Dual boot XP & Gentoo, Grub Error 17

Message

wwasser · Post by **wwasser** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:07 am

I'm trying to set up a dual boot with Windows XP and Gentoo (kernel 2.6.7-r8 ) but something was messed up with the Grub loader --- when booting, it just reports "error 17" and hangs. The menu doesn't even show up. Anyone can help me find a solution to this problem? Follows are some info (I think) useful:

fdisk /dev/hda:

Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 * 1913 1929 136552+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1930 1992 506047+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 1993 9964 64035090 83 Linux

hda1 is for XP, hda2 for /boot, hda3 swap, hda4 for /

# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

default 0
timeout 10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /linux-2.6.7-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hda4

title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

#cat /etc/fstab

/dev/hda2 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 1
/dev/hda4 / reiserfs noatime,notail 0 0
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0

DrKayBee · Post by **DrKayBee** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:12 am

Where did you install the grub?

wwasser · Post by **wwasser** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:15 am

This is what I did with grub:

grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

TheRepublican · Post by **TheRepublican** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:02 am

This is because you have XP installed on a NTFS partition. I did the same thing on my first linux install with RedHat. You either need to use ntldr to boot windows and linux, or convert your NTFS partition to a FAT32 one. Here is a how-to on the first method: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+NT-Loader.html . The second requires either a reinstall of XP or special commercial software.

Putrifier · Post by **Putrifier** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:06 am

TheRepublican wrote:This is because you have XP installed on a NTFS partition. I did the same thing on my first linux install with RedHat. You either need to use ntldr to boot windows and linux, or convert your NTFS partition to a FAT32 one. Here is a how-to on the first method: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+NT-Loader.html . The second requires either a reinstall of XP or special commercial software.

what the hell? no. I have XP as well, on NTFS, and I didnt have to do any of those. Grub works fine with them, and there was absolutely no need to convert to NTFS.
Still, no idea how to help the guy. I'll take a look around though.

Putrifier · Post by **Putrifier** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:27 am

might want to try cleaning up the MBR, using "fdisk /mbr", and then boot again using the LiveCD, and try reinstalling grub in the mbr. maybe something got corrupted along the way. if that fails again, theres always LILO, which would allow you without losing your XP partition, at least.

wwasser · Post by **wwasser** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:48 am

Thanks for the suggestion Putrifier. Isn't "fdisk /mbr" a DOS thing? Any idea how I can do it considering (1) I can't get into XP (maybe with the XP CD I can but haven't tried it yet); and (2) I don't have a floppy drive.

Also, is there a way to remove grub and mbr in Linux? (I am actually thinking booting with Knoppix to get to the hard drive and remove grub before installing LILO)

Putrifier · Post by **Putrifier** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 5:37 am

The XP CD is going to do just fine. use that. open the Recovery console, and type "fdisk /mbr". then reboot, and it should boot straight into XP.
then, if you have Knoppix, you can use that.
for your configuration, just enter,

# chroot /mnt/hda4 /bin/bash
# env-update
# source /etc/profile

and you will be once again in your very own gentoo installation, even though using Knoppix's GUI. thats how I installed Gentoo, btw. its much better than the ugly and non practical Live CD.
from there, follow the instructions to install lilo, which will overwrite itself in the MBR. lets hope you have no other trouble.

micb · Post by **micb** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:48 am

wwasser wrote:
# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

default 0
timeout 10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /linux-2.6.7-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hda4

title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

My grub.conf looks a bit differnet (no, not only the partitions and kernel

):

Code: Select all

splashimage=(hd0,7)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=gentoo 2.6.5
root (hd0,7)
kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5 root=/dev/hde8

Splashimage is in /boot/grub, not only /grub.
In the kernel-line, (hd0,1) should point to your /boot-Partition (AFAIK).
Is your kernel really /linux-2.6.7-gentoo-r8 or is it /boot/linux-2.6.7-gentoo-r8? My kernel resides in /boot.

Maybe it helps.

micb

Putrifier · Post by **Putrifier** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:34 pm

erm, I think he's got it right.
if (hd0,1) points to his /boot partition, then (hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz translates to /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz , and the kernel translates to /boot/linux-2.6.7-gentoo-r8.
or maybe Im wrong as well. =\
dunno.

wwasser · Post by **wwasser** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:51 pm

Putrifier is correct --- (hd0,1) already points to /boot. /boot/boot is just a link pointing to /boot.

I found out that the equivalance of "fdisk /mbr" in XP is "fixmbr" --- tried it unfortunately upon rebooting it now gives "invalid partition table" --- I'm gonna try installing LILO in Knoppix (by chrooting to gentoo). If it doesn't work, maybe I'll have to reinstall everything?

wwasser · Post by **wwasser** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:21 pm

okay, i've got it working by switching to LILO. One quesiton though --- to "uninstall" grub I used "emerge unmerge grub" and manually deleted the /boot/grub folder. Are there other things to clean up?

Deathwing00 · Post by **Deathwing00** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:24 pm

Please, follow this thread.

Dual boot XP & Gentoo, Grub Error 17

Dual boot XP & Gentoo, Grub Error 17

Re: Dual boot XP & Gentoo, Grub Error 17