[gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[dhk]

I have a new laptop that I need to set up for dual booting.  As much as
I despise Microsoft, I have to use it for certain things.  Such as some
obscure peripherals, like my slide photo scanner, it doesn't support
Linux and TD Ameritrade's streaming Java tools don't work the same as on
Linux.  Until corporation's smarten up Microsoft will be a problem.

The setup for dual booting seem pretty straight forward.  Install
windows first, then Linux, and modify the boot loader.  However, I have
a couple of question and observations.

First, the observations.  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
way I wanted.  It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
but that didn't work; I guess that was too ambitious.  Then I just made
it an ordinary static HPFS/NTFS partition on /dev/sda5.  When installing
Windows 7 it wouldn't install on that partition.  I deleted all the
partitions and just installed it on the first 50Gigs of the disk.

Second, the questions.  The Windows 7 install on the first 50Gigs of the
disk needed to created two partitions.  The first was a very small boot
partition that I increased to 128Megs, and the second is the rest of
Windows 7.  Now when I boot to the livecd to partition the rest of the
disk for Gentoo fdisk says "Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder
boundary."  Is this a problem?  The other big question is:  what do I do
about the first partition in the partition table?  It is an HPFS/NTFS
partition and has been toggled bootable.  It also has some stuff in it
that looks like it's important to Windows:  a BOOTSECT.BAK file, a Boot
directory, a System Volume Information directory, and a bootmgr file.
Now for my Gentoo install, how and where do I make a /boot partition?
Do I replace the Windows 7 boot partition with /boot?  If so, what
happens to the contents?  or Do I make a /boot partition on /dev/sda3
and toggle the bootable flag there?

I apologize for the long story.  Thanks in advance for all the help.

dhk

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Petri Rosenström]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:01 PM, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
> I have a new laptop that I need to set up for dual booting.  As much as
> I despise Microsoft, I have to use it for certain things.  Such as some
> obscure peripherals, like my slide photo scanner, it doesn't support
> Linux and TD Ameritrade's streaming Java tools don't work the same as on
> Linux.  Until corporation's smarten up Microsoft will be a problem.
>
> The setup for dual booting seem pretty straight forward.  Install
> windows first, then Linux, and modify the boot loader.  However, I have
> a couple of question and observations.
>
> First, the observations.  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
> way I wanted.  It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
> was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
> but that didn't work; I guess that was too ambitious.  Then I just made
> it an ordinary static HPFS/NTFS partition on /dev/sda5.  When installing
> Windows 7 it wouldn't install on that partition.  I deleted all the
> partitions and just installed it on the first 50Gigs of the disk.
>
> Second, the questions.  The Windows 7 install on the first 50Gigs of the
> disk needed to created two partitions.  The first was a very small boot
> partition that I increased to 128Megs, and the second is the rest of
> Windows 7.  Now when I boot to the livecd to partition the rest of the
> disk for Gentoo fdisk says "Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder
> boundary."  Is this a problem?  The other big question is:  what do I do
Dunno, it might be that win7 changed the amount of heads/sectors that
could give that notice from fdisk. I would not be to worrified about
it (Installing windows would be more horrifying). If you have a
traditional hd then the worst thing I think might be that reads/writes
would be slower.

> about the first partition in the partition table?  It is an HPFS/NTFS
> partition and has been toggled bootable.  It also has some stuff in it
> that looks like it's important to Windows:  a BOOTSECT.BAK file, a Boot
> directory, a System Volume Information directory, and a bootmgr file.
> Now for my Gentoo install, how and where do I make a /boot partition?
> Do I replace the Windows 7 boot partition with /boot?  If so, what
> happens to the contents?  or Do I make a /boot partition on /dev/sda3
> and toggle the bootable flag there?

Something like that. You could install gentoo on one partition (I
don't recommend).

Just make partitions like you would do without windows. When you do
the grub-install script or by hand grub links the boot to the
partition where boot exists. You should not remove or change the
windows partitions or the data windows will probably brake when you
do.

