Duel boot Win XP and linux

[mrnsnp 0]

Hi,

I'm completely new to using linux. I am running two 250 gig hd's using SATA. I have WinXP (32 bit) on the first and Fedora Core5 (64 bit) on the second.

 

Fedora Core installed fine, GRUB on first part of boot sector not MBR, but when I go to set it up it asks for a login name and then a password but I don't think I have set one up, unless it is using one of the two passwords I set up during the install. My other problem is I can't load WinXP from the linux side, it hangs my system out. Could this be from running a 64 bit and 32 bit OS?

 

If more info is needing such as exactly what it is asking for or where it hangs I can post that at a later date.

[danleff 0]

Quote:

Fedora Core installed fine, GRUB on first part of boot sector not MBR, but when I go to set it up it asks for a login name and then a password but I don't think I have set one up, unless it is using one of the two passwords I set up during the install.

I assume that you allowed Fedora to use all the defaults that are offered, in terms of partitioning and placing grub in it's own boot partition. When you are asked for a username and password, do you have a graphical login screen (the KDE or Gnome GUI login screen), or just a command line?

If you just get a command line, can you post the make and model of computer that you have?

If you are getting the Gnome or KDM login screen, you need to input the username and password that you chose during the installation.

Quote:

My other problem is I can't load WinXP from the linux side, it hangs my system out. Could this be from running a 64 bit and 32 bit OS?

When you speak of the "Linux side" what do you mean by this? Are you changing the boot order of the drives in the bios in order to boot one OS or another? I am not asking you to do this, just trying to see what the status of your booting each OS is.

[mrnsnp 0]

My system is a custom built system. Here is what I currently have running in it:

 

mobo: Asus A8N NVIDIA socket 939 w/ SLI (not using SLI)

processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz 64 bit processor

power supply: Ultra X2 PSU

HDD: 2x 250 GB drives (SATA)

ram: 2x 512 MB

sound card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI card

video card: eVGA GeForce 6600 LE/ 256MB DDR PCIE

Optical Drive: 2x DVD+-RW and 1 DVD/CD-rom drive

USB keyboard and mouse

 

 

As for how I go about booting, if I want Win XP to boot, then I change the HDD boot order in bios. Otherwise it will boot the linux HDD.

 

When I boot up the linux HDD here is what comes up:

Booting up Fedora Core with a 5 second delay so I have the option of going to the HDD selection screen.

 

On the selection screen I have FC (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)

Windows XP (named this in set up, default was Other)

 

Upon choosing the FC boot:

It decompresses linux and boots up the kernel then says MP System not supported by PSB BIOS structure. Not sure what that means. Otherwise all other parts of the boot are good. Do I need to pass special instructions to the kernel during boot?

After it boots all systems I get another screen that reads:

Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux)

Kernel 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 on an X86_64

 

CPE-70-95-191-7 login:

 

If I enter a login and press enter it will then ask for a password, I have tryed all passwords and login names I have on my system to which no worked.

 

If I boot to Win XP I get the following info on screen:

Booting 'Windows XP'

 

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

chainloader +1

 

Any idea what this is referring to?

[danleff 0]

Unfortunately, you have made all the common mistakes when installing Fedora. Here is the situation.

 

1. You installed Fedora, accepting all the default options to install it, so that you have Fedora and the Grub bootloader on the second hard drive. So, the only way to boot Fedora right now, is to change the bios order of the drives, so you boot from the Fedora Drive, not the XP drive.

 

2. When you install Fedora to a second hard drive, you must tell it to place the bootloader on the master Boot Record of your actual boot drive, the XP drive. If you do not do this, then the Grub bootloader is installed on the second drive, so the only way to boot, is to change the bios boot order of the drives, making the second drive the bootable drive.

 

3. When you change the boot order to the second drive, you change the logical order of the drives, as detected in the bios. Windows was installed on the first drive, so when you try to invoke the Windows boot.ini file, it is still looking for the Windows information on the current boot drive, which now is not where the files are at, but rather, on the second drive in the boot order in the bios. Windows boot hangs.

 

4. You change the boot order of the drives in the bios back to the original state. The Windows bootloader is invoked and finds the files where it expects them.

 

5. Don't worry about the bios boot message when Fedora starts. It is not important right now.

 

6. You get a command line interface when fedora boots fully, not the graphical login screen, as shown here. This is most likely related to your video card not being supported. You have a PCI-E video card in the system. Fedora probably does not have the proper support for such a new card yet. Your motherboard is probably not fully supported yet, as well. This is a relatively new motherboard. The other difficulty is that you changed the boot order in the bios to try and boot Fedora off the "proper" drive. however, fedora can't find all the files that it needs to boot properly. Theu are not in the places that grub expects.

 

7. The user ID and password is what you told Fedora to use during the installation. if you can't remember what user ID and password that you chose during the installation, then your stuck. Again, you changed the boot order in the bios and all the proper files to login may not be found where they are expected.

 

Quote:

If I boot to Win XP I get the following info on screen:

Booting 'Windows XP'

 

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

chainloader +1

 

This is a message from grub saying that it can't find Windows properly. Remember, you changed the boot order in the bios, so grub is confused. It is looking for the Windows boot.ini file on the wrong drive.

 

In terms of how to fix this best, let me think about this. There are some fixes, but this depends on how comfortable you are with messing with command line usage.

 

[danleff 0]

Time for some humor.

 

I just realized the title of your post, "Duel boot Win XP and linux." Was this intentional, or a slip of the keyboard? Duel (as in struggling with) is appropriate, rather than "dual" as in two, or "both."

[mrnsnp 0]

lol, that is pretty funny. I didn't even realize I typed that, guess thats what happens when you stay up a little to late to comprehend.

 

As for the boot order I want to use the drive I am installing FC5 on as my primary drive. I have the FC5 hd in SATA 1 and my Win XP hd in SATA 3, SATA 1 being first primary and SATA 3 being second primary. I already know that my video card is not supported off the get go but I can download the driver from the website. When I originally installed FC5 on my system, I had the drive it was being installed onto as the primary boot hd with win xp as the fall back drive.

 

As for the login name, it never asked me for one. It asked for a password to protect the kernel and one other item, cant remember exactly what it was at this time.

 

On the subject of command line promp, I'm comfortable with the idea of it, just I haven't messed with it in so long I would probably need a walk through of what to do so I don't mess my system up.