Arch Linux

tch

Member

From: Slovakia

Registered: 2007-10-07

Posts: 31

Strange problem

Hello, i have a strange problem, I hope u can help me. I have an ASUS F5RL laptop, on which I have windows Installed first. The partition table looks like this:

          Name                            Flags                          Part Type                  FS Type                                     [Label]                               Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          sda1                            Boot                            Primary                   NTFS                                        [^F]                                   52427.94                     
          sda2                                                            Primary                   Linux ext2                                                                           131.61
          sda5                                                            Logical                   Linux ext3                                                                         10001.95
          sda6                                                            Logical                   Linux ext3                                                                         20003.89
          sda7                                                            Logical                   Linux                                                                               2048.10
          sda8                                                            Logical                   NTFS                                        [^K]                                  100002.96
                                                                          Pri/Log                   Free Space                                                                         65440.33

Windows is installed to the first partition (C), and sees the last one (J). After some weeks I installed Arch linux on the remaining partitions, and changed the Bootable flag from sda1 to sda2 where I installed grub.

UUID=779ab2c7-7467-4da1-8748-f09c004f3dac / ext3 defaults 0 1
UUID=7f7ca9b5-fe58-406c-a84e-3f37c89a38ee swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=d4a689d8-60bc-41b2-875c-b3fd17dd753f /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
UUID=fe0538d9-5827-4b00-96ec-df1537a216eb /home ext3 defaults 0 1

[tch@pinky ~]$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  0 Nov 23 10:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  0 Nov 23 10:48 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:48 24B0F951B0F92A46 -> ../../sda8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:47 502C3EA92C3E89CC -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:47 779ab2c7-7467-4da1-8748-f09c004f3dac -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:47 7f7ca9b5-fe58-406c-a84e-3f37c89a38ee -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:47 d4a689d8-60bc-41b2-875c-b3fd17dd753f -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Nov 23 10:47 fe0538d9-5827-4b00-96ec-df1537a216eb -> ../../sda6

It worked, so that after I rebooted the PC the grub bootloader came up and I could to choose to start up Linux or Windows. Both choises worked ( first tried linux ), but after I did boot up Windows, then restarted the PC again grub did not show up anymore, and Windows booted up. I can still boot my Linux installation with the installer CD, and checked the partitions able and It seems that windows has changed back its bootable flag, so grub has no chance to show up.

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro rootdelay=16 vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro rootdelay=16
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

# (1) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

If you know how to overcome this problem pls reply. My goal is to have a working dual-boot system. The windows is an XP+SP2 one, and moreover its a legal copy i got as a student.

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: Strange problem

Sounds like you will need to reinstall grub on the MBR

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