>
> I apologize for the long story.  Thanks in advance for all the help.
>
> dhk
>
>

Some links with more information...
http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_Dual_boot
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10

Best regards
Petri Rosenström

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 27.02.2011 17:02, schrieb Petri Rosenström:
> On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:01 PM, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
>> I have a new laptop that I need to set up for dual booting.  As much as
>> I despise Microsoft, I have to use it for certain things.  Such as some
>> obscure peripherals, like my slide photo scanner, it doesn't support
>> Linux and TD Ameritrade's streaming Java tools don't work the same as on
>> Linux.  Until corporation's smarten up Microsoft will be a problem.
>>
>> The setup for dual booting seem pretty straight forward.  Install
>> windows first, then Linux, and modify the boot loader.  However, I have
>> a couple of question and observations.
>>
>> First, the observations.  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
>> way I wanted.  It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
>> was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
>> but that didn't work; I guess that was too ambitious.  Then I just made
>> it an ordinary static HPFS/NTFS partition on /dev/sda5.  When installing
>> Windows 7 it wouldn't install on that partition.  I deleted all the
>> partitions and just installed it on the first 50Gigs of the disk.
>>
>> Second, the questions.  The Windows 7 install on the first 50Gigs of the
>> disk needed to created two partitions.  The first was a very small boot
>> partition that I increased to 128Megs, and the second is the rest of
>> Windows 7.  Now when I boot to the livecd to partition the rest of the
>> disk for Gentoo fdisk says "Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder
>> boundary."  Is this a problem?  The other big question is:  what do I do
> Dunno, it might be that win7 changed the amount of heads/sectors that
> could give that notice from fdisk. I would not be to worrified about
> it (Installing windows would be more horrifying). If you have a
> traditional hd then the worst thing I think might be that reads/writes
> would be slower.
> 

If I'm not mistaken, this alignment is actually a good thing. It is
related to the transition from 512 B blocks to 4 kB and also helps
alignments for SSDs. In this regard, Win 7 behaves very clever and
really much better than the old and proven Linux tools (unless you know
what you are doing and are aware of every issue). IMHO it is a real
shame that most Linux tools are still behind in this regard.

If you think you have an HDD with 4kB blocks, ask and I can provide you
with some links on that topic.

>> about the first partition in the partition table?  It is an HPFS/NTFS
>> partition and has been toggled bootable.  It also has some stuff in it
>> that looks like it's important to Windows:  a BOOTSECT.BAK file, a Boot
>> directory, a System Volume Information directory, and a bootmgr file.
>> Now for my Gentoo install, how and where do I make a /boot partition?
>> Do I replace the Windows 7 boot partition with /boot?  If so, what
>> happens to the contents?  or Do I make a /boot partition on /dev/sda3
>> and toggle the bootable flag there?
> 
> Something like that. You could install gentoo on one partition (I
> don't recommend).
> 
> Just make partitions like you would do without windows. When you do
> the grub-install script or by hand grub links the boot to the
> partition where boot exists. You should not remove or change the
> windows partitions or the data windows will probably brake when you
> do.
> 

AFAIK, grub does not need the bootable flag. Leave it alone. Maybe
Windows needs it, maybe it is just for good measure, I don't know.

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp


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[gentoo-user] Re: Dual Boot Partitions

[walt]

On 02/27/2011 07:01 AM, dhk wrote:

>  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
> way I wanted.  It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
> was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
> but that didn't work;

Good old fdisk is indeed old, and there are much easier ways to do what
you wanted to do.  I've used this product several times with perfect
results (so far):

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Of course if you already have a working linux machine you can install
gparted and use it that way to move, resize and create partitions.
Very easy and almost painless.

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Mick]

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On Sunday 27 February 2011 18:04:26 Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 27.02.2011 17:02, schrieb Petri Rosenström:
> > On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:01 PM, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:

> >> First, the observations.  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
> >> way I wanted.  

I would recommend you use 'parted -a optimal' or gparted for this purpose (see 
below).


> >> It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
> >> was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
> >> but that didn't work; I guess that was too ambitious.

