Grub odd behaviour

[tyga]

I don't understand how the boot menu can be wrong yet still work?

 

I'm using Mandriva 2005 x86_64

 

I'm dual booting with winXP ( Yes, I still use Windows for games ) here is the boot list.

 

timeout 30

default 6

 

title linux

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent vga=788

initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

 

title linux-nonfb

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 resume=/dev/hda5

initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

 

title failsafe

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 failsafe resume=/dev/hda5 devfs=nomount

initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

 

title windows

root (hd1,0)

map (0x81) (0x80)

map (0x80) (0x81)

makeactive

chainloader +1

 

title windows1

root (hd2,0)

map (0x82) (0x80)

map (0x80) (0x82)

makeactive

chainloader +1

 

title 2611-6

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-6mdk root=/dev/hda1 resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent vga=788

initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.11-6mdk.img

 

title 2611-12

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-12mdk root=/dev/hda1 resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent vga=794

initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.11-12mdk.img

 

Now, what is odd, is during boot, if I want to boot winXP, I have to choose the menu titled 'window' not 'window1' but winXP is on the 'window1' partition not the 'window' partition.

 

Device map:

 

(hd0) /dev/hda Linux drive

(hd1) /dev/hdc spare fat32 drive used for swapping files into winxp

(hd2) /dev/sda Winxp drive

 

It is still working so it isn't really a problem but I want to know why it is working when it appears to be broken?

 

tyga

[AussieJohn]

You have WinXP on an SATA Drive and the other so called windows on an ide drive but it is not an OS, just fat32 formatted.

When you select windows the boot loader checks there and sees there is no operating system so most likely then looks at your SATA HDD and finds an OS so boots up from it. Or, and this could most possibly be the case, when the boot loader points to hd1 it could be being pointed to the SATA HDD as the first primary HDD by the bios so it naturally boots up.

I don't think anything in the boot loader menu is broken.

I am surprised that selecting windows1 does not enable XP booting up though. Most likely when hdc is selected then the bios points to the next HDD which this time is on the IDE channel and looks at that partition only to find there is no OS there.

 

Forget the way Windows does numbering things anyhow, it is not relevent to the Linux world.

 

Cheers. John.

[jboy]

I'm wondering if you perhaps have ntldr (the windows loader) and boot.ini on hd1? If so, check the contents of boot.ini - does it points to rdisk(2) as the location of the Windows folder?

 

Since WinXP doesn't boot off hd2, maybe ntldr and boot.ini are not on it but on hd1 instead?

[tyga]

Thanks for the replies,

 

Yes, I suspect it has something to do with the SATA drive.

 

I place windows on the primary sata drive and linux on the primary IDE drive, then I boot from the primary IDE drive with the Grub boot loader.

 

Most people tend to place the boot loader on the windows drive but I hate having to mess around with the windows MFT in the event I hose my linux installation. It is just something I have always done because of head aches caused when I first discovered linux. Besides I like linux to be first and windows second, it's a psychological thing.

 

HDA Linux, Boot drive

HDC FAT32 drive

SDA WinXP

 

As you can see, it isn't the usual configuration.

 

I'll take your suggestions and do some more investigation.