Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

violagirl23 · 2008-05-30 22:39:16

I am not new to Arch but have never dual-booted Windows and Linux before. I shrunk Vista to 30 GB (not without hassle, mind you, and many many defrags) and set up Arch on other partitions. This (according to cfdisk) is my current setup:

Name   Flags     Part Type   FS Type           [Label]        Size (MB)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              Unusable                             1.05*
sda1    Boot      Primary     Unknown (27)                      6594.50*                        
sda2              Primary     NTFS               [^C]          31471.95*
sda3              Primary     Linux ext3                      101442.38*  
sda5              Logical     Linux swap / Solaris              2048.10*
                  Logical     Free Space                       18481.31*

I don't know exactly what /dev/sda1 IS, but I think it's something Windows is using. And I don't know why I have 1.5 MB of free space at the start of the drive... I just ignored it. Regardless, I installed Grub onto /dev/sda3. Rebooting takes me straight to Vista with no Grub at all. That's why I thought I had erred. If so, where should I install Grub, and how can I erase it from the MBR of /dev/sda3 properly?
>.< Darn dual-booting.

Last edited by violagirl23 (2008-05-30 23:33:14)

bgc1954 · 2008-05-31 00:30:30

Sorry but your MBR is not on /dev/sda3. If you want your grub on the MBR you'll have to rerun the install cd and follow this post on reinstalling grub to MBR. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reinstalling_GRUB

If you already had another linux installed you could access /dev/sda3 grub with the chainloader option.

Spent · 2008-05-31 00:48:50

You could also install EasyBCD, which would allow you to add Archlinux to Vistas' boot loader. I used it for awhile. I wasn't to sure how well grub and vista played together and I was afraid of screwing up my Vista partition. I don't use it anymore, it does work though, but I was using 2 drives.

Last edited by Spent (2008-05-31 00:50:10)

violagirl23 · 2008-05-31 01:02:59

Wow that ftp install CD chroot was sure buggy for me. First df didn't work, then everything became read-only, and then it wouldn't let me unmount my hard drive, even though I made sure I wasn't using it. @_@ Regardless, grub seems to have installed correctly. It lets me go into both Arch and Vista without problem. Then, is there an easy way to erase the grub I'm presuming I also accidentally installed on /dev/sda3? XD
(Sorry for the stupid question, I've honestly never dual-booted before. My PC downstairs is pure Gentoo and nothing else).

Last edited by violagirl23 (2008-05-31 01:05:07)

rayjgu3 · 2008-05-31 01:05:36

/dev/sda1 id guess is some kinda diagnostic partition or possibly the backup of vista <did you get vista cd with this box? if not it thats where the install for vista is. alot of manufacturers are loading the install (cd image) on a seperate partition instead of giving you a cd.
in grub (windows entry) i would think you would want /dev/sda2

just my thoughts

violagirl23 · 2008-05-31 01:07:57

I got it with this box, and no, I did not get a CD with it. So you're probably right on that.

Misfit138 · 2008-05-31 01:39:10

Welcome back at long last, Vgirl.
And glad you got it working. Enjoy.

violagirl23 · 2008-05-31 01:42:41

Yeah, I had to uninstall Arch on my old desktop downstairs. With 10 GB of space, it simply wasn't feasible to dual-boot. But now that I've discovered Arch, no way I would install Gentoo on my new laptop! I've been converted.
I do seem to fail at life though. Sound doesn't seem to work on my laptop. >.> I must just have sound issues.
Now I just have to figure out that and how to delete GRUB off /dev/sda3 (because it irritates me :-p)

bgc1954 · 2008-05-31 02:15:36

Googling removing grub doesn't give you much so I guess you'd have to do it the old fashioned way if you really want to get rid of it. Try a "locate grub" command and then manually remove all grub stuff with command line as root

rm /boot/grub

etc. or use mc as root--whatever you're comfortable with.

violagirl23 · 2008-05-31 02:18:06

Okay, I'll have to look into it. I'm just so relieved I finally got my sound working. *sweatdrop* I had Speaker muted and sound wouldn't play without it.... the wiki mentioned only toggling Master and PCM, so I definitely want to add that in there! I could have been searching for hours more over something so simple!
Anyway, thank you for the help!

bgc1954 · 2008-05-31 02:21:12

Once you set your volume--with alsamixer, if that's what you used--do a

alsactl store

as root and your volume settings should stay at next boot.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-30 22:39:16

Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#2 2008-05-31 00:30:30

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#3 2008-05-31 00:48:50

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#4 2008-05-31 01:02:59

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#5 2008-05-31 01:05:36

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#6 2008-05-31 01:07:57

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#7 2008-05-31 01:39:10

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#8 2008-05-31 01:42:41

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#9 2008-05-31 02:15:36

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#10 2008-05-31 02:18:06

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

#11 2008-05-31 02:21:12

Re: Grub doesn't load, goes straight to Vista

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