I am not sure that you can use LVM2 for MSWindows - as far as I know they use 
Logical Disk Manager which it is not the same with any other sane LVM 
implementation - come on now, would you expect them to seek compatibility or 
interoperability?!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Disk_Manager

> >> Then I just made
> >> it an ordinary static HPFS/NTFS partition on /dev/sda5.  When installing
> >> Windows 7 it wouldn't install on that partition.  I deleted all the
> >> partitions and just installed it on the first 50Gigs of the disk.
> >> 
> >> Second, the questions.  The Windows 7 install on the first 50Gigs of the
> >> disk needed to created two partitions.  The first was a very small boot
> >> partition that I increased to 128Megs, and the second is the rest of
> >> Windows 7.  Now when I boot to the livecd to partition the rest of the
> >> disk for Gentoo fdisk says "Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder
> >> boundary."  Is this a problem?  The other big question is:  what do I do
> > 
> > Dunno, it might be that win7 changed the amount of heads/sectors that
> > could give that notice from fdisk. I would not be to worrified about
> > it (Installing windows would be more horrifying). If you have a
> > traditional hd then the worst thing I think might be that reads/writes
> > would be slower.
> 
> If I'm not mistaken, this alignment is actually a good thing. It is
> related to the transition from 512 B blocks to 4 kB and also helps
> alignments for SSDs. In this regard, Win 7 behaves very clever and
> really much better than the old and proven Linux tools (unless you know
> what you are doing and are aware of every issue). IMHO it is a real
> shame that most Linux tools are still behind in this regard.

Only some are.

The 'parted -a optimal' or gparted will seek to align the end of a partition, 
but you will find that it may under/overshoot your specified size to achieve 
that.

fdisk et al have some development to do yet.


> If you think you have an HDD with 4kB blocks, ask and I can provide you
> with some links on that topic.
> 
> >> about the first partition in the partition table?  It is an HPFS/NTFS
> >> partition and has been toggled bootable.  It also has some stuff in it
> >> that looks like it's important to Windows:  a BOOTSECT.BAK file, a Boot
> >> directory, a System Volume Information directory, and a bootmgr file.
> >> Now for my Gentoo install, how and where do I make a /boot partition?
> >> Do I replace the Windows 7 boot partition with /boot?  If so, what
> >> happens to the contents?  or Do I make a /boot partition on /dev/sda3
> >> and toggle the bootable flag there?
> > 
> > Something like that. You could install gentoo on one partition (I
> > don't recommend).

No!  Nothing like that.  Leave the MS Windows boot partition alone and flagged 
as boot.  MS Windows needs this, while Linux does not.


> > Just make partitions like you would do without windows. When you do
> > the grub-install script or by hand grub links the boot to the
> > partition where boot exists. You should not remove or change the
> > windows partitions or the data windows will probably brake when you
> > do.

Yep.  Create a new partition; e.g. /dev/sda3 and use that as the /boot 
mountpoint for your Linux OS.  This is where the grub fs, Linux OS kernels and 
related files will be saved.


> AFAIK, grub does not need the bootable flag. Leave it alone. Maybe
> Windows needs it, maybe it is just for good measure, I don't know.

This is correct, MS Windows needs it and it will not boot without it, 
especially if you retain the MSWindows MBR boot code - although you can 
install GRUB in the MBR and chainload MSWindows from there with it.

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Dual Boot Partitions

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 27 February 2011 19:35:55 walt wrote:

> I've used this product several times with perfect results (so far):
> 
> http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
> 
> Of course if you already have a working linux machine you can install
> gparted and use it that way to move, resize and create partitions.
> Very easy and almost painless.

Gparted is indeed pretty; I use it often to get a picture of the partition 
layout (I boot from System Rescue CD: http://www.sysresccd.org/). However, 
it leaves partitions in the wrong order if you insert one before another. 
Fdisk is ideal for fixing that:

$ fdisk /dev/sda
x
f
w

Job done.

