Arch Linux

molnart

Member

Registered: 2012-04-28

Posts: 20

[SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

Hi all, after successfully setting up Arch with Xfce in a virtual environment, i have decided to replace Linux Mint LDME with Arch.

However, i cannot boot the installed Arch. My system is set up as follows:

/sda1 windows 8 boot partition
/sda2 windows 8 system
/sda3 extended partition
   /sda5 arch boot
   /sda6 arch swap
   /sda7 arch root
   /sda8 home
   /sda 9 arch var

During the install i made a mistake of installing GRUB to /sda (i thought the setup would ask me for a partition, well it didnt), upon rebooting the system, i got into GRUB boot, but i have recieved an error that /dev/sda7 (root) could not be mounted.

so i have restored the Windows 8 MBR bootloader, and was trying to install GRUB manually from the Arch install CD. I have put GRUB into (hd0,4) (where the /boot/grub directory is located) through the grub shell and modified the menu.lst to include the Windows8 item. After rebooting i was expecting to be greeted by GRUB, however the system just booted into WIndows8. So i took a little program called EasyBootCD, and modified the Windows 8 boot menu, to include an item to Arch (boot pointng to GRUB on /sda5).

However when trying to boot into Arch, i only get a blank screen, as if there was no bootable partition. I cannot even boot the Arch partition from the install CD - when i select Boot Other OS, press TAB and change the location to HD0 4 i get a no boot partition found error, or something similar.

Any ideas what to do? I thought i will be setting up ALSA already, but i couldnt even boot my system  

Thank you very much

Last edited by molnart (2012-04-29 09:21:44)

ANOKNUSA

Member

Registered: 2010-10-22

Posts: 2,141

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

It looks like NTLDR is installed in the MBR, while you have GRUB installed on a partition; hence, NTLDR is found and used before GRUB.  Install grub to the MBR and chainload NTLDR.

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dmartins

Member

Registered: 2006-09-23

Posts: 360

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

Can you post your menu.lst for us?

Jristz

Member

From: America/Santiago

Registered: 2011-06-11

Posts: 1,022

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

first remmember install grub to /dev/sda not /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2... only to /dev/sda withnot numbers

you use grub1 right?

Read only if use grub2
install in arch os-prober
run like root
grub-install /dev/sda
nano /etc/default/grub #change GRUB_GFXMODE="puth a reasonable resolution that is visible to your monitor"
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

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Well, I suppose that this is somekind of signature, no?

molnart

Member

Registered: 2012-04-28

Posts: 20

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

It looks like NTLDR is installed in the MBR, while you have GRUB installed on a partition; hence, NTLDR is found and used before GRUB.  Install grub to the MBR and chainload NTLDR.

thanks, i got confused by this wiki page, saying that i should install GRUB to the boot directory: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … _Dual_Boot

anyway, upon boot i am now greeted by a GRUB menu where i can boot windows8.

however, arch is still not working... i am getting a "Unable to find root device /dev/sda7 error". My /dev/sda7 partition should be OK, i can mount it from Linux Mint without problem.

i am gonna try this and be back in a while: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136149

edit: problem solved. i have two hdds in my system, and somehow during boot my second hdd became sda and my first hdd with arch became sdb, so there was no /sda7 partition.

Last edited by molnart (2012-04-29 05:48:56)

chamber

Member

From: ~/

Registered: 2012-03-29

Posts: 279

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 8 dual boot problem

Goos stuff. Don't forget to mark this as solved.

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meh