Dual Boot Windows/Linpus using Backup Image (Download Here)

hi, thanks for the tutorial. ive hit a bit of a snag

ive setup my partitions below and restored the linus image


i ran "bootpart.exe 7 linux.bin Linus"


and here are my grub.conf

and fstab


i think everythings pretty good so far.. when i reboot, i get a choice of booting to windows or linus. when i choose the linus option i see this

Code:

Bootpart 2.6 Bootsector (c) 1993-2005 Gilles Vollant [url]http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm[/url]
Loading new partition
Bootsector from C.H. Hocstatter

am i supposed to edit something in grub.conf or fstab? thats the only think i can think of that is not causing it to work...

thanks

edit: upon further digging i found swap=sda6 and my ext2=sda7. i tried changing these in grub.conf and fstab but still no go..

i took a look into my linux.bin file that bootpart created..

Code:

Bootpart 2.6 Bootsector (c) 1993-2005 Gilles Vollant [url]http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm[/url]
Loading new partition
Bootsector from C.H. Hocstatter

Cannot load form harddisk
Insert systemdisk and press any key

..which is the message above..

>< i really wanna get this thing working

 

@acer123
You need ifs utility to access Linpus partition. Copy grub.conf, bzImage, initrd-splash.img, & splash.xpm.gz to C:\Grub, rename grub.conf to MENU.LST. Open it using unix compliant editor (Notepad++), change:

Code:

splashimage=(hd0,0)/Grub/splash.xpm.gz
kernel /Grub/bzImage ro root=/dev/sda7 console=tty1
initrd /Grub/initrd-splash.img

Install grub using WinGrub and select boot.ini

 

@acer123
I mean change related options to above value and keep another as is.

 

@acer123
Sorry, better if you delete hiddenmenu line and change timeout value to 10. If Linpus fail to boot, you still have a chance to manual booting. Press C when grub screen appear, type:

Code:

root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=/dev/sda7 console=tty1
initrd /boot/initrd-splash.img
boot

 

thanks for all your help blackhawk!!

here is my menu.lst

Code:

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

title Linpus Linux RCD
	rootnoverify (hd0,6)
	kernel /grub/bzImage ro root=/dev/sda7 console=tty1
  initrd /grub/initrd-splash.img

i did the steps you instructed and it got me to the language selection screen.. when it rebooted i had to do the steps in your post above again to boot into linpus. do i need to repeat the steps in your post above every time i want to boot into linpus? this doesnt seem right to me.

thanks!!

 

Ha..ha..ha..., grub is powerfull but so weird in your situation! I assume you have grub in boot.ini not in mbr. When AA1 boot, you have 2 option (bad looking white on black boot loader) to boot to Windows or Linpus but when you select Linpus, grub scanning your disk and load grub.conf from (hd0,6). It's failed since you have wrong value grub.conf.

 

Since you have initrd-splash.img and bzImage inside Windows directory C:\Grub (first partition), you must set:

Code:

rootnoverify (hd0, 0)
[code]
rootnoverify (hd0,0) is a command to set (hd0,0) as grub root partition and root=/dev/sda7 is a boot option to tell to the kernel /dev/sda7 is Linux root partition.

 

ZZZZZZ ive done the above, now i get..

Code:

rootnoverift (hd0,0)
kernel /grub/bzImage ro root=/dev/sda7 console=tty1

Error 15: Cannot mount selected partition

Press any key to continue...

ok i figured it out... in my menu.lst i copied the lines from grub.conf

 

I notice that this guide is for AAOne owners with WinXP wishing to add Linpus but is it possible to adapt it somewhat for users wishing to go the other way.

To clarify, I have 120Gb Linpus model of which I have tweaked it a fair amount and as such wish to keep that installation. I would like to add XP and dual boot it. I've tried following a combination of a guide I found on APCMag.com and Eeeguides.com but came up short on the second reboot with a Hal.dll error. Apparently this is to do with the fact the XP setup program can't detect the partition it created in the first run because of the existing Linpus ones. Removing them is the solution but I don't want to do that for reasons mentioned above

Can anyone help?

 

Not sure if this works, but... if you can resize the partition to create space in the front, that is likely your only hope. I believe that XP won't install on something other than the first partition of the drive.

 

@acer123
Please read grub online documentation for more info and trick. I am sure you'll become grub fans after

 

Hi,

Hopefully this wasn't already addressed (looked though the thread and didn't see it) but... is this image okay for both the SSD and HDD versions of the aspire one? Thx for any info.... chris

 

I created the image on my 120gb version so I can't say for sure. It might work though since I used the restore disk and then imaged it before initial boot.