-- 
Rgds
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[dhk]

On 02/27/2011 02:39 PM, Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 27 February 2011 18:04:26 Florian Philipp wrote:
>> Am 27.02.2011 17:02, schrieb Petri Rosenström:
>>> On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:01 PM, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
> 
>>>> First, the observations.  I tried to partition my disk with fdisk the
>>>> way I wanted.  
> 
> I would recommend you use 'parted -a optimal' or gparted for this purpose (see 
> below).
> 
> 
>>>> It had the usual Linux partitions and a partition that I
>>>> was going to use for Window 7.  I wanted to make this an LVM2 partition,
>>>> but that didn't work; I guess that was too ambitious.
> 
> I am not sure that you can use LVM2 for MSWindows - as far as I know they use 
> Logical Disk Manager which it is not the same with any other sane LVM 
> implementation - come on now, would you expect them to seek compatibility or 
> interoperability?!!
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Disk_Manager
> 
>>>> Then I just made
>>>> it an ordinary static HPFS/NTFS partition on /dev/sda5.  When installing
>>>> Windows 7 it wouldn't install on that partition.  I deleted all the
>>>> partitions and just installed it on the first 50Gigs of the disk.
>>>>
>>>> Second, the questions.  The Windows 7 install on the first 50Gigs of the
>>>> disk needed to created two partitions.  The first was a very small boot
>>>> partition that I increased to 128Megs, and the second is the rest of
>>>> Windows 7.  Now when I boot to the livecd to partition the rest of the
>>>> disk for Gentoo fdisk says "Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder
>>>> boundary."  Is this a problem?  The other big question is:  what do I do
>>>
>>> Dunno, it might be that win7 changed the amount of heads/sectors that
>>> could give that notice from fdisk. I would not be to worrified about
>>> it (Installing windows would be more horrifying). If you have a
>>> traditional hd then the worst thing I think might be that reads/writes
>>> would be slower.
>>
>> If I'm not mistaken, this alignment is actually a good thing. It is
>> related to the transition from 512 B blocks to 4 kB and also helps
>> alignments for SSDs. In this regard, Win 7 behaves very clever and
>> really much better than the old and proven Linux tools (unless you know
>> what you are doing and are aware of every issue). IMHO it is a real
>> shame that most Linux tools are still behind in this regard.
> 
> Only some are.
> 
> The 'parted -a optimal' or gparted will seek to align the end of a partition, 
> but you will find that it may under/overshoot your specified size to achieve 
> that.
> 
> fdisk et al have some development to do yet.
> 
> 
>> If you think you have an HDD with 4kB blocks, ask and I can provide you
>> with some links on that topic.
>>
>>>> about the first partition in the partition table?  It is an HPFS/NTFS
>>>> partition and has been toggled bootable.  It also has some stuff in it
>>>> that looks like it's important to Windows:  a BOOTSECT.BAK file, a Boot
>>>> directory, a System Volume Information directory, and a bootmgr file.
>>>> Now for my Gentoo install, how and where do I make a /boot partition?
>>>> Do I replace the Windows 7 boot partition with /boot?  If so, what
>>>> happens to the contents?  or Do I make a /boot partition on /dev/sda3
>>>> and toggle the bootable flag there?
>>>
>>> Something like that. You could install gentoo on one partition (I
>>> don't recommend).
> 
> No!  Nothing like that.  Leave the MS Windows boot partition alone and flagged 
> as boot.  MS Windows needs this, while Linux does not.
> 
> 
>>> Just make partitions like you would do without windows. When you do
>>> the grub-install script or by hand grub links the boot to the
>>> partition where boot exists. You should not remove or change the
>>> windows partitions or the data windows will probably brake when you
>>> do.
> 
> Yep.  Create a new partition; e.g. /dev/sda3 and use that as the /boot 
> mountpoint for your Linux OS.  This is where the grub fs, Linux OS kernels and 
> related files will be saved.
> 
> 
>> AFAIK, grub does not need the bootable flag. Leave it alone. Maybe
>> Windows needs it, maybe it is just for good measure, I don't know.
> 
> This is correct, MS Windows needs it and it will not boot without it, 
> especially if you retain the MSWindows MBR boot code - although you can 
> install GRUB in the MBR and chainload MSWindows from there with it.
> 
> HTH.

