Dual Boot Linpus and XP - Idiots' Guide

If that last issue is happening on 'all' your computers it's not related to the dual booting on the Acer, is it? If I didn't know better I'd say you have virus. I suggest you download HiJackThis and see if it finds anything. And run an extended scan using AVG. I'm assuming you're connecting to the Internet via a wireless router? Not via another PC?

My Acer has none of these problems and what you describe seem very Windows XP specific (i.e. nothing to do with the hardware it's running on) but we'll try one thing at a time...

 

''nothing is idiot proof to a determined idiot''

I've got a bit of an unusual problem with my new blue 120gb linpus aao, I've followed the guide to the point of marking the ntfs partition as Boot flag. The AAO simply seems to be ignoring this flag and I can't fathom why this would be. I've reboot repeatedly and switched from gParted to Parted Magic (not a real difference I know) and they both show the sda2 ntfs partition as having the boot flag, but when the laptop boots up fresh it still loads linpus. I've tried changing the boot flag back to the linpus parition and then back again to the ntfs, no joy. All seems a little perculiar - any suggestions anyone?

I've got a bootable windows environment on my flash drive (customised ubcd4win) from which I've tried a second route of starting the xp installation using the winn32 command, and all goes well until it reboots and simply loads Linpus instead of continuing the install.

Thanks for any tips.

 

Are you sure you have followed all of step 10 correctly, particularly:

"Maximise the window and check the APPLY option is not lit; if it is click it, and wait for it to finish".

Just checking...

If you definitely have done this, PM DJ_Steve who might be able to help. If he can, please post the solution back here so I can incorporate it into the Guide.

 

Hi Thanks for your comments (and the article) just to confirm, the action was indeed applied - I even switched a different build of the partition app to check that still registered the boot flag on the right partition. I will message DJ later, I'll just a take a couple of screenshots when I get back this afternoon just in case there's something really obvious that I'm not seeing that someone else can spot.. fingers crossed.

 

screen shot attached, ignore the extra ntfs partition, that was something i added afterwards while trying other things. The problem is with the ignoring of the boot flag i think, unless I've set the partitions up wrong somehow?

--edit -- just noticed when i load gparted WITHIN linpus the ext2 linpus partition is shown has having the boot flag, but when i boot another os on a USB flash drive the sda2 partition is clearly shown as having the boot flag - no idea what's going on?!

 

right lets see if i cant shed some light on this

it sounds to me like you have installed grub into the mbr of the hd, so the boot flag will do sweet nothing now the reason you see the different flags in linpus and not is because grub 'fakes' the boot flag on boot to whichever partition needs it. can you get into linpus and post up the contents of your grub.conf inside /boot/grub (or pmme it if you prefer) and ill see if i cant find a fix

 

here's my conf file, ive not actually touch grub yet i dont think, so this is vanilla.. thanks for your assistance again

Code:

default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Linpus Linux RCD
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet nolapic_timer
  	initrd /boot/initrd-splash.img

 

ok try changing it to this

Code:

default=0
timeout=30
color=black/white

title Linpus Linux RCD
   rootnoverify (hd0,0)
   kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet nolapic_timer
     initrd /boot/initrd-splash.img

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

only issue your havingis grubs taking over (which is actualyl better than windoze taking over) so just gotta modifyu the install a bit - remeber tohit tab to allow selection of items once new menu is working

 

pauses at a black only screen before booting to linpus upon any key press - pretty strange. Anything else come to mind or do you think it's worth scrapping the acer grub and installing the true fedora one even at this stage?

 

copy what i pasted exactly (remove hiddenmenu/splash lines especially or you will not see menu

edit: also try changing color to green/red

 

Yep via a router, tried running an AVG scan but it found nothing - sill wont update as it says the connection fails. Tried a trend micro scan which found a couple of cookies but nothing else.

 

theirs nothing obviously wrong in that log. try checking your hosts file (goolge for its location not 100% sure about its location. also get spybot search and destroy and run a full scan (avg aint great for spyware)

 

evening hidden was already removed, changing the colour worked though and it's now visible. selecting the xp entry is now possible and moves onto a flashing cursor, so I'm hoping I just need to start the xp install again. Thanks for your help so far, I'll keep you posted but it will be tomorrow now before I can get my power adapter as I've run the battery low!

 

yeah make sure boots set right though first

 

downloaded spybot, but it wont run because it cant download either

 

The amended grub.conf did the job thanks dj. Even Linpus shows the boot flag in the correct location now. SS attached. Just need to work on the xp install now, using the winnt32 command line setup just results in a black flashing cursor on reboot into that partition - but thats a seperate issue i should be able to resolve now I've got the partition booting. Thanks for your assistance.[attachment=0:15wkvsor]Screenshot.png[/attachment:15wkvsor]

 

I'm going to assume you have no virus but this is a networking issue instead.

The fact that you fail to connect from another PC as well indicates the problem may well be with your network settings (in the router possibly).

From your Acer, open a command prompt (Start, Run, cmd.exe) and type in ipconfig /all and check that your gateway and DNS settings are correct from a PC's point of view (post results here if need be).

Then log on to your router (via your web browser, probably to 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) and check that all the settings there are as per your ISP's instructions (DNS servers especially). Post those settings here too (but no more reams of logs, pleeeaaase! ).

Also, post the contents of your hosts file (in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc), the file is called 'hosts' without an extension but you can open it easily enough using NotePad. Post its contents here too.

Anytime soon would be good. Then we'll see where you are at...

 

Was this the amended grub.conf you used:

Code:

    default=0
    timeout=30
    color=black/white

    title Linpus Linux RCD
       rootnoverify (hd0,0)
       kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet nolapic_timer
         initrd /boot/initrd-splash.img

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

And you made no other changes at all?

 

Confirmed, No other changes. That was the config, except the colour scheme didn't show up for some reason, red/green worked however, ive not tried changing it to something more pleasing to the eye yet though, been a bit short on time.

 

All working now, linpus, xp & 7. Was a very interesting project.