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Re: spontaneous partitions type changes (GRUB)



Hi Balbir,

[[ Forgive me for being overly curious, but is That your real name? if
   so from what language does it come? ]]

On Sun, Mar 11, 2001 at 02:31:02PM -0500, Balbir Thomas wrote:
> Hi,
> I have installed dos, win98 and debian on my system using GRUB as the bootloader. The installation was ok. But every time I boot into windows or dos and try to boot back into linux I get the Stage 2 error 17, that the info documentations says is due to an unrecogized partitions type. When I check the partition type in linux using cfdisk , it is reported as being of type "amoeba". I change its type to linux ext2 and write it to disk (Without losing any data on the disk) and the error repeats if I boot into win or dos. 
> Moreover the first time I boot grub (version 0.5.96.1) it presents me with the menu based interface and thereafter on subsequent boots it drops me into the shell. 

I'm not much of a guru, but I suspect that in your GRUB config file ( see
/etc/boot/grub/menu.lst ) you'll find a "hide" command for the linux parti-
tion, but no corresponding "unhide" command in the linux section itself.

Mind you that hiding/unhiding partitions is unneccessary for linux
partitions, linux itself doesn't mind there being more linux
partitions, it solely relies on /etc/fstab and the root parameter
during boot.  Windows and DOS on the other hand think that they own
the first partition they recognize (fortunetely the still don't
recognize linux partitions:), hence the need to hide any dos/win
partitons that should be left alone by them.

Try something like:

# For booting Linux
title  GNU/Linux on /dev/hda5
# no (un)hide's nescessary
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5

# For booting DOS or Windows
title DOS on /dev/hda1
unhide	(hd0,0)
hide	(hd0,1)
root	(hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# For loading DOS if Windows NT is installed
# chainload /bootsect.dos

# For booting DOS or Windows
title Windows on /dev/hda2
hide	(hd0,0)
unhide	(hd0,1)
root	(hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# For loading DOS if Windows NT is installed
# chainload /bootsect.dos


I've had my share of mischieve with Windows fucking up linux
partitons, but it turned out to be caused by Windows wacky support of
large drives.  All problems were solved once I used Linux Extended
(82) partitions instead of simple extended (05) partitions.  I could
have used some Windows Large Disk (LBA) mode extended partitions, but
there seem to be compatibility problems with them using DOS or DOS
mode, so I ditched them and stuck to Linux Extended Partitions.  So
be advised and place all your linux partitions in a Linux Extended
Partition:)


-- groetjes, carel



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