Thanks for all the input.  It helped clear up a lot of questions.  I
spent the weekend installing to Operating Systems and it looks like it
almost worked.  I think the problem is in the Grub setup, so it should
be repairable once I find the mistake.  If it's something else, I may be
doing this again next weekend.

Thanks again,

dhk

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Mick]

On 28 February 2011 11:26, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:

> Thanks for all the input.  It helped clear up a lot of questions.  I
> spent the weekend installing to Operating Systems and it looks like it
> almost worked.  I think the problem is in the Grub setup, so it should
> be repairable once I find the mistake.  If it's something else, I may be
> doing this again next weekend.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> dhk

What error does it give you?

PS. Are you chainloading Gentoo from the MSWindows boot manager, or
MSWindows from GRUB?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[dhk]

On 02/28/2011 06:39 AM, Mick wrote:
> On 28 February 2011 11:26, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks for all the input.  It helped clear up a lot of questions.  I
>> spent the weekend installing to Operating Systems and it looks like it
>> almost worked.  I think the problem is in the Grub setup, so it should
>> be repairable once I find the mistake.  If it's something else, I may be
>> doing this again next weekend.
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> dhk
> 
> What error does it give you?
> 
> PS. Are you chainloading Gentoo from the MSWindows boot manager, or
> MSWindows from GRUB?

I did everything in Grub and haven't touched the MS Windows partitions
since the initial install.

The problem looks like Grub and some other stuff.  Can't boot to Windows
or Linux.  It looks like the Grub menu never comes up.  However, it
seems to know about it, because the menu options can still gets executed
either after the time out or by pressing Enter.  Then some stuff gets
printed to the screen and the boot process begins, but it errors before
the Operating Systems come up.  When trying to boot to Windows, I have
no idea why it errors.  When trying to boot to Linux, the fsck.ext3
fails on /dev/sda7 which is my root partition.  It seems to think it's
ext2, but when I checked (by booting to the livecd) with tune2fs -j it
says it's already journaling.  After the boot fails and I give the root
password, I looked in /dev and there aren't any sda partitions and I
have 12 on the disk.  My disk looks like the following.

Filesystem           ~Size Mounted
/dev/sda1             128M MS Windows 7 boot partition - HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2              50G MS Windows 7 - HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3             512M /boot - ext2
/dev/sda4             extended partition
/dev/sda5             512M swap
/dev/sda6               5G FAT32
/dev/sda7              12G / - ext3
/dev/sda8              50G LVM2 - ext3
/dev/sda9              50G LVM2 - ext3
/dev/sda10             50G LVM2 - ext3
/dev/sda11             50G LVM2 - ext3
/dev/sda12             50G LVM2 - ext3
/dev/mapper/vg-usr      8G /usr
/dev/mapper/vg-home     5G /home
/dev/mapper/vg-opt      3G /opt
/dev/mapper/vg-var      2G /var
/dev/mapper/vg-tmp      1G /tmp

Thanks
dhk

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[dhk]

