WinXP Mdk9.1 dual boot issues

[Guest vs77]

I have a peculiar problem. When I install 9.1 after my windows installation, for some reason I cant boot up from the windows OS CD. It hangs right after the first stage of boot where it starts to detect the h/w.

 

After much reading on the net, I think the problem is because I enable ACPI in lilo and have read that the ACPI in Linux (especially for Compaq presario laptops) is buggy. the problem is I cant use APM either becuase this laptop is ACPI compliant only. The only way i could get the windows cd to boot up normally was by removing linux from the system

 

I would like to know how to get around this problem or will waiting for 9.2 be a better option.

 

My installation partition are as follows :

hda1 - 20gig - WinXP Pro (NTFS)

hda5 - 30gig - Fat32 partition

hda6-hda8 - 7gig - Linux partitions

[Ixthusdan]

In order to install windex after linux is installed, or to use the windex cd, you need to do 1 things.

 

1) Remove lilo or grub by using the emergency recovery on cd1. Choose the option to restore the windows boot mbr.

 

After you are done, you can reinstall lilo or grub with the emergency recovery on cd1.

[Guest vs77]

I have tried that. But the problem does not lie in the loader, rather in the linux intstallation. All the reading I did led me to believe that it was a problem with the ACPI and suggested I patch the kernel. As long as I dont enable ACPI everything works fine.

 

So my question was that is there anything I could do to get around this with the current configs without patching the kernel. I am asking this because some forums said that the latest kernel 2.6 which is mostly the one 9.2 would be using is already patched for this bug. So would it be better to wait for that?

[Ixthusdan]

I am not sure I understand the problem you are experiencing. I read that you are attempting to boot your laptop with the windex cd boot disk after installing linux. I am not sure what this has to do with apm or acpi. Booting with a disk has nothing to do with what is installed on your drive, only the mbr is possibly engaged or at least read by the installer. I also noticed that, since we are taliking about a laptop, I'm going to move this to laptops. You may get a more knowledgable answer.

 

Patching a kernel is not all that hard if you can follow the steps, but I personally am not a programmer and would wait until late September for the new release.

[bvc]

I also am confused.....

for some reason I cant boot up from the windows OS CD.

..after you said this, all you've mentioned is booting linux. ACPI is still "EXPERIMENTAL" and it's very possible it has a prob with your laptop.

 

So my question was that is there anything I could do to get around this with the current configs without patching the kernel.

So, you are not installing either OS, correct?

 

Are you just trying to boot linux with a working acpi? I don't understand what windows has to do with this.

 

 

You can always install the current 2.6 kernel. You'll also need a few new mod-utils/mod-init-tools pkgs. Your current kernel will remain intact incase the 2.6 doesn't work. Another alternative is to download and install ML9.2-beta, but judging from the fact that almost everyone here that jumped on that bandwagon, jumped off, that might not be a good choice. :wink:

[Guest vs77]

I am sorry if I confused everyone here.

 

This is the problem :

I install windoze XP on the first 20gb. Do all the updates etc etc

I have a 30gb fat32 to store files I use on both OSes

The remaining 10gb I used to install linux (9.1)

 

At this point I would like to add that I was able to successfully boot into either OS thru LILO

 

Now for some reason some of the features/functions on windows got messed up and I had to a repair intall on windoze. When I poped the XP pro cd in it starts with "Setup is inspecting h/w config etc etc" then everything hangs. The only way I could boot thru that cd was when I removed linux (even though LILO still existed in the MBR). I did not face this problem when I installed lilo with ACPI off. So I assumed that this was a problem with the ACPI and also I read in some other forums that this was a big problem with Compaq presario laptops that I currently own :(

 

My question is how do I get around this problem. Cause I need the ACPI for all the battery and power management stuff

[bvc]

Thanks for the better explaination.

 

When you say "when I installed lilo with ACPI off", do you mean have lilo tell the kernel to use acpi with;

acpi=on

?

Make sure that ml has the acpi and acpid pkgs installed.

 

Also, people think I'm nuts, but 3 times, I've had win98 refuse to install until I restore the mbr for windows, remove the reiserfs partitions, AND fdisk the drive. :shock: I d/k why....and neither does anyone else it seems....weird :roll: .

