YasT Bootloader Config

Well, i'm installing suse right now on another computer, and i went to go configure the bootloader, and windows was not recognized. however, the partitioning wizard recognized my windows partition. also, i have a bootloader that was left on my HDD when i unistalled mandrake, which does recognize windows. my question is, if i tell Yast not to install a bootloader, can i use the one i have now to access windows and Suse? i'm assuming if i tell it to not install one, and went on installing suse, i would be able to access my windows partition because it is still the same as before the installation. but then again, we all know the old sayiing about assume. any help would be greatly appreciated...




slick

What bootloader is SUSE using: Grub or Lilo? You can usually easily add other OSes to the boot loader.

As an example, in my /etc/lilo.conf I've put in:

Quote:

---

other = /dev/hda2
label = DOS
table = /dev/hda

---

So if I know where my Windows partition is or if it changes, I just quickly alter it here. :D

Oh, and IMHO, it's better to have a bootloader that's installed by the OS. Old bootloaders may have specifications to previous installs and might just make your life miserable rather than help.

SuSE uses the Groub bootloader however SuSE versions 8.1 and later do not recognize NTFS partitions, so as far as I can see I belive the problems lies within the fact that you are using Windows XP.
Correct me if I'm wrong!

Eh, i'm not using NTFS. I upgraded from ME, so it is FAT32.

Quote:

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..SuSE versions 8.1 and later do not recognize NTFS partitions

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That doesn't make sense since the kernel recognizes NTFS since 2.4 (I think) and reads it (doesn't write however). But given it's FAT32 there should be no reason why it's not picking it up (other than it being anal -- I've found some linuxes -- lord knows why -- will pick up the Windows partition and some won't).

This link at LinuxQuestions.org will probably help you in regards to putting Windows into the Grub file. Although it's for Red Hat, grub is grub. :D (btw, that's a good site to visit if you haven't been there yet).

Sorry about that then.
The best thing I can think of would be for you to re-format just the Linux partitions (if I remember correctly this can be done durring the SuSE installation) that way the Mandrake bootloader would be wiped and the SuSE one would replace it.
That is what I would do as I've never had any problems with my SuSE Grub bootloader.

Remember though, when your messing about with partitions its always a good idea to play safe and make backups of everything on the hard-drive as you never know what might happen :)

Sometimes it depends on how you have the partitions set up too. Linux can pick up the partitions, but if they havbe erros they might miss them.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by HDD
The best thing I can think of would be for you to re-format just the Linux partitions

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well, i've already tried that, the bootloader was installed to /dev/hda. I'm checking out MsM's link now, seems kinda like what i need, they are using two HDD's and i only have one. should i be able to just put in the commands in to grub.conf with out another HDD? But i'm still not sure how to get rid of the mandrake bootloader. thanks for all your help...


slick

[edit] figured out how to get rid of the bootloader, i'm gonna try to install suse again [/edit]

[/edit2] well, i tried putting it in grub.conf, didnt work. put it in menu.lst, and it showed up under available sections. the specs are:

Quote:

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Section Name : Windows XP
Section Type: Other
Device: /dev/null
Map: map (hd0) (hd1), map (hd1) (hd0)
Rootnoverify: (hd1,0)
Chainloader:+1
makeactive: true

---

i'm not gonna install it now, could someone who knows what they are doing look at that and see if they see anything that would make me unable to boot windows.

Might want to look at Linuxquestions.org. I went through there doing a search (as I said I don't use grub because I'm not familar with it's various settings). You may not necessarily be getting an answer for the same reason: most people probably use Lilo (easier to configure sometimes)

well, what i was really a little leery of was thr device: /dev/null? i have windows installed to /dev/hda1 should i change the device to that?


slick

Where did you get /dev/null from? It probably should /dev/hdx (x being the number location of the partition). (sorry I didn't even see the /dev/null device reference in your original post)

[/edit]

The other thing. I don't think you need the map option. That seems to move the mapping of the drive around so that XP can be "primary" drive (assuming two drives)

[/edit2]

Can ya paste your full grub file here or menu.lst?

sure, here it is :

Quote:

---

#Modifed by YaST2 Last Modification Sun Feb 22 10:56:06 2004


color white/blue black/light-gray
default 4
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don't Change This comment - YaST2 identifier: linux###
title Linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/hda6 vga=0x31a splash=slient desktop hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,5) /boot/initrd

###Don't Change This comment - YaST2 identifier: floppy###
title Floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

###Don't Change This comment - YaST2 identifier: failsafe###
title Failsafe
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/hda6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off vga=normal nosmp noapic maxcpus=0
3
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

###Don't Change This comment - YaST2 identifier: memtest86###
title memtest86
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/memtest.bin

###Don't Change This comment - YaST2 identifier:Windows XP ###

( the rest is what i got off linuxquestions.com )

title Windows XP
map (hdo (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

---

That was menu.lst...Here is Grub.conf

Quote:

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root (hd0,5)
install --stage=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,5)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit

---

and here is device.map

Quote:

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(hd0) /dev/hda
(fd0) /dev/fd0

