Installed Porteus after Windows XP...now broke. [Solved]

[donald]

@ phhpro
Where have you stopped reading this thread?..

Yes, the Win-MASTER BOOT RECORD has been overwritten with the porteus bootloader,
but that doesn't mean that you can't boot XP with it as long as the
PARTITION BOOT SECTOR
of sda1 is intact,what it does not seem to be.

[donald]

@ phhpro
Once the BIOS has found a bootable device it transfers execution to the boot code.
In the case of a hard disk, this is referred to as the Master Boot Record (MBR).
The MBR code checks the MBR's partition table for a partition set as bootable (boot flag). If an active partition is found, the MBR code loads the boot sector code from that partition, known as Volume Boot Record (VBR), and executes it.
(Volume Boot Record (VBR) is also known as a volume boot sector,
a partition boot record or a partition boot sector)
The partition's VBR contains a bootstrap program that loads the Windows operating system loader, NTLDR...(win xp)

HTH
==================================================
@ rgroner
any progress?

[Bogomips]

@donald
Had some vague idea it was like this. Nice tut. Will bookmark it.

[rgroner]

@ rgroner
any progress?

Sorry, it's been one of THOSE kind of weeks.

I finally got in tonight, used Porteus/gparted to set the boot flag on the first partition, then booted of the XP CD to recovery console. I used fixboot and fixmbr. I then rebooted and....it won't boot into XP. It says something along the lines of "boot disk failure".

Sooo, I think this weekend I'll be reinstalling XP and then Porteus again. Unless there was something else to try?

[Ed_P]

I then rebooted and....it won't boot into XP. It says something along the lines of "boot disk failure".

Wow!!

Sooo, I think this weekend I'll be reinstalling XP and then Porteus again. Unless there was something else to try?

If your reinstall of XP doesn't include wiping the Porteus partition I wouldn't reinstall Porteus. Rather I would add multibooting capability to the XP system's booting.

[rgroner]

I was planning on reinstalling Porteus from scratch, but if I can make the changes you suggest to WinXP instead and that works, it's fine with me. One re-install a weekend is enough for me.

[francois]

grubconfig, this will take you 10 minutes:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=946

It will recognize your window system and install grub legacy.

Please use the 32 bit version.

[Ed_P]

grubconfig, this will take you 10 minutes:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=946

Does the 10 mins include the time to create the CD or USB drive?

Try with grubconfig. It should find your xp partition by itself. To do so you need to do it with a cd or a usb with porteus on it:

And this sounds like the menu.lst created by the grubconfig app needs to be replaced or manually updated.

IMPORTANT: If you work with an already functional bootloader, DO NOT FORGET to have in hand a functional grub legacy menu.lst and replace the one provided by the grubconfig command. Grubconfig is not able to catch porteus linux special cheatcodes. The OS will not load. In addition, if you are a neophyte to linux you better be accompanied to do such manipulations.

Personally I think a more modern app is a better option. And since I don't have any experience with the newest Grub 2 app my recommendation is grub4dos.

You download a version from http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chena ... loads/list I personally use the 0.4.5c 2013-03-03 version. You extract the grldr file from the download and place it in your C: drive's root folder along side ntldr. You then modify your boot.ini file to include the option to boot grldr.

Code: Select all

[boot loader]
timeout = 15
; default = C:\grldr
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\grldr="Start Porteus"

Then you create a menu.lst file and store it in the C: drive's root folder also. It's a text file just like boot.ini. Something like this should work for you.

Code: Select all

#splashimage=/porteus30.bmp
color white/blue black/light-gray yellow/blue blue/yellow
# ****ground rrggbb   000000=black  ffffff=white  8-f = bright
foreground ffffff
background 000077
        
default 0
set porteus=USB_INSTALLATION.txt

title  |   Porteus-v3.0 32bit       |\n Porteus main menu\n\n\n   
root ()

title  |                            |\n 
root ()

title  | Graphics mode (Razor)      |\n\n Run Porteus the best way we can.\n Try to autoconfigure graphics card and use the maximum allowed resolution
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz         changes=/porteus3.0/changes/porteussave.dat extramod=/porteus/Modules 
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  | Always Fresh               |\n\n Normally Porteus saves all changes to the /porteus/changes/ directory on the\n boot media (if writable) and restores them next boot.  Use this option to\n start a fresh system, changes are not read from or written to any device
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz         nomagic base_only norootcopy
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  | Copy To RAM                |\n\n Run Porteus the same as above, but first copy all data to RAM\n to get a huge speed increase (needs >512MB)
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz         copy2ram
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  | Text mode                  |\n\n Run Porteus in text mode and start the command prompt only
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz         3
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  | Porteus as PXE server      |\n\n Run Porteus as usual, but also initialize a PXE server.\n This will allow you to boot Porteus on other computers over a network
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz         pxe
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  |                            |\n 
root ()

title  | PLoP BootManager           |\n\n Run the plop boot manager.\n This utility provides handy boot-USB options for machines with\n vintage/defective BIOS
find --set-root                       %porteus%
map --hook
kernel /boot/syslinux/plpbt

title  | Boot from the first hd     |\n\n Don't start Porteus at all, rather run the operating system installed on the\n first partition of the hard drive
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd0 1
chainloader (hd0)+1

title  |----------------------------|\n 
root ()

And if it doesn't work you can still boot to XP. And when it does work you can change the booting default in boot.ini to be Porteus rather than XP.