On 02/28/2011 07:25 AM, dhk wrote:
> On 02/28/2011 06:39 AM, Mick wrote:
>> On 28 February 2011 11:26, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for all the input.  It helped clear up a lot of questions.  I
>>> spent the weekend installing to Operating Systems and it looks like it
>>> almost worked.  I think the problem is in the Grub setup, so it should
>>> be repairable once I find the mistake.  If it's something else, I may be
>>> doing this again next weekend.
>>>
>>> Thanks again,
>>>
>>> dhk
>>
>> What error does it give you?
>>
>> PS. Are you chainloading Gentoo from the MSWindows boot manager, or
>> MSWindows from GRUB?
> 
> I did everything in Grub and haven't touched the MS Windows partitions
> since the initial install.
> 
> The problem looks like Grub and some other stuff.  Can't boot to Windows
> or Linux.  It looks like the Grub menu never comes up.  However, it
> seems to know about it, because the menu options can still gets executed
> either after the time out or by pressing Enter.  Then some stuff gets
> printed to the screen and the boot process begins, but it errors before
> the Operating Systems come up.  When trying to boot to Windows, I have
> no idea why it errors.  When trying to boot to Linux, the fsck.ext3
> fails on /dev/sda7 which is my root partition.  It seems to think it's
> ext2, but when I checked (by booting to the livecd) with tune2fs -j it
> says it's already journaling.  After the boot fails and I give the root
> password, I looked in /dev and there aren't any sda partitions and I
> have 12 on the disk.  My disk looks like the following.
> 
> Filesystem           ~Size Mounted
> /dev/sda1             128M MS Windows 7 boot partition - HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda2              50G MS Windows 7 - HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda3             512M /boot - ext2
> /dev/sda4             extended partition
> /dev/sda5             512M swap
> /dev/sda6               5G FAT32
> /dev/sda7              12G / - ext3
> /dev/sda8              50G LVM2 - ext3
> /dev/sda9              50G LVM2 - ext3
> /dev/sda10             50G LVM2 - ext3
> /dev/sda11             50G LVM2 - ext3
> /dev/sda12             50G LVM2 - ext3
> /dev/mapper/vg-usr      8G /usr
> /dev/mapper/vg-home     5G /home
> /dev/mapper/vg-opt      3G /opt
> /dev/mapper/vg-var      2G /var
> /dev/mapper/vg-tmp      1G /tmp
> 
> Thanks
> dhk
> 
> 

Alright, I found a couple thing in Grub that I had wrong.  1) The
(hd0,0) for the splash should have been (hd0,2).  That fixed the problem
with no Grub menu.  2) The Windows menu option was (hd0,1) and should
have been (hd0,0) for the Windows boot partition not the Window
Operating System.

Now when I boot the Grub menu comes up and booting to Windows works.
However, I still have the same problem booting to Linux.  It chokes on
/dev/sda7 which is my root partition and my real_root kernel option.

Thanks,
dhk

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Mick]

On 28 February 2011 12:25, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:

> I did everything in Grub and haven't touched the MS Windows partitions
> since the initial install.
>
> The problem looks like Grub and some other stuff.  Can't boot to Windows
> or Linux.  It looks like the Grub menu never comes up.  However, it
> seems to know about it, because the menu options can still gets executed
> either after the time out or by pressing Enter.  Then some stuff gets
> printed to the screen and the boot process begins, but it errors before
> the Operating Systems come up.  When trying to boot to Windows, I have
> no idea why it errors.  When trying to boot to Linux, the fsck.ext3
> fails on /dev/sda7 which is my root partition.  It seems to think it's
> ext2, but when I checked (by booting to the livecd) with tune2fs -j it
> says it's already journaling.

Consider booting from a LiveCD, check that /dev/sda7 indeed contains
the root filesystem, unmount it and run:

e2fsck -f -v -c /dev/sda7

> After the boot fails and I give the root
> password, I looked in /dev and there aren't any sda partitions and I
> have 12 on the disk.  My disk looks like the following.

From a terminal start grub:
======================================
# grub

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 9216K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /grub/stage1
 (hd0,2)      <--If your /boot is indeed on /dev/sda3 and you have
installed grub in there

grub> root (hd0,2)  <--as found above

grub> set (hd0)  <--install the bootcode in the MBR of the 1st hard drive

grub> quit
======================================

Then you need to set up the /boot/grub/grub.conf file with the correct
lines pointing to /dev/sda7 for your Linux root and chainloading
/dev/sda1 for your MSWindows OS.

As long as you have installed the right modules for chipset and fs in
the kernel you should be able to boot.

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[Mick]

On 28 February 2011 13:11, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:

> Alright, I found a couple thing in Grub that I had wrong.  1) The
> (hd0,0) for the splash should have been (hd0,2).  That fixed the problem
> with no Grub menu.  2) The Windows menu option was (hd0,1) and should
> have been (hd0,0) for the Windows boot partition not the Window
> Operating System.
>
> Now when I boot the Grub menu comes up and booting to Windows works.
> However, I still have the same problem booting to Linux.  It chokes on
> /dev/sda7 which is my root partition and my real_root kernel option.