---

slick

I think this might work better:

Quote:

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title Windows XP
root (hd0,0) #XP is on hda1 (in grubeese)
chainloader +1 # Load first sector. Note the space between 'r' & '+'
boot

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Source. I have a feeling that the one you have is for multiple drives.

yup, that seemed to do the trick. now it says device:/dev/hda1 . so, i already setup all the other options, am i ready to install and will windows boot?

slick

I'd say give it a shot. :) At worst you won't boot into windows. The bootloader, AFAIK, shouldn't damage installations. Unless you've overwritten a windows partition during installation but the fact that you see it with a disk tool strikes me as this not being the case.

also, one last thing. i've set the mount point for /dev/hda1 to /windows/C . it was like that when i tried to install it a few days ago. does that look good? i wanna thank you again for all your help.


slick

The mount point is generally up to you. That's usually done in the /etc/fstab so that you can have access to the drive when in Linux (say to transfer files back and forth -- something I do quite often). :D Heck, you could create a mount point of /pieceofcrapfromgates and it's not going to care. :)

And no prob. Hopefully we've found a solution.

ok, not so good. error when i hit install

Quote:

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could not mount partition /dev/hda1 to /mnt/windows/C. You can continue if you know what you are doing, but to prevent damage to your file systems, it is safer to cancel and reboot.

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what should i do? i have 3 options Continue, abort, and retry.


slick

Abort. What are the permissions to /mnt/windows/C?

what do you mean? what kind of accounts can access C:\ in windows? i have it so all accounts can access it.

When talking permissions in Linux usually ls -ld <filename/directory name> will list the permissions for the file/directory. I was trying to figure out why you need a mount point however. Mount points are usually to mount partitions within linux itself (either during boot or in the course of the use of the system). Where exactly is this /mnt/windows/c (i.e., which file are you putting in this mount point reference)?

well, when i tried to install it a few days ago, it was in the options for the windows partition. it wasnt there when i tried to install it today, so i put it in. shouldi try to install it again without it? also, after i hit abort, it took me back to the YaST2 setup screen. it must have done something to the extended partition i am trying to install it on because it now says under partitioning: format /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6.



slick

Ok. Now I'm a little confused. Are you in the middle of installing SUSE itself or have you already installed it?

i'm in the middle of installing it. sorry if i'm conufsing you.

Ok.. Install first (make sure not to overwrite or erase any windows partitions), with the bootloader of your choice (grub I believe is default for SUSE) and then configure/modify AFTER. Doing modifications in the middle of an install isn't the best, IMHO, since sometimes partitions can change location (I've seen this with RH a couple of times -- Windows partitions that should have been hda1 ended up at hda3).

ok, again, another error (i hope suse is worth it :D)

Quote:

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could not mount partition /dev/hda6 to /mnt/. You can continue if you know what you are doing, but to prevent damage to your file systems, it is safer to cancel and reboot

---

i aborted.


slick

Hrmm... What partitions is it attempting to mount? The Windows ones or Linux ones? If it's the Linux ones, have you formatted them yet (as it strikes me that those would be the ones it's attempting to mount).

well, i think they are the linux ones. as soon as i hit ok on the installation thing it says formatting /dev/hda6, so i assume they are formatted.

Did they actually format (take the time to format)? And what filesystem did you choose? (ext2, ext3, Reiserfs, etc.) Also, how did you partition your linux? It sounds like you have partitions for:

/mnt ---> /dev/hda6
/mnt/windows/c ---> /dev/hda5

Where's / and other directories/mount points?

My partitioning is setup like so:

Quote:

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Name.............Location..............size.........Mount point...................File System

Win32.......... /dev/hda1............39.3GB....(none specified)..............FAT32

Swap.........../dev/hda5.............392 MB.......swap......................(none specified)

Linux Native.. /dev/hda6..........16.1GB.........../.......................... Reiser

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Looks fine. Don't see any reason why it should complain about it unless it detects previous installation (?)

Ah, maybe thats what the problem is. If that is what the problem is, it would be kinda odd cause i formatted the partition. When i restarted the installation, it gave me a thing that said it detected a previous installation, and whether i wanted to repair, new installation or boot installed system. i just selected new installation. also, when it gives the error about damaging filesystems, does it mean on my whole HDD, or just on my extended partition with /hda5 and /hda5 on it? because if it is just on the extended partition, would it even matter, because it will be overwritten with another filesystem anyway...

I wonder if it's complaining about being installed as an extended partition. Why are you installing on an extended not a primary?

i dunno, thats what it was when mandrake was on it. i'll boot it in to windows and make it a primary.

[edit] WHOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!! I THINK IT MIGHT BE WORKING!!!!! i began the installation about 5 min ago, and havent had any errors so far (this is a new record :D:D:D) i'll post later as to the results of the installation. [/edit]


[edit2] yup, its working. installation went just fine. [/edit2]

slick

Yay!!! And you can boot into Windows and see the Windows partition in Linux?

yup :D thanks again for all your help...

slick

Excellent... That'll be $500 for the tech call :D

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