Do note I don't personally use the above menu.lst file but I think it will work for rgroner.

[donald]

Hi guys
I admire your enthusiasm for the use of grub..

But why would one want to tinker with grub and the the menu.lst, when syslinux is already installed with porteus and all you have to do is to add
5 lines of text to the porteus.cfg?
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... =15#p32068
as a result you get the original porteus bootscreen with an additional
XP entry.
If anyone can say that it does not work, I will shut up...but until then...

however....whatever works is ok

just my 2 cents..

[thom_A]

I could feel the frustration. Been there several times in the past; install, reinstall, install, reinstall... XP boot doesn't recognize a Linux install when installed last, Linux boot doesn't recognize an XP install when installed last, sometimes it does. It was a hit and miss thing for me, if I remember correctly. Multi-booting Windows flavors is a bit easier by using EasyBCD after the installs. You'd wish Linux devs would come up with their version of EasyBCD, instead of this confusing, ancient Grub2 app with all sorts of unnecessary entries like mem test, debug, etc., when all you really need are the list of OSes in your hard drive. Oh well...

Seems the commercial version of EasyBCD could recognize Linux installs. Which means you can install Windows last, then run EasyBCD to add your Linux install in the boot entry. I don't know.

[Ed_P]

But why would one want to tinker with grub and the the menu.lst, when syslinux is already installed with porteus

I think this suggestion removed the syslinux boot loader.

If you have a xp-cd, boot into the Recovery Console and try the fixmbr and fixboot commands.

And I believe rgroner tried the porteus.cfg option you suggested and it didn't work. There is something screwy with his machine, probably the BIOS but who knows. It could have been something done with gparted, the porteus install, the Porteus bootloader install, or even his XP install, all of which rgroner used. At this point if he can get XP reinstalled and booting, which will certainly take a while, adding a multiple bootloader to it seems to be a safer, less error prone, approach so he doesn't have to start all over yet again. imo

If he wants to make it really simple, he can delete the 2nd partition, store the Porteus iso of his choice on the XP C:\ drive and use the grub4dos loader to boot the ISO. No install necessary. No 2nd partition necessary. But that's my way not his.

As for multibooting programs, check out Easy2Boot, it's free. Though it may be only for USB drives.

[donald]

Hi Ed
I know it did not work the first time, because of the (imo) damaged XP partition.
(And I am astonished that even fixmbr / fixboot didn't help.)
If it were my PC I would:
1.Backup important files
2.Wipe The beginning of the disk, to get rid of all the (possible) garbage.
3.install XP and configure It
4.immediately create a backup image on an usb-disk
5.install porteus + bootloader
6.start simple,with the porteus.cfg solution,if it wont work try grub or whatever works

you are free to experiment...(remember 4.). 8)

[Ed_P]

Hi Don

I certainly agree with your steps 1-4, but backups can take time. And it would be nice if steps 5 & 6 would work. But if they don't then you need to have a way to restore the image backup created in step 4. Not saying it can't be done, but it will take time, maybe more than rgroner wants to spend on this.




PS That image backup needs to include the MBR section of the disk also, not just the C: (sda1) drive, else the porteus bootloader is still in play.

[donald]

---WARNING--OFF TOPIC-----

Hi Ed
I'm really a big big fan of disk imaging programs
I got used to them back in the (windows) days..long,long ago.
It was "power quest's" drive image.Having this program at hand,
I completely lost the fear of damaging my system.
(you can't even imagine how often I tweaked my system to death)
This is the best way to learn how things work..by simply doing them..without the fear to damage the OS

In the Linux world we have e.g. clonezilla for this task
about speed / time:
Imaging a 40 GB disk (in a 14 years old box) was done in less than 7 min.
because only used sectors are backed up (compressed) not the empty space.
restoring the Image is even faster and yes, the MBR is included.

I admit that one have to get familiar with clonezilla before one can use it's full potential.

However let us stay on topic (again)..

[tome]

Most important - this method won't work:
Install XP -> install Porteus bootloader on the same partition -> possibility to boot XP.

Maybe you have had ntldr and boot.ini on second partition and Windows directories on first.

Only solution in this way is to modify boot.ini
You can see at http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=4457