 

So where do you stand now? Do you have both xp and ml? Do both boot but ml only without acpi?

[Gowator]

I still don't see how Windows install would be affected by anything in linux.

It can't read any of the linux partitions so whatever is there must be in the MBR.

 

I guess it may scan the MBR when its installing and doing the HW scan but if you do the reinstall windows MBR thing from the rescue disk then all it can see are the windows partition and the MBR.

 

Course you never know what's really going on.

I don't think the acpi on or off can have any effect becuase its only in the lili generated MBR so if you put the windows one back ...

 

I'd concentrate on making sure the Windows MBR is restored correctly. I'm not sure what you need for XP but in win98 you just use the fdisk /mbr. from a floppy that is bootable and has fdisk on.

 

Good luck :D

[bvc]

XP has a rescue repair utility with a fix mbr option.

[Guest vs77]

When I first installed Linux on this I did it with the ACPI option in LILO turned off. And nothing seemed to the problem. But in order to have the battery monitoring features I HAD to keep that on.

 

I am quite sure that there is no problem with LILO being in the mbr because the minute I delete the linux installation the Windoze xp boot CD starts working normally. I know that is really strange but that's what happened. Also I could not get to the stage where I could repair the mbr using the repair installation in windoze because it froze even before I got there.

 

BVC I have a question though,

 

When I enabled ACPI when installing LILO, I really did not bother installing any of the other packages since everything was working I thought that was it

Could that cause a problem?

[Guest vs77]

As of now, I am have only XP installed. I have the 10mb at the end of hdd for linux. I really dont know if waiting for 9.2 is warranted.

 

And this laptop (Compaq presario X1000) does not have a floppy drive at all. So I could not restore the mbr using the 98 boot floppy. The only way I can do that is using the XP cd and that fails to start up if Linux is on and ACPI is enabled in LILO.

 

What do you suggest. Cause I read someplace that the ACPI support in the 2.6 kernel has been upped quite a bit. And I had quite a few problems with the USB recognition on this laptop. Infact I stil get messages like "found new usb device. Might not function properly" even though no usb device was connected to the system !!!!!!!!!! :?

 

An lsmod said indicated all 3 usb ports present and not in use

[Ixthusdan]

usb ports are recognized by necessity; otherwise the devices will not be recognized when conected. :wink:

 

In order to utilize acpi, you must "activate" it in the kernel. (Although I have no experience with successfully using it at all!) The new kernel is your best bet.

 

The mbr is where xp is windexing your system! When you uninstall linux, lilo gets removed. I have plenty of experience "fixing" windex and not affecting my linux installation. (Windex needs to be fixed regularly! :roll: ) Use the cd1 rescue to recover the mbr, not the windex cd. Don't ever allow windex to fix your drive in this way, because it will "recover" unpartitioned space, which is microsoft lingo for linux partitions! With the windex cd, it will "repair" anything it can detect as not microblast. By repairing the mbr, it will not detect your linux installation; it assumes the partitions it can read are the fullest extent of the drive. (even an me boot disk will wipe linux, calling it either unreadable or unpartitioned space!)

[bvc]

I honestly don't know what to tell ya. I can say this. Sometimes, on 2 diff pc's, I'd boot to no usbmouse... even after 5 reboots to 3 diff distros...no usbmouse, usually with no errors. This could ALWAYS be fixed by booting to win98>control panel>mouse properties>selecting from a ps2 (bkup mouse I had because of this issue) to the usbmouse. Upon rebooting to linux, any linux, or win98, I'd have a usbmouse....why? I have no idea. I got so tired of it I gave in and use the stupid usb to ps/2 adapter. I believe that win98 does something that is remembered by the bios...just a guess, I mean, how else do you explain this? It has happened 100 times.

[Guest vs77]

Thanks for the help BVC

 

After what you've told me ........ I think I might as well wait for the new release. I really wanted to try the DVD decryption on Linux but I guess that will have to wait

 

I sure hope that ml is upto schedule on the release of 9.2 :?:

 

I will get back once I have installed that one. Hopefully everything goes fine and dont have any problems with that !!!!!!!!!! :)