Ah!  Our messages crossed in the post!

Check that you have compile in the kernel the fs for your root
partition and that you have root (hd0,6) in your grub.conf and
real_root=/dev/sda7.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Dual Boot Partitions

[Elaine C. Sharpe]

In linux.gentoo.user, you wrote:
> On Sunday 27 February 2011 19:35:55 walt wrote:
>
>> I've used this product several times with perfect results (so far):
>> 
>> http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
>> 
>> Of course if you already have a working linux machine you can install
>> gparted and use it that way to move, resize and create partitions.
>> Very easy and almost painless.
>
> Gparted is indeed pretty; I use it often to get a picture of the partition 
> layout (I boot from System Rescue CD: http://www.sysresccd.org/). However, 
> it leaves partitions in the wrong order if you insert one before another. 
> Fdisk is ideal for fixing that:
>
> $ fdisk /dev/sda
> x
> f
> w
>
> Job done.
>
> -- 
> Rgds
> Peter

I love systemrescuecd, it's saved my butt many times. Customizing it for 
my own use was my introduction to gentoo. 

-- 
caveat utilitor 
♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ 

Re: [gentoo-user] Dual Boot Partitions

[dhk]

On 02/28/2011 08:25 AM, Mick wrote:
> On 28 February 2011 13:11, dhk <dhkuhl@optonline.net> wrote:
> 
>> Alright, I found a couple thing in Grub that I had wrong.  1) The
>> (hd0,0) for the splash should have been (hd0,2).  That fixed the problem
>> with no Grub menu.  2) The Windows menu option was (hd0,1) and should
>> have been (hd0,0) for the Windows boot partition not the Window
>> Operating System.
>>
>> Now when I boot the Grub menu comes up and booting to Windows works.
>> However, I still have the same problem booting to Linux.  It chokes on
>> /dev/sda7 which is my root partition and my real_root kernel option.
> 
> Ah!  Our messages crossed in the post!
> 
> Check that you have compile in the kernel the fs for your root
> partition and that you have root (hd0,6) in your grub.conf and
> real_root=/dev/sda7.
> 


All works now.  It looks like it was in the genkernel.  The only thing I
changed in the config file was turning off Raid like the documentation
said, I must have missed that.  So I'm not sure what fixed it, but after
I recompiled it worked and in grub it was (hd0,2).

Thanks all,

dhk

[gentoo-user] Re: MS Windows-scanners [Was: Boot Partitions]

[Joost Roeleveld]

On Sunday 27 February 2011 10:01:42 dhk wrote:
> I have a new laptop that I need to set up for dual booting.  As much as
> I despise Microsoft, I have to use it for certain things.  Such as some
> obscure peripherals, like my slide photo scanner, it doesn't support
> Linux and TD Ameritrade's streaming Java tools don't work the same as on
> Linux.  Until corporation's smarten up Microsoft will be a problem.

Might not be entirely what you're looking for, but when I borrowed a slide 
photo-scanner, I also wasn't able to get it to work with Sane.
I did, however, manage to run the scanner from an MS windows onstall under 
Virtualbox and passing the USB-slide scanner to that VM.

I actually got better speed that way then when running MS Windows natively. 
(scan-speed, that is)

--
Joost

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: MS Windows-scanners [Was: Boot Partitions]

[Sebastian Beßler]

Am 06.03.2011 07:57, schrieb Joost Roeleveld:

> Might not be entirely what you're looking for, but when I borrowed a slide
> photo-scanner, I also wasn't able to get it to work with Sane.
> I did, however, manage to run the scanner from an MS windows onstall under
> Virtualbox and passing the USB-slide scanner to that VM.

Slide photo scanners are indeed a common reason for MS Windows in 
VirtualBox it seems. I have that setup too, because it didn't work in 
Linux at all, but absolutly great inside of an virtualised Windows XP.

I use Windows XP inside of VirtualBox for approx. 1 year now and so far 
I never had the need to use a native installed windows. VirtualBox is a 
alternative that I can absolutly recommend.

Greetings

DarkMetatron