista is listed as the F drive (Yes, that is the boot drive). The new Vista that I am building is listed as the J drive. The NST folder is on the J drive in My Computer when running the original Vista.
Click to expand...
Which partition is shown as "system" in Disk Management?
Here is the menu.lst file from Mepis obtained by searching the My Computer on the Mepis desktop:

timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title MEPIS at sdb1, newest kernel
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdb1
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title MEPIS at sdb1, previous kernel (if any)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/sdb1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdb1
boot

title MEPIS at sdb1, kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-1-mepis-smp root=/dev/sdb1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdb1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-1-mepis-smp
boot

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader) at sda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader) at sdd1
map (hd0) (hd3)
map (hd3) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd3,0)
chainloader +1

title MEMTEST
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin


Here is what I believe t be the fstab.etc:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 ntfs-3g noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2 ntfs-3g noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 ext3 noauto,users,exec,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/sdb2 vfat noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdb3 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
/dev/sdb4 /mnt/sdb4 ext3 noauto,users,exec,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdc2 /mnt/sdc2 ntfs-3g noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdc5 /mnt/sdc5 ntfs-3g noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /mnt/sdd1 ntfs-3g noauto,users,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,relatime 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0


Here is the menu.lst from the NST folder on the J drive from within Vista:

# NeoSmart NeoGrub Bootloader Configuration File
#
# This is the NeoGrub configuration file, and should be located at J:\NST\menu.lst
# Please see the EasyBCD Documentation for information on how to create/modify entries:
# EasyBCD Documentation Home - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki


title /boot/grub/menu.lst
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!


The file from the NST folder is unmodified by me. (Cuz I'm stuck.)

OK, that is all I have for now.

Once again, Thanks.

Jerry in Anchorage
Click to expand...
Ok...lets clear a few things. :wink: Which menu.lst is the Mepis one you posted above? Was it located at /boot/grub/menu.lst on your Mepis partition, or was it the old one you said you copied (i believe..) into Windows? Please reboot, and go into your BIOS, and look at the drives there. Note the order that drives are booting in your system, and then post them here. Next, post a screenshot of your Disk Management screen in Vista. And also, post the output of the following command run from EasyBCD's Power Console in the "Useful Utilities" section:

bootpart
Click to expand...
That is so I can see firsthand your drive and partition setup, and determine if the Mepis menu.lst posted above is correct, or it isn't.

Cheers,

-Coolname007

EDIT: Never mind...ignore the above advice in copying the entries from your Mepis menu.lst into your NeoGrub one! I just noticed it is configured now to use the one on your Mepis partition, and so it is obviously incorrect...so please follow the rest of the advice, and post the needed information.
 
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Working on it

The attempted reboot was from within Vista.

J is shown as System

I have never tried to capture a screen shot. The snippit tool wasn't installed on my comp, but I got it on & running. I cannot make it appear in this message box.

As for the boot order, since I have so many drives and so many operating systems installed, I have only one DVD & my original Vista listed as boot devices in the bios.

I found the bootpart, but again, I do not know how to get it into this message.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge in these areas.

Jerry in Anchorage
 
Muskt said:
The attempted reboot was from within Vista.

J is shown as System

I have never tried to capture a screen shot. The snippit tool wasn't installed on my comp, but I got it on & running. I cannot make it appear in this message box.
Click to expand...
You can use the Prnt Scrn button on your keyboard (top right on mine) to take a screenshot. Then simply paste it (ctrl + v) into an MSPaint document, and save it as a .jpeg image. And then once you've got the screenshot, simply make a new post as normal, only scrolling down the page when the post area appears, and clicking on the Manage Attachments button. This will open a dialog where you can select the screenshot you just created, and then you upload it.

So J (your non-original Vista) is "system"? Hmm...
I found the bootpart, but again, I do not know how to get it into this message.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge in these areas.

Jerry in Anchorage
Click to expand...
Open up EasyBCD, navigate to "Useful Utilities" (in the left pane), and click on the "Power Console" button to open up the Power Console. Next, simply type in the following command, press Enter, and post its output:

bootpart
Click to expand...
Cheers, and I definitely need that requested information...:wink:

-Coolname007
 
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FYI, the snipper tools installed when you got tablet pc components enabled in Windows features. You can attach images like you did or upload them to a web page somewhere and insert them into the post by URl with the "insert image" button on the toolbar.
 
