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StringCheesian
l33t
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Posts: 887
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 Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 9:28 pm Post subject: Windows thinks my partition table is ok, why doesn't linux? |
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I had a working dual boot. Then I put in a new cdrom. My kernel was unable to mount root. Using the LiveCD, I tried changing the root= in grub.conf to everything I could think of, but nothing helped. Windows still boots great from grub.
The LiveCD is able to mount my Windows and Linux partitions just fine, but fidisk gives me this:
| Quote: | Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite) |
This doesn't make any sense: If my partition table is invalid then how come Windows works and I'm able mount everything from the LiveCD?
cfdisk tells me I don't have permission to write to my MBR. But Partition Commander doesn't have any trouble modifying my partition table. My BIOS boot sector protection is off.
I've tried doing FIXMBR in the Windows XP recovery console and then reinstalling grub, it didn't help - I'm back at square one.
What can I do about this?
I searched the forum and found several people with the same or similar problem, but no answers.
PS: The LiveCD detects the harddrive as hdd and cdrom as hda, with hdd8 mountable as my root partition. But the installed vanilla 2.6.4 kernel detects hda and hdc. So my root partition might be hda8 or hdc8, right? The kernel can't mount either of them as my root partition. How come the LiveCD can mount stuff but my kernel can't? And how come they detect my drives differently? |
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shadow255
Guru
Joined: 04 Apr 2003
Posts: 412
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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What did you do to ensure that you had the proper jumper settings on the replacement CD-ROM drive? It sounds quite possible that there's a mismatch somewhere in how you have your cabling and drive jumpers set. From your post, it sounds like the LiveCD is detecting the following arrangement: - Primary Master == CD-ROM drive
- Secondary Slave == Gentoo Hard Drive
This seems like an unusual and possibly undesirable arrangement. Another piece of the puzzle is where the Windows partition resides - your post doesn't make this clear at all. Do you have two hard drives? If so, was it your intention to place them on the secondary IDE channel?
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Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the Universe. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
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StringCheesian
l33t
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Posts: 887
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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Switching the IDE cables on the drives worked! Thank you, shadow255!
What is it about my previous setup that messed Gentoo up so badly?
I have just one harddrive. Now it's hdb instead of hdd. My cdrom is now hdd.
The jumper on the cdrom is set to slave. Both drives (hd and cd) are now plugged into the connectors on the end of their respective IDE cable.
Is the end or the middle connector on the IDE cable the master? Does it matter than my harddrive still isn't hda? |
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shadow255
Guru
Joined: 04 Apr 2003
Posts: 412
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:38 am Post subject: |
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I don't use cable select on IDE hard drives, so I can't tell you which connector on the cable corresponds to master/slave. If you set the hard drive jumper to the master/single position (depends which manufacturer as to whether master or single applies to you), it won't matter which connector you use on the cable. I'd see what happens setting the drive to master - if that causes things not to work, go back to what is working. It just doesn't seem optimal to use the primary slave as the preferred boot device with no primary master installed 
One more thing - if the CD-ROM is all by itself on the secondary channel, I'd set it to master as well.
Good luck!
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