New user with dual boot problem [Solved]

[spikeyb]

Sorry to waste your time everyone, this problem is now solved.

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I have searched around and I can't understand what I'm missing. I cannot get windows to boot using grub but it will boot if I set the windows disc as first boot device in the bios.

My aim is to set the Sabayon disc as first boot in the bios and run windows from the grub menu.
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Here is my fdisk info:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc402b544

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 9729 78043770 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x71f671f6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 1276 10011 70171920 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 1276 10011 70171888+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
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Here is my menu.lst:

# grub.conf generated by the Sabayon Linux Installer
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /kernel-genkernel real_root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initramfs-genkernel
#boot=sda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Sabayon Linux x86-64 (genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 dolvm init=/linuxrc splash=silent,theme:sabayon vga=791 CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 quiet resume=swap:/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon
savedefault

title Sabayon Linux x86-64 (genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon) (safe mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 dolvm init=/linuxrc CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 resume=swap:/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 nox acpi=off ide=nodma vga=normal
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.29-sabayon
savedefault

title Other Operating System - Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
savedefault
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It all seems OK to me. Can anyone spot the thing I'm missing?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[spikeyb]

Just a little bit of extra info in case it's useful.

The sabayon disc is a sata drive and the windows disc is an ide drive.

I'm not sure why the fdisk shows the windows disc as sdb rather than hdb (maybe/probably I'm just confused)

[spikeyb]

I did a bit more digging and found this solution.

I needed to change my menu.lst entry for windows from:

title Other Operating System - Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
savedefault

to:

title Other Operating System - Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1
savedefault

I have no idea why this works but it does.

If anyone can explain why this works I would be grateful.

Thanks

SpikeyB

[pepe999]

Hi,
New IDE cables are called PATA(Parallel ATA, 80pin or 40pin) and PATA cables linux recognises as sdx...
I don't know why, but that's it..
An explanation for your case might be there..
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=442945

[spikeyb]

Thanks for the explanation and link pepe999; very much appreciated. I'll take some time looking through that link. It seems as though there will be quite a lot of useful information in there.

[pepe999]

No problem.