Ok, so going from the info posted in your screenshots, the following can be said about your setup:

Disk 0 in Disk Management (which = Disk 2 in Bootpart) contains your two Linux native (ext3) partitions, and swap.
Disk 1 in Disk Management (which = Disk 3 in Bootpart) contains the original Vista (F).
Disk 2 in Disk Management (which = Disk 0 in Bootpart) contains your "system" partition, (J), and your Win 7 partition (K).
Disk 3 in Disk Management (which = Disk 1 in Bootpart) contains your logical (within an extended) partition (E) and your storage primary partition (C).

Now, since Disk 2 (as shown in Disk Management) is actually Disk 0 in the BIOS, and contains the Vista you're building (J), as well as Win 7, it must be an IDE drive, most likely...:wink: And since the drive that contains your two Linux partitions (as well as the swap) is actually Disk 2, in theory...that means the values in your menu.lst needs to be (hd1,0) or (hd1,2) depending on which partition it is your latest Mepis has been installed to...:wink:
So try (hd1,2) or sdb3 this time in your menu.lst and see if it works then. :smile:

Cheers,

-Coolname007

EDIT: Or possibly (hd1,1). :smile: Looking at the Bootpart screenshot again, and comparing it with the Disk Management, the swap is shown as the third partition on that disk, not the second as Disk Management shows, and the second Linux partition is shown as the second (not the third) partition of that disk. Apparently Disk Management and Bootpart can't even agree on how to count the partitions on that disk, either...:??
 
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All Are SATA

All 4 of the drives are SATA. I just checked to make sure.

My next stop is to modify the menu.lst.

Thanks,
Jerry
 
No luck

Screenshot was from original Vista.

I modded the menu.lst in Mepis to hd1,2 & left the sdb1 alone. (booted via the live DVD). No go.

I booted into original Vista & modded the NST menu.lst to show the hd1,2 also & not go there either.

The Root partition for mepis is the 16 Gig one which should be the first one, correct?

Would not that one be hd1,0?

After the modding the loader errored with "no such partition".

Jerry
 
When you modify the root lines in your menu.lst entries, you need to also change sdb1, so they're the same...:wink: So the correct syntax would be sdb3, which equals (hd1,2). But yes, it would seem like (hd1,0) is correct, since the 16.60 GB partition you said is the Linux partition you're using now. But since you have two (not one) ext3 partitions, it could very well be that you're actually using the other one (if only to boot).

-Coolname007

EDIT: And on that line of thought...do you know if the Mepis setup created a separate /boot partition?
 
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Still tryinhg

I'm in Mepis (live DVD) right now. I thought of that, also. The 16 gig drive is the one that has /dev, /boot, & others in it. Grub is also there.

The other EXT3 drive has lost&found & jmorris in it, which leads me to believe that is not the boot drive.

I am going to look at the menu.lst again.

I'll be back in Vista in a couple of minutes

Jerry
 
Muskt said:
I'm in Mepis (live DVD) right now. I thought of that, also. The 16 gig drive is the one that has /dev, /boot, & others in it. Grub is also there.

The other EXT3 drive has lost&found & jmorris in it, which leads me to believe that is not the boot drive.
Click to expand...

Ok...so follow my original hunch (several posts back) and try (hd0,0) which translates as sda1. :wink: Vista Disk Management must be showing the correct thing, and your Linux partition is indeed the first hard drive, first partition. All the evidence (well, some anyway...) points to this being the case. Bootpart must be the one giving the wacko information, not Disk Management, like I had originally suspected.

-Coolname007
 
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oops

The hd0,0 one.

I think I need to quite for the night. I have a pretty early flight tomorrow, & my blood pressure is probably pretty high right now.

I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it. Any program or OS that is this difficult (other adjectives may be substituted here) cannot be of much value to a casual user. I normally consider myself to be relatively clever about computers & lots of other things. This is really getting to me. I have a home wood shop, a home metal shop with milling machine, lathe, 3 welders, do all my own auto work, fly jet aircraft as well as turboprops and piston powered ones, but cannot boot a computer operating system. There is something wrong with this equation.

I'll check in tomorrow after work.

In the meantime, please accept my thanks for your assistance and your patience.

Jerry in Anchorage
 
Ok...so let's take this reasoning a bit further. :smile: If you're actually booting from Win 7's drive (shown as Disk 0 in Bootpart, but Disk 2 in Disk Management in the original vista) when you boot into the original Vista on the other drive (shown as Disk 3 in Bootpart, and Disk 1 in Disk Management), in theory the one that shows up as Disk 0 *within Disk 1, original Vista, which translates as disk 3 in Bootpart* in Disk Management is not actually Disk 0, at least not in the BIOS. And if you're within Disk 3 (as seen by the BIOS and Bootpart) when you take the screenshot from original, then that would mean...I got it! :grinning: Bootpart must be right after all, and get its values from the BIOS. The drive you're booting into is actually disk 3 (from the BIOS), while Disk 2 (as shown from inside Disk 3, from Disk Management) is actually where you're booting from, disk 3 (as seen from the BIOS). :brows: Follow me so far? And taken in that same context, the drive that contains Linux must be seen as disk 2 from the BIOS. :tongueout:oint:

