[SATLUG] Problems with dual boot

[Don Wright]

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:55:23 -0700, augie <agrayfox at gmail.com>
wrote:

>I have a boxen with Simply Mepis and win xp installed. I can boot into
>Mepis but when I try to boot into the win os I get the following:
>[title Windows at hda1]
>[rootnoverify (hd0,0)]
>[chainloader +1]
>[saved default]
>This prints on the screen w/o the brackets and it just hangs there.
>I've used the live CD and gone into the system and re-installed grub
>but the same thing happens when I reboot.

Here is the Windows section from my dual boot menu.lst:

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a
# non-linux OS on /dev/hda1
title		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

The difference I see is 'makeactive', which sets the Active flag
on that partition table entry. This is needed by DOS-derived
operating systems.[1] You can check that with your partition
utility. It's OK to have Windows "active" even if grub boots
Mepis as default, as grub and lilo don't need no steenkin' flags
to find the bootable OS.

If that doesn't work, your Windows install may be hosed. You can
use the WinXP setup CD to repair the Windows boot loader,
(FIXBOOT and FIXMBR utils - try without FIXMBR first) and then
reinstall grub if necessary.  --Don


[1] A DOS Boot is marked TGIF - Toes Go In First.