Easy BCD Bootloader
Posts: 60
I am requesting additional help. Recently, I attempted to dual boot XP & Mepis. You "placed my feet upon the path of righteousness", and for that, many thanks. I have created a new problem set for myself.
I purchased the 64 bit DVD and have installed it. Prior to that, I acquired Vista. (I actually kinda sorta like Vista.) That, in no way diminishes my new-found fondness for Mepis. The problem is that I have never seen my new Mepis run except from the DVD. BUMMER!!!
Now for the nasty part. I have XP (my current primary OS) running on a SATA drive that is identified as SDB1.
I have a version of Vista running on a different SATA drive listed as SDA1.
I have a totally different version of Vista running on an IDE drive listed as HDC1.
I have Mepis installed on the same IDE drive with the three recommended partitions listed as HDC5, (swap) HDC6, and HDC7. I have had no luck with installing GRUB on the MBR of the SDB1 (primary boot drive). I found Easy BCD, and installed it. It easily allows me to boot into any of the three different Windows versions. When I check for the hard drive addresses, the IDE drive always shows up as drive 0. The Mepis install will be either partition 3 or 5. I have seen both numbers for the root partition. I have tried every partition number on drive 0 from 1 to 7 with different failures and no successes.
My question (finally) is. Can any of you help me with the Easy BCD problem, or should I try something different?
I did a reinstall of Mepis this evening, & installed Grub in the MBR of SDB1, which rendered my system unbootable. I restored the MBR and did another install of Mepis and installed GRUB into the root sector of HDC5 where it remains completely hidden and unusable. (I realize that you are going to tell me that a reinstall of Mepis is unnecessary; however, I do not know enough about Mepis to reinstall only GRUB.)
I have read docs and forums for Easy BCD to no avail. The manufacturer says it works, but apparently I am too stupid to figure it out.
Any help will be appreciated.
Jerry in Anchorage where spring is finally arriving and the snow is going fast.
That's right
Posts: 1027
Welcome to Mepis!
It would be hard to support Easy BCD
Here are some instructions
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about78184.html
Since your setup is more complex than most, you'll need to set up GRUB yourself. It really isn't that difficult. Entries for booting Windows are usually simple and easy.
You could also boot Linux from the Windows boot loader.
Mike
What error did you get when
Posts: 2299
What error did you get when you installed grub to the MBR of sdb1? I bet it was an error 17, meaning it could not find the menu.lst
To keep things simple, I would recommend setting the IDE disk as your primary boot disk, and install grub to the mbr of that disk. That should enable you to boot MEPIS.
Then, you go and edit the menu.lst and add entries for all vistas you've got there. You NEED TO BE SURE of the drive order in the BIOS. I SUPPOSE that the IDE disk is drive 1, sda is drive 2 and sdb drive 3. But that is just an assumption.
If the boot order is correct, to boot windows from the 1st partition on the first sata drive, you would have to put in an entry like this:
title Windows at sda1
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Remember: grub starts counting at 0.
Hopt his helps
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
Try Windows Boot Loader
Posts: 61
Muskt -
I have a similar problem with my SATA/IDE setup. I could never get GRUB to work when it is installed on the MBR, no matter how I tried tweaking /boot/grub/menu.lst. I think it's related to how my BIOS and GRUB (mis)communicate with each other.
If you can get WinXP to boot, I would suggest modifying the Windows boot loader by adding MEPIS to it. I found that's the only way I can boot MEPIS on my system. You'll have to install GRUB on the MEPIS /root partition -- not the MBR -- in order to do this.
After installing GRUB on the MEPIS /root partition (hdc6) from the MEPIS Live CD, start a terminal session as root. After the # prompt, type in:
dd if=/dev/hdc6 of=mepis.bt bs=512 count=1
This will copy the boot sector of hdc6 (your MEPIS root partition) to a file named mepis.bt. Next, mount the partition where your WinXP root lives (sdb1), and copy the 512-byte file mepis.bt to that partition.
Now, boot into WinXP. Edit C:\boot.ini by adding the following line at the very end of the file:
C:\MEPIS.BT = "MEPIS V6.5"
Note that C:\boot.ini is normally hidden and read-only. You will have to unhide the file and make it write access. You can also edit C:\boot.ini from within Control Panel > System.
Also, add a few seconds to the timer at the top of boot.ini, so you have time to make a boot selection:
[boot loader]
timer=10
When you reboot your system, MEPIS V6.5 should now show up at the bottom of the list of available boot options in the Windows boot loader. If you scroll to "MEPIS V6.5" and hit Enter, the MEPIS GRUB menu should appear.
So far, so good. However, you may now get errors when attempting to boot MEPIS from the GRUB menu, indicating that GRUB is trying to boot the wrong disk (because of the BIOS/GRUB miscommunication). In that case, you have to change the first number of hdX,Y in the disk numbering scheme used for your MEPIS /root partition in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. Finding the right number is sometimes a matter of trial and error. (I would also delete the entries for Windows in /boot/grub/menu.lst, because they probably won't work anyway).
Good luck!
Don't know much about Easy
Posts: 4077
Don't know much about Easy BCD. See if something from this page can help with your booting issues:
www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Alternative_boot_methods
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