Debian boot loader problems
In the Errata for release candidate 2, we read the following:
«*2.6 installer has the potential to mess up Windows partitioning.*
«The fixes of the 2.6 CHS issue in parted are apparently incomplete and
some people have reported that Windows did not boot after they installed
Debian. This does not seem to affect all systems, or even most systems,
but we haven't enough data to be sure. If your Windows partition is
important to you and you don't want to take the risk, do not use the
"linux26" boot method for the installer, and install with a 2.4 kernel
("linux" boot method). You can always upgrade the installed kernel to
2.6 later.»
Well I seem to be among the unfortunate few. After installation of
Debian (Sarge) on the same disk as Windows the boot loader installation
invariably hoses down the entire disk and as a result I am getting
quite fed up with reinstalling Windows so many times. (Does anyone know
of an easy way to duplicate the disk before installing Debian - just in
case - so that I could just do a restore instead?)
The next thing I might try is using the 2.4 install as suggested above;
but that forces me to disconnect my Raid controller (the disks it
controls are not critical for the operation of the machine) otherwise
the installation hangs after displaying "Loading module `sd_mod` for
SCSI disk support..." it just sits there forever. Well, if that will at
least work... but maybe someone has a better suggestion?
The following might be important. "Hosing down the disk" here means two
things:
1 - Windows refuses to start. It thinks it is missing NTLDR.
2 - Linux on the other hand seems to be missing the file:
/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-386, but I checked and the file is there! So what's
wrong?
Any help will be appreciated.
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