Grub fails after Windows boot.

Message

BLASTER_ · Post by **BLASTER_** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:58 pm

I have a dual boot XP-64 Gentoo system using SATA drives (VIA Chipset)

Every time I re-boot into windows it somehow destroys the MBR and causes grub to crash and reboot, sending the system into a loop. There is no error message, it goes to boot the drive then the 3 keyboard lights flash and it restarts.

Currently my work around is to boot from the cd, chroot and grub> setup (hd0) Then it will boot linux as normal but if I reboot over to windows.. windows will load ok (once) but after that grub will break.

Anyone else having this problem? I searched for it but was unable to find anything.

loftwyr · Post by **loftwyr** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:13 pm

Which version of windows, what is your partition set-up and can you show us your grub.conf?

rlittle · Post by **rlittle** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:18 pm

I had that happen to me on my work laptop before. The Tech Support guys had installed anti-theft "call home" software. Every time you booted into Windoze it would overwrite the boot sector with it's own code. (apparently it was compatible with Lilo, but it couldn't handle Grub)

BLASTER_ · Post by **BLASTER_** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:28 am

Setup is..

Windows XP-64 NTFS on /dev/sda (sda1 = ntfs, sda2 = ntfs)
Gentoo amd64 on /dev/sdb (sdb1 = /boot, sdb2 = /, sdb3 = /home, sdb4 = swap, all are ext3)
Grub is installed into /dev/sda MBR.
Kernel is 2.6.17-gentoo-r7 (from install livecd)

Grub installed by installer, config is the default install config from the GUI installer.. I would post the config but I dont see why it works fine until I boot to windows.

The windows part is just a simple.
title=windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

One odd thing.. I cant see the windows drives at all. it just comes up as /dev/sda with no partitions. I dont know if this is related or not cfdisk reports the partitions types on /dev/sda are "SFS" I've never seen that before.

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:48 am

Can you post your fdisk -l, because I curious about your problem.

I saw that problem only once at work...

BLASTER_ · Post by **BLASTER_** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:25 am

Yeah, here.

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Disk /dev/sda: 74.3 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        8777    70501221   42  SFS
/dev/sda2            8778        9039     2104515   42  SFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 74.3 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              14        1033     8193150   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3            1034        8777    62203680   83  Linux
/dev/sdb4            8778        9039     2104515   82  Linux swap / Solaris

BLASTER_ · Post by **BLASTER_** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:30 am

more info if anyone is interested..

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uname -a
Linux xblankx 2.6.19-gentoo-r5 #1 SMP Wed Mar 14 02:16:06 PDT 2007 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

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cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.19-r5
root (hd1,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sdb2 
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.17-r7
root (hd1,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.17-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sdb2 
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.17-gentoo-r7

title=Possible Windows P1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

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cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 12
model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
stepping        : 0
cpu MHz         : 2200.156
cache size      : 512 KB
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext lm 3dnowext 3dnow up lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4404.45
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp

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lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
fglrx                 601632  9 
ipv6                  272288  10 
snd_pcm_oss            46112  0 
snd_mixer_oss          21760  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_oss            37120  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     12544  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                59392  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
rtc                    14496  0 
parport_pc             45800  0 
parport                44812  1 parport_pc
8250_pnp               16000  0 
pcspkr                  7936  0 
snd_via82xx            34856  0 
gameport               21520  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec        111448  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_bus            7296  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                83976  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              28680  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         14864  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart        13568  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            31136  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device         13076  3 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    66792  11 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
i2c_viapro             14360  0 
i2c_core               28416  1 i2c_viapro
cdc_acm                20256  0 
ata_generic            12932  0 
pata_via               16644  0 
r8169                  35848  0 
3c59x                  51252  0 
mii                    10368  1 3c59x
sg                     37672  0 
joydev                 15360  0 
eth1394                24840  0 
tg3                   110852  0 
e1000                 122944  0 
xfs                   488576  0 
nfs                   237488  0 
lockd                  71088  1 nfs
sunrpc                174536  2 nfs,lockd
jfs                   166736  0 
reiserfs              231040  0 
raid10                 27392  0 
raid1                  27392  0 
raid0                  12288  0 
dm_mirror              26112  0 
dm_mod                 64464  1 dm_mirror
pdc_adma               15492  0 
sata_mv                25352  0 
ata_piix               22280  0 
ahci                   26372  0 
sata_qstor             15620  0 
sata_vsc               14596  0 
sata_uli               13572  0 
sata_sis               13956  0 
sata_sx4               19460  0 
sata_nv                17668  0 
sata_via               16132  4 
sata_svw               13828  0 
sata_sil24             20740  0 
sata_sil               17800  0 
sata_promise           18436  0 
libata                112288  17 ata_generic,pata_via,pdc_adma,sata_mv,ata_piix,ahci,sata_qstor,sata_vsc,sata_uli,sata_sis,sata_sx4,sata_nv,sata_via,sata_svw,sata_sil24,sata_sil,sata_promise
sbp2                   30084  0 
ohci1394               38856  0 
ieee1394              104824  3 eth1394,sbp2,ohci1394
sl811_hcd              17664  0 
usbhid                 55328  0 
ff_memless             10376  1 usbhid
ohci_hcd               25092  0 
uhci_hcd               28816  0 
usb_storage            88384  0 
ehci_hcd               33928  0 
usbcore               145320  8 cdc_acm,sl811_hcd,usbhid,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usb_storage,ehci_hcd

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lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:07.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang]
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530 [Radeon X1600]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530 [Radeon X1600] (Secondary)

rlittle · Post by **rlittle** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:28 pm

I'm shooting in the dark here, but the partition type for your windows stuff is (according to fdisk -l) "42 SFS". What is that? Shouldn't it be "7 HPFS/NTFS"?