[solved] Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

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Rava
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[solved] Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#1 by Rava » 14 Oct 2015, 01:11

Hi folks, hopefully one of you is able to help me with my issue.

I have 2 IDE harddisks with similar setup.


The one in the PC I am currently running is the 40 GB one, it has 3 partitions:
sdX1 Linux Swap
sdX2 Linux 4 GB
sdx3 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT rest of the GBs in there for shared use for Linux and Witless XP.


Now, this harddisk is setup in BIOS and by the jumpers as sda, and all works well. I can boot Witless XP from sda3 via this entry:;

Code: Select all

COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd0 3
_____________________________

Now to the 2nd hard disk with the Witless XP booting issue.

Due to some hardware issue, the harddisk malfunctions when using the jumper settings for Master or Slave, the only option that seems to work fine is when using the jumper setting of Cable Select. And since I used to have a SATA hard disk in that PC prior of that very harddi8sk being plain dead one day, the IDE drives have been: sda for DVD-ROM and sdb for the DVD-Burner. The DVD-burner I had to unplug since that PC only has one slot for IDE drives, and so I can only have one master and one slave. That's the reason the DVD-ROM is set as master and the harddisk should be the Slave.


The setup/fdisk is the same as above. It's a 60 GB hardisk:
sdX1 Linux Swap
sdX2 Linux 4 GB
sdx3 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT rest of the GBs in there for shared use for Linux and Witless XP.

Now, set in BIOS and via jumper, the DVD-ROM is sda, and the harddisk is set to sdb.
BIOS is told to boot from hard disk, and since sdb is the only harddisk installed, it boots from that and the Porteus boot select screen pops up.

Now, since it's from BIOS sdb, sure the same entry as above fails.

Trying to start Witless XP via

Code: Select all

COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd0 3
gives me the error of "No boot media, change media and try again" since there is no CD or DVD in the DVD.-ROM which is sda.


Now, when I edit the boot line, and try to start it like so:

Code: Select all

COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd1 3
what happens? The "boot:" prompt appears for half a second, and then the same Porteus Boot select menu appears again. And I have no clue why, since hd1 3 should point not to the MBR of the hard disk, but to its 3rd partition, which is the HPFS/NTFS/exFAT one with W-XP installed. [Porteus and other Lnuxes are on sdX2]


When starting Porteus, the hard disk is seen as sda, not sdb, and there is no icon visible for the DVD-ROM on XFCe's desktop.


Due to me not having used that hard disk in quite a while it is an outdated Porteus, x86-64 3.0.1, but it's a matter of mere seconds to boost it up to the very same current version I am running right now writing this post.



Any ideas of why I am unable to boot W-XP from that machine?
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#2 by donald » 14 Oct 2015, 03:58

Hmmm...
Set the jumper of both devices to "cable select"
(do you use a 80-wire IDE-cable (you should), it has a blue connector at one end,
40-wire cables only allow UDMA-33)
--> When starting Porteus, the hard disk is seen as sda, not sdb <--
This seems to be correct, because CD/DVD-devices are srX not sdX
Can you
a)boot a porteus CD/usb, select plop, unplug/eject the CD/USB and
b)try the offered Partitions to find out if the XP-partition will boot at all.

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#3 by Rava » 14 Oct 2015, 06:09

donald wrote:Hmmm...
Set the jumper of both devices to "cable select"
(do you use a 80-wire IDE-cable (you should), it has a blue connector at one end,
40-wire cables only allow UDMA-33)
It sure is a 80-wire IDE cable, an especially fancy one that is rolled up into a wire-like ("stick-like") round string instead of the flat one most cables are.
donald wrote:--> When starting Porteus, the hard disk is seen as sda, not sdb <--
This seems to be correct, because CD/DVD-devices are srX not sd
Silly me, forgetting that detail. That again shows me how the recent RL events take the toll on me, including such technical details I should have recalled, but then again, it's okay if my RL system shuts down unneeded memory to have enough capacity for what's going one, and all concerning RL should always have priority, compared with mere technology or "virtual life". </digress, and nit sure if I am able to get my thoughts across not using my native tongue>
donald wrote:Can you
a)boot a porteus CD/usb, select plop, unplug/eject the CD/USB and
b)try the offered Partitions to find out if the XP-partition will boot at all.
I can do that, but what would be the difference between this approach and trying to boot from the internal hard disk?

______________
I presume, sdX stands for "scsi disk", but what with srX? Does that stand for SCSI ROM-drive?
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#4 by donald » 14 Oct 2015, 09:05

--> what would be the difference <--
Well, it's just to be sure the partition table and the partition boot sector
is OK.(and XP will boot)
why?...because:
There was a Win-XP/syslinux/dualboot thread and the proper solution was given
on page1 and the answer was "it does not work".It took 2 more Pages to find out
what was wrong.(a corrupted XP-Partition boot sector)

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#5 by wread » 14 Oct 2015, 14:13

Windows works only when lodged in the first partition....Dumm system! :x

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#6 by Rava » 14 Oct 2015, 22:57

wread wrote:Windows works only when lodged in the first partition....Dumm system! :x
Nope, the current setup, like I wrote above, works well on the current running system, with the 40 GB hard disk, it works fine.
But maybe the XP partition table is indeed corrupted. donald, do you have the URL to the thread you mentioned above?

This one, i mean:
donald wrote:There was a Win-XP/syslinux/dualboot thread and the proper solution was given
on page1 and the answer was "it does not work".It took 2 more Pages to find out
what was wrong.(a corrupted XP-Partition boot sector)
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#7 by donald » 15 Oct 2015, 02:51

Try plop first, then we will see whether everything is OK with the HD, or not.
The requested URL:
viewtopic.php?f=81&t=4408#p31946

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Re: Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP issue

Post#8 by Rava » 15 Oct 2015, 05:03

thanks donald and Wread.

Seems, the 60 GB hard disk was about to go to its ancestors anyway. Since it's one of these machines that has only one IDE port, not 2 like older mainboards, but also has SATA. So, I could either use an IDE hard disk and only my DVDROM, or an IDE hard disk and only my DVD-Burner.
Or, like I did, buy a new SATA hard disk (a "class" 600 one, while the main board sure only supports the speed of the old 300) and be able to both use the IDE DVDROM and DVD burner.

Now, I tried partitioning the new hard drive and copying some stuff from the old, but after 1st or 2nd reboot, the old hard disk no longer got recognized... It still spins up, it's a loud one, hard to miss. But it's no longer there, partition and data-wise.

So, the thread is kinda closed and the issue with the Porteus/syslinux booting W-XP is finalized by the hard drive going to its final resting place.
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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