Can't Boot, Need Some Advice Please

amy

Well, I thought I'd give  another try after a year away.  It is a great operating system, but I always felt I was playing catch-up.  Now I have more time to devote to learning a new operating system so I'm back.  But I cant seem to be able to get it to boot-up with my current system configuration.

My first hard drive is partitioned into two drives (I thought).  The fist XP the second partition is a catch all file storage closet as it were, for misc. files, etc..  The second drive is also two partitions (well three now).  The first partition is Vista, the second and third are  and a swap.

I'm using the Vista bootlaoder and I can boot into XP (default) or Vista without problem.  Then, I loaded  onto the second drive, second partition using the live CD.  When prompted for a bootloader I selected GRUB to the partition not the MBR.  In the advanced option I selected /dev/hdb2.  I used easyBCD to add the  entry and everything looks OK from the end.

Now when I try to boot into  I get a GRUBgt; prompt.  I've tried to look through the menu.lst file, and from my very limited knowledge look fine to me.

Here are my fdisk -l and menu.lst printouts:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 163.9 GB, 163928604672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1       12560   100888168+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           12561       19929    59191492+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5           12561       19929    59191461    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1               1       17751   142579552+   7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb2   *       17752       23221    43937775   83  Linux
/dev/hdb3           23222       24321     8835750   82  Linux swap / SolariGRUB menu.lst file;

title           , kernel 2.6.20-15-generic

root            (hd1,1)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=8a9df627-b1a3-4be9-8f1
0-05af611972d0 ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.ing-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title           , kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd1,1)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=8a9df627-b1a3-4be9-8f1
0-05af611972d0 ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.ing-2.6.20-15-generic

title           , memtest86+
root            (hd1,1)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title           Other operating system

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title           Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader     +1# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda5
title           Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root            (hd0,4)
savedefault
chainloader     +1# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hdb1
title           Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root            (hd1,0)
savedefault
map             (hd0) (hd1)
map             (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader     +1

Hope someone out there can help, thanks for your time and let me know if you need any additional info

Scott....

it looks like your first drive is partitioned into 3.

And grub has an entry for that third partition....hda5.Whats on there?

Well, this will sound stupid, but I'm not sure.  When using file explorer in windows it only shows Drive C: (primary windows) and E:, a trash partition where I keep failed xBase programs and code that I thought I need again (but never do).  Drive D: is my CD/DVD burner.  However, gpart clearly shows that third partition.

So, I'm not sure what that is.

Scott.

ok, so i had another look.

It seems like you have two entries in the fdisk for that trash partition. Weird, hey?

I'm not sure why that is.If you are sure that you do not have windows XP installed to the hda I think the simplest solution would be to remove the entry for the hda5 from the menu.lst

make sure you back up the menu.lst first.

I'll try that and let you know.

Now I get Error 8 - Must load kerenl first.

Anyother advice is appreciated.

Scott

Good news: first problem solved

Edit: sorry, misread your entry.

Oh well, thanks for your time.  It was worth a the try to give  another shot (kinda fun in a way).  From what I could see from the live CD  looks like it's really matured nicely in the past year or two.  Maybe I can try again next year.  Well, windows it looks like I'm back .

Again, thanks for your time.

Scott.

There's no need to get rash!

I did a quick google search, and there are numerous instances of grub error 8's.
Often it is caused when your menu.lst doesnt point to the right kernel

Google = your friend

OK, I'll see what I dig up from google.  I was going to try super grub, but can't find a widows iso.zip file anyplace.  From what I read it was supposed to go in there and fix everything automatically (exactly what I needed).

Scott.