Fedora Multiboot

[fedora]

I have the following setup.
Fedora FC2 on IDE Primary Master hd0
WindowsXP with SP2 on IDE Secondary Master, my guess hd1
WindowsXP only has one partition and those are the only hdrives in the system.

Grub is installed on the fedora drive with the list file below. I can boot to Fedora just fine but when I try to boot to Windows I get the print out of XP menu and then it hangs. Any ideas? Thx.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.521 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.8-1.521.img

# For booting Windows NT or Windows95
title WindowsXP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

[Harryc]

Did you install grub on the MBR of your hda by chance? What option did you choose when installing Grub.... MBR or Linux partition?

[fedora]

Grub is installed on the fedora drive which is hd0. When I installed fedora I unplugged the XP drive and then reconnected it back up as a secondary master.

[Harryc]

Please explain what this means, "when I try to boot to Windows I get the print out of XP menu". What menu are you refering to? What exactly happens up to the point it stops? Are you talking about the XP logon menu? Also, if you disable IDE primary in BIOS and put IDE secondary master drive as first boot device, does windows XP boot normally? Another way to test this is to swap cables at the drives and leave the Fedora drive cable disconnected. We need to determine if the problem is with XP or with Grub.

[fedora]

Yes, the XP drive boots fine when it's the only drive in the system or it has been configured as the first boot disk.
However when I start grub off the fedora drive:
Grub starts up with the boot menu. If I choose Windows XP I get a black screen with the following

booting 'Windows XP'
rootnotverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
then a blinking cursor underneath.

[Harryc]

Try this for the XP portion of Grub (gedit /etc/grub.conf) - copied from - http://sxs.thexdershome.com/administration/grubxp.html

Make sure you set the rootnoverify correctly checking with fdisk -l


title Windows XP
# as far as I can understand it the Windows XP hard disk hd1
# needs to think it is the first disk on the IDE bus in order to boot
# so do a swap and add the following two commands to change it
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
# you then need to tell grub which hard disk and which partition to read the booting information from
# although you have done a swap using the above commands the disks don't change their labelling
# so use hd1,0 as the root device (in grub all numbering starts at zero)
# the telltale to knowing which partition to add to the rootnoverify option
# is the output of fdisk -l the `*' on /dev/hdb1 showing it's the active or boot partition
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
# now tell grub that you are going to be doing an indirect boot using an external chainloader
# i.e it's going to grab the Windows boot code and run it instead
# of directly loading the linux kernel like it usually does.
chainloader +1
# not sure exactly what makeactive does
# I'm assuming it is marking the root partition you specified
# with the rootnoverify command as the active or boot partition
# if it isn't already marked as the `*' or boot partition
makeactive

[fedora]

Wooohooo!!! HarryC you are DA MAN. Thank you for finding this information. "Windows XP hard disk hd1
# needs to think it is the first disk on the IDE bus in order to boot" That was my problem from day one.

..........A lowly Windows sysadmin is now ready to begin his journey into the world of Linux...........

[Harryc]

...have fun and good luck.