Triple boot, XP-Vista-Ubuntu from GRUB

M

mart

Member
Hello everyone :wink:
Is it possible to boot XP Vista and Ubuntu all from grub?
My situation for now is like this:
1 drive, first partition houses WinXP Pro, the second Vista Business and the third is Ubuntu's /boot.
I first installed XP, then Vista and finally Ubuntu.
I installed grub in MBR and it recognized the Vista Bootloader that apparently got installed in the XP Partition ( hd(0,0) for grub)
From grub i can either boot Ubuntu or run the Vista Loader which offers me XP and Vista and all of this works just fine.

But somehow i don't like this bootloader stacking and I'd prefer to boot all three systems straight from grub. So from my point of view i'd have to restore the original bootsector of the Win XP partition (Uninstall the Vista Bootloader - Feature in EasyBCD ?) then install the Vista Bootloader in the Vista partition and finally just update the grub config.

I'm just not sure if or how i can get the Vista loader on the Vista partition and if this is even possible. I just don't want to mess up my system as this is after all just a cosmetic issue.

Thanks,
Martin
 
Hi Martin, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

That certainly is possible, but here's a question for you: you can use the Vista BCD to boot all three, fully configurable from within EasyBCD, without bootloader stacking either.

IF you'd like to use GRUB instead of the BCD for whatever reason, we'll help you with that... It just might be easier to use the Vista bootloader w/ EasyBCD though, if you like.
 
Hi, I'd really like to stay with grub if it's not too complicated. I'm mostly a Linux guy and i only run XP for gaming and Vista out of curiosity as i got it for free from my university.

I read somewhere that Vista needs its loader to be on the first partition. If this is true i somehow had to remove the Vista loader from XP, install it on the Vista partition and then hide the XP partition from Vista. Is this correct?
 
Not at all.

It's quite a lot simpler than that. In Vista -> EasyBCD -> Useful Utilities -> Power Console

Code: 
bootsect.exe /nt52 X: /force
bootsect.exe /nt60 Y: /force

Replace X: with the XP drive and Y: with the Vista drive.

In your menu.lst:
Code: 
title Windows XP
rootnoverify hd(x,y);
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify hd(m,n)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Make sure you have bootmgr and the BOOT folder on the Vista drive and NTLDR, NTDETECT, and Boot.ini on the XP drive.
 
hi, thanks a lot. worked like a charm :wink:
i still have some questions though, would be great if someone could help me there:
first, when i rewrote the bootsectors following the post above i missed out the last line about bootmgr and bcd having to be on the vista drive. so i couldnt boot into vista at first, xp worked fine though.
then i wanted to copy the bcd and bootmgr from the xp partition to the vista drive while running xp, and it didnt't work because apparently the bcd file was in use by xp. why is that, i thought xp still used the boot.ini.
after all it worked fine copying it over from ubuntu.

second, is there a way to get completely rid of the vista bootmanager? i already set the timeout to 0 but when i boot vista it still sets the resolution to the one of the bootmanager and it takes a couple seconds before vista starts to boot.
 
Triple boot

Using the same configuration as Mart, I got a strange problem. Putting bootmgr in Vista-partition (hd0,0), XP (at hd0,1) is booting while I expect Vista to boot. Then changing the location of bootmgr to the XP-partition, Vista boots from hd0,0 as expected. In both cases booting XP from hd0,1 fails, reporting NTLDR is missing (while in fact present).

I think it has something to do with my C en D drive. Because whether Vista is booting or XP, the OS is allways on drive C. I got the impression Grub and Windows get mixed up in some way because of that. Can you give me a clou?

Thanks,

Rien
 
NTLDR needs to be stored on the Boot drive - the same one that has bootmgr.

btw, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies, Rien.
 
Triple Boot

Thanks Computer Guru,

Yesterdaynight (European time) I managed to load XP by placing ntldr in the vista-partition. So now everything is just the other way around: bootmgr is in the xp-partition and ntldr in the vista-partition. XP starts up ok, but claims there is a problem with boot.ini. I located boot.ini on the vista-partition as well as on the xp-partition. Becauce the change in C-drive I alsoo changed the booted partition from 1 to 0. Nothing worked, though xp starts fine afteral.