 

Thanks for the quick reply... I guess I have nothing to lose (except a little time) so will give it a try and post back (for anyone else that might want to try). Unless... I'm guessing the answer is no but does the restore disk appear to give you any option where it installs (I already have WinXP installed and could just create a new partition on the SSD with Disk Director). Thx...

 

...

 

Before I saw your response I managed to get WinXP installed without wiping the drive or having to move the Linpus partition "to the right". All I had to do was edit the boot.ini file on the WinXP-USB-Install stick to point to the second partition. This allowed it to startup the GUI part of the XP install and subsequently finish off.

Having done that, I then set about restoring GRUB in the hopes I could use that to choose between Linpus and XP at boot. I tried a Fedora-8 Live USB and it loads up just fine but trying grub in terminal comes up with command not found. I thought I might need to either sudo, sudo su, or just su but none of those work either (something along the lines of the default user 'fedora' not found in some security related file). I then tried Fedora-9 Live USB and that didn't even get past the initial text boot. As a last resort, I decided to give Ubuntu-8 Live USB a go and that worked. After rebooting I managed to get back into Linpus. Next problem...

I thought the only thing I need to do now was simply add an entry to grub.conf and have myself a nice 2 option text menu upon booting, choosing between Linpus and XP. Upon rebooting I was faced with a blank screen (no, not the bricked screen of death since it already made it past the BIOS post screen etc). So I decided to press a few keys and then a few seconds later Linpus fires up. I load up the grub.conf file to make sure I didn't make any mistakes...

Code:

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

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)
	makeactive
	chainloader +1

I change the file so that it reads default=1 and the next time I reboot, and get faced with the same black screen, I press enter twice and then XP loads up. I then fire up Ubuntu Live USB and change it back to default=0 and I then get Linpus loading. There must be an error of some kind that requires me to press enter once to get past it and have the boot menu load before I press enter again and load up the default option. This apparent error does not show on the screen and neither does the boot menu, hence the black screen. The screen is still on as I can see the backlight bleeding upwards from the bottom, it's just all black. I thought this could be to do with the splashimage file and double checked it was where the grub.conf claims it should be and sure enough it is right there. I then remove the splashimage line from the grub.conf completely, hoping that it would just give me a basic text menu with no fancy image but still just a black screen.

Even though I used Grub under Ubuntu to restore grub to my disk after installing XP is still seems to work with the grub.conf as seen above. I do not have a conflicting menu.lst anywhere under the /boot/grub folder.

What could be causing this blank screen? :?:


MIscellaneous things I've done and double-checked which have had no effect on the blank screen:

• (hd0,0) and (hd0,1) are correct since it is still possible to boot either Linpus or XP
• Already updated fstab with the new location of the swap partition (seemingly unlrelated but I thought I'd mention it anway)
• Tried having just root (hd0,1) for the XP setting rather than rootnoverify
• Removed the splashimage line completely

 

@Motoko
Linpus/Acer made grub stage2 file broken to prevent us interact with the system. The solution is reinstall grub from Fedora 8 repo or download my stage2 file taken from Fedora 8. Sorry, I can't write the exact link right now. Please cek it in my post in Multi Booting thread.

Code:

# cd /usr/share/grub/i386-redhat
# mv stage2 stage2.old
# cp /home/user/stage2 .
# grub-install hd0

 

That worked 100%, thanks for the information BlackHawk!

Now all I need to do is find a more serious looking splashimage

 

Well... I DL'ed your image (thanks by the way), used Disk Director to set up some partitions (XP Pro in already installed in 1st, Linpus to go in 2nd, swap in 3rd). So far so good. Used Macrium to restore your image to the unallocated 2nd partition which seemed to go well (Said no to the prompt to replace the MBR). Tried to use Acronis OS Selector to add the Linpus partition as bootable, no go. Says no OS detected. Tried just making he Linpus partition active and rebooting and basically got the same thing... invalid boot sector. So, hopefully this is just some obious Linux thing that I don't know about.... Is there something I need to do to set up a bootable MBR for the 2nd partition? Or is this maybe just an incompatibility with SSD machines and your image? Thanks for any help...

 

sorry, haven't checked in here in a bit. the restore image (as you've figured out) is not bootable. you restore it using macrium reflect from within windows.

as for your booting error, the immediate issue is that your partitions are set up differently than mine (in a different order) and so fstab and grub are looking referring to different numbers. if you can boot with the ubuntu live cd and run partition manager, you should be able to find out the correct numbers for your system and edit linpus's grub and fstab accordingly. you will have to do this either way.

i know others have had problems booting even after this so... that's where wingrub or something similar might come in handy. either way, you should update grub.conf and fstab first.