So the correct value would be (hd2,0), and not any of the other ones. :smile: I know that sounds confusing, but its really not, since you have to remember you are inside Disk 3 (at least what Bootpart and the BIOS calls Disk 3) when booted into it, and so what is shown there as Disk 0 is not really Disk 0 (at least not from the perspective of the BIOS, which is all that matters). Disk Management screwed up all the disk numbers around because it is booted into a non-primary drive, and not because you had a mix of SATA and IDE drives like I first thought. So try (hd2,0) and see what happens. :wink:

If it still doesn't work after that, then I'm stumped, and your best option may be to just run through *all* of the possible combinations it could be, until you find the right one. :smile:

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Muskt said:
The hd0,0 one.

I think I need to quite for the night. I have a pretty early flight tomorrow, & my blood pressure is probably pretty high right now.

I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it. Any program or OS that is this difficult (other adjectives may be substituted here) cannot be of much value to a casual user. I normally consider myself to be relatively clever about computers & lots of other things. This is really getting to me. I have a home wood shop, a home metal shop with milling machine, lathe, 3 welders, do all my own auto work, fly jet aircraft as well as turboprops and piston powered ones, but cannot boot a computer operating system. There is something wrong with this equation.

I'll check in tomorrow after work.

In the meantime, please accept my thanks for your assistance and your patience.

Jerry in Anchorage
Click to expand...

NP. I enjoy helping others with their computer problems. :smile: Don't feel bad that you're having so much trouble booting an computer OS when you can do all those other things. One thing I've learned about computers during the time I've been on this planet is doing anything with them is almost always going to be tough as nails...especially when trying to boot 3 or more different breeds of OSes. :wink: The real fault lies in the developers of Windows, Linux, etc. since they did not come up with a universal method of doing things. :wink: Dual, triple, and everything above that is almost always going to be tough, especially for the new user (not trying to call you one by any means...).

But try my above suggestion, and try all the possible combinations it could be for the entries in your Mepis menu.lst if (hd2,0) fails for you as well. It could very well work.

-Coolname007
 
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Yes, after reviewing everything again, I am almost certain that the correct value would be (hd2,0) which translates as sdc1. :smile:

-Coolname007
 
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YOU WERE CORRECT!!!

Your guess was 100% correct. I changed the menu.lst to hd2,0 & SDC1 then eliminated Linux from Easy BCD and then added Linux, & it booted first time - well sort of, kind of.

I get to the Blue & Black (Mepis Logo)screen much too quickly, & then it just locks up. If i press the esc key, it shows 15-20 errors which generally revolve around not finding directories, swap files, etc. Have you got any clues about that or do I need to write down each specific error & forward them on?

I whll have no problem reinstalling the OS, if you think that may be of some benefit.

Nearly forgot, the bottom of the screen that asks which kernal I want to load has no entries in it. It does when booting from the live DVD. I do not know the terminology for that area.

Jerry
 
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Huh?

Do you mean to boot via the live DVD & look in the menu.lst file?

Jerry in Anchorage

Addendum:

I checked the menu.lst file and it seemed to be correct. Here it is:

timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title MEPIS at sdc1, newest kernel
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdc1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdc1
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title MEPIS at sdc1, previous kernel (if any)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/sdc1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdc1
boot

title MEPIS at sdc1, kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-1-mepis-smp root=/dev/sdc1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sdc1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-1-mepis-smp
boot

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader) at sda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader) at sdd1
map (hd0) (hd3)
map (hd3) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd3,0)
chainloader +1

title MEMTEST
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

Now, when I run GParted under the live DVD, it doesn't show Mepis as being on SDC1 it shows it as SDB1, SDB2, & SDB3. Is it possible that after Easy BCD determines where to look for Mepis that GRUB is looking in the wrong place (SDC1 instead of SDB1)? This is a question, not a statement. I am still very much lost.

Jerry in Anchorage

Addendum:

I took my own advice (that is a scary thought) & it worked. I took the first entry in the menu.lst and replaced all 3 SDC1 entries with SDB1, & it booted the first time.

Man, this has been a struggle.

I certainly do appreciate all the patience, assistance, and hand-holding you good people have provided me.

If you ever get to Anchorage, Alaska, the coffee is on me (could be a nice Alaskan Amber instead).

Thank you all.

Jerry in Anchorage
 
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