So now I have the following situation:
1. Vista-partition with boot-folder and ntldr (I also put ntdetect there)
2. XP-partiton bootmgr and boot.ini
Just the other way around as you described earlier to mart.

But it's working and thats great. If you have any other clou, I'd appreciate that. Thanks for your help sofar.

Rien
 
It's just an issue of finding the right numbers for boot.ini.. I'd take a gander and say it should be rdisk(0)partition(1) in both lines in Boot.ini! (the default=.... and the entry at the bottom).
 
Thanks

Thanks for Computer Guru,
I was afflicted for triple boot (2003, Vista, Ununtu) in Grub for couple days....
What you said, several files needed in the respective windows partitions, saves me...
Now my three OS boots well, thanks~~~!:smile:
 
Computer Guru said:
Not at all.

It's quite a lot simpler than that. In Vista -> EasyBCD -> Useful Utilities -> Power Console

Code: 
bootsect.exe /nt52 X: /force
bootsect.exe /nt60 Y: /force
Replace X: with the XP drive and Y: with the Vista drive.

In your menu.lst:
Code: 
title Windows XP
rootnoverify hd(x,y);
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify hd(m,n)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot
Make sure you have bootmgr and the BOOT folder on the Vista drive and NTLDR, NTDETECT, and Boot.ini on the XP drive.
Click to expand...

Hi! Can you help me. At first sorry that my english isn't excellent. :smile: I have 3 OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit, OpenSuse 11.2 and Windows XP Pro. I installed XP Pro yestareday i i used Paragon Partition Manager to have access to other OS. Before that i used Paragon Partition Manager again to have access in Win 7 to OpenSuse, because I reinstalled Win 7. So today morning I had 2 screens. At the first screen I saw 2 options: 1. XP, 2. Grub. When i selected XP - i started XP, when I selected grub then i had choice between Win 7 and OpenSuse And failsafe OPenSuse. But something happenned. Now when i select XP - nothing happens. When I select Windows 7 in Grub menu, instead Win 7 starts Win XP. In OpenSuse the situation is: sda1 - WIn 7, sda2 - XP, sda3 - OpenSuse. In the end i want to add I am new in Linux - my knowledges are really small.
 
Last edited:
Hi grizli, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

You'll need to download and install EasyBCD 2.0.

Use it to add a new Windows XP entry and when it asks, press "YES" to have it auto-configure everything for you.
 
Computer Guru said:
Hi grizli, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

You'll need to download and install EasyBCD 2.0.

Use it to add a new Windows XP entry and when it asks, press "YES" to have it auto-configure everything for you.
Click to expand...
Hi! Where to download EasyBCD 2.0 from? From here? EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums I read in other thread that: "93 has been an excellent build. No problems or bug reports as of yet!"
The situation by me now is the next: I installed again Windows 7 Ultimate x 64 and OpenSuse 11.2 and by Suse's instalation I chosed "Installng Grub in MBR".
 
Last edited:
Yes, download and install build 99 from the very first post.

You don't need to reinstall Windows XP. Just install EasyBCD 2.0 in Windows 7, and use it to add a new Windows XP entry.
 
EasyBCD looks for the BCD on the "active" partition.
If there isn't a BCD on the active (as on my system and yours because you're booting with grub, not bootmgr), you'll have to tell it where to find the BCD you want to work on.
 
Last edited:
...in other words: press "Yes" then browse the Boot\BCD file on your boot drive. You may need to
a) enable viewing of system and hidden files
b) assign a letter to the windows boot drive
 
Computer Guru said:
...in other words: press "Yes" then browse the Boot\BCD file on your boot drive. You may need to
a) enable viewing of system and hidden files
b) assign a letter to the windows boot drive
Click to expand...
Thank's. Sorry that I ask for my steps but I don't want to reinstall again. I found Boot\BCD file and now the situation looks so:


F is the drive where is Windows XP. I fear to chоose the drive F right now. I don't believe it is so simply.
 
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