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#1 2010-01-29 14:41:13

stabu
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Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

Hi,

After some time deliberating, I'm about to install Arch on an Acer laptop which currently only has windows xp (ntfs)

I've done dual boots a number of times and my method is quite manual: ntfsresize the current windows partition, use cfdisk or fdisk to create the partitions, and after installing, install grub and modify menu.lst

Maybe Arch's installer will that for you (not sure), but I'll probably do it manually beforehand.

However the Acer shows up Windows as being on partition 2, not 1. The first partition is some Compaq labelled thing .. may be some utilities, not sure. I don't know what grub will make of that. However, will grub's "chainload +1"  be able to handle the windows on the second partition? .. I always thought Windows needed to be on the first partition ...

Any advice?


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#2 2010-01-29 15:44:51

grey
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From: Europe
Registered: 2007-08-23
Posts: 679

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

As far as I know windows doesn't have to be on the first partition, so everything should work as usual.


Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

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#3 2010-01-29 16:59:44

stabu
Member
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

thanks for reply.

Hmm, yes, it may be the first _disk_ I was thinking of. OK, I only have one disk.

But will "chainloader +1" still do it?


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#4 2010-01-29 17:13:30

stabu
Member
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

OK, I'd better try helping myself by trying a few things.

Booted up the install USB img. OK fine no problems. Quite a number of things there... cool!

Space Invaders .. gosh.. let's try ...

Oh, oh, how do you get out of here? What's all that noise? OMG. hard switch off. Better be more disciplined in future. In again .. oh I see it will already try to boot windows from the install img's grub.

Oh yes, the familiar "chainloader +1" is there. But no, it doesn't work. This is useful, even before installing arch I can see if it will boot windows or not.

OK, as explained, I have windows on sda2. Maybe I should be typing "chainloader +2". Nope doesn't work.

Last edited by stabu (2010-01-29 17:14:08)


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#5 2010-01-29 17:36:30

stabu
Member
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

unfortunately, this messing seems to have affected my USB stick, it won't boot now.


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#6 2010-01-29 18:17:38

wriggary
Member
Registered: 2009-06-30
Posts: 65

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

Well, its the rootnoverify (hd0,0) that tells grub where windows' boot partition is, not the +1 after the chainloader.  All the +1 does is tell grub what sector to chainload (1st sector) ..

so if there is only one drive, then the windows grub line should go something like this:

# 3 Windows 
Title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)  ## (hd0,0 is the first partition, hd0,1 is the second and so on)
makeactive
chainloader +1

try $ info grub   from the command line, tons and tons of good reading about grub in there.

As for the USB stick, if there isn't anything else on it, just DD it again.

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#7 2010-01-29 18:37:16

stabu
Member
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

hi wriggary!

Yes, I'm sort of doing a runnng commentary here.

Yes, I did that with my USB stick, reinstalled and I got it working again.

Yes, I also read up about the "chainloader +1" and it's true nothing much can be done with that. However, I thought about it and realised that the "boot windows" option of  the USB probably thinks it's hd0, itself.

(hd1) is probably the disk I want it to boot windows from. This got me a result, even if it wasn't entirely satisfactory. The particularities of acer's laptops comes into play here, and I'm getting passed it into its recovery programs on the first partition. when I do rootnoverify(hd1,0). Putting (hd1,1) doesn't work.

I can see I am trying to verify being able to boot windows on this laptop without taking any risk, which actually is not what I usually do, I find you have to risk stuff if you want do install in a reasonable amount of time.


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#8 2010-01-30 13:04:42

stabu
Member
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 19

Re: finally about to install dual-boot .. windows not on 1st partition?

a day later, and, as I mentioned. I took some risks ... ehem, cough, cough!

So how did it go? I hear you all (not) ask.

Well, I resized NTFS and repartitioned manuallly with fdisk, but I seem to have lost the windows partition. I suspected this might happen. As before I access the recovery prgram on the first partition, but the second partition is inaccessible right now. Again, as I said before , this is an acer latop particularity I expect. 

Nevertheless I got Arch Linux up on my third partition. I've put no swap, though I might do later. It's pretty basic right now, I'll need to find the right "vga=xxx" option for kernel bootup options. because the recommended one is for 1024x768 when I have 1024 x 600.

I think I'll have to take a gander at linux on acer latops right now, though I know that Fedora is the most popular distro for them, from what I've read.

Any friendly comments welcome. Thanks.

PS. A bit late in day of course, but I've just seen http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_Aspire_One, though the partitioning part doesn't play a big role in the article, it seems to be a very complete one.

Last edited by stabu (2010-01-30 13:23:56)


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