Windows killed Suse?

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a login.
I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?

Rod

Nikos Chantziaras · External Since: Aug 22, 2005 Posts: 218

Rodney Kelp wrote:
> I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
> the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
> shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
> the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
> install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
> I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a login.
> I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
> Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
> a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
> problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
> X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?

Well, a few million others, myself included, keep Windows up to date and
there are no problems. So that means something else it fault Razz

Windows can't prevent Linux from loading simply because Windows never
gets to actually run in the boot process.

Maybe a piece of hardware that crashes the detection routines?

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>> I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
>> the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
>> shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
>> the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
>> install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
>> I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a
>> login.
>> I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
>> Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
>> a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
>> problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
>> X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?
>
> Well, a few million others, myself included, keep Windows up to date and
> there are no problems. So that means something else it fault Razz

Windows
> can't prevent Linux from loading simply because Windows never gets to
> actually run in the boot process.
>
> Maybe a piece of hardware that crashes the detection routines?

Have you wiped your linux partition and reinstalled it lately?
Also, the boot sector on hda0 on the windows drive could be protected by
Windows. So that would prevent a boot loader from writing there. I
dont' know, like you say I could have a hardware problem but Everything
works fine in Windows, no hardware errors.

Bob Bob · External Since: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 58

How Rod?

Windows doesn't run until after the boot process. The only thing that
can prevent a boot sector write is the BIOS code. They quite often call
that "virus protection" in the BIOS setup.

It is conceivable that Windows can modify the boot sector. You however
can come along with grub/lilo/dd etc and overwrite it with whatever you
like.

Not sure about 10.2 but the SuSE versions I use by default never write
the boot sector after grub has been installed the first time. Maybe it
is time to force that?

I'll admit though the root/passwd problem is a little weird. Don't see
that as boot related though.

Cheers Bob

Rodney Kelp wrote:

> Also, the boot sector on hda0 on the windows drive could be protected by
> Windows. So that would prevent a boot loader from writing there.

houghi · External Since: Apr 25, 2004 Posts: 3158

Rodney Kelp wrote:
> I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
> the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
> shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
> the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
> install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
> I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a login.
> I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
> Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
> a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
> problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
> X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?

Run the repair mode from the openSUSE CD/DVD. Otherwise log in on 'init
1' if that will work and also look at the messages that scroll by if you
see anything there. That means running in 'init 3' and type 'ESC' with
the neat screen.

houghi
--
houghi http://houghi.org http://www.plainfaqs.org/linux/
http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
>
> Today I went outside. My pupils have never been tinier...

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

houghi wrote:
> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>> I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
>> the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
>> shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
>> the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
>> install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
>> I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a login.
>> I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
>> Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
>> a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
>> problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
>> X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?
>
> Run the repair mode from the openSUSE CD/DVD. Otherwise log in on 'init
> 1' if that will work and also look at the messages that scroll by if you
> see anything there. That means running in 'init 3' and type 'ESC' with
> the neat screen.
>
> houghi

Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.

Bob Bob · External Since: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 58

Is your BIOS set to protect the MBR? Check it!

I have however seen problems using YaST to (re)write the MBR (hung) and
ended up using the grub install directly. That was on 9.3 though...

Second thought may be a geometry issue but that problem hasn't been
around for a few years now.

If you don't care about the current drive contents try writing 512 bytes
to the start of the drive with a Linux boot CD and dd, then read it back
again to check it worked. ie create a text looking file (testin.txt) in
the "ramdrive" of that length then write it;

dd if=testin.txt of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

Then read it back

dd if=/dev/hda of=testout.txt bs=512 count=1

Then cat testout.txt (or use diff) and see if it is the same..

If it hangs during write pls tell us!

Bob

Rodney Kelp wrote:
> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.
>

Noozer · External Since: Sep 21, 2005 Posts: 86

> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.

Which only proves that you don't know what is going on.

If you can't write the boot sector then you have:

A) A defective drive
B) BIOS protecting the boot sector
C) Bad or the wrong installation media

Windows can't do ANYTHING to stop the Linux install from writing to the
disk. I may try and write over it later, but can't block Linux.

Have you tried installed your boot loader on the Linux partition instead of
the boot sector? Then use the Windows boot manager to choose which OS to
run? (I'm assuming here that you're smart enough NOT to run Vista).

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

Noozer wrote:
>> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
>> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
>> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.
>
> Which only proves that you don't know what is going on.
>
> If you can't write the boot sector then you have:
>
> A) A defective drive
Doesn't seem defective in Windows
> B) BIOS protecting the boot sector
Crappy Phoenix bios doesn't have protection.
> C) Bad or the wrong installation media
Not likely
>
> Windows can't do ANYTHING to stop the Linux install from writing to the
> disk. I may try and write over it later, but can't block Linux.
>
> Have you tried installed your boot loader on the Linux partition instead of
> the boot sector? Then use the Windows boot manager to choose which OS to
> run? (I'm assuming here that you're smart enough NOT to run Vista).

I will look into using Windows boot loader.
>
>

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

Bob Bob wrote:
> Is your BIOS set to protect the MBR? Check it!
>
> I have however seen problems using YaST to (re)write the MBR (hung) and
> ended up using the grub install directly. That was on 9.3 though...
>
> Second thought may be a geometry issue but that problem hasn't been
> around for a few years now.
>
> If you don't care about the current drive contents try writing 512 bytes
> to the start of the drive with a Linux boot CD and dd, then read it back
> again to check it worked. ie create a text looking file (testin.txt) in
> the "ramdrive" of that length then write it;
>
> dd if=testin.txt of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
>
> Then read it back
>
> dd if=/dev/hda of=testout.txt bs=512 count=1
>
> Then cat testout.txt (or use diff) and see if it is the same..
>
> If it hangs during write pls tell us!
>
> Bob
>
> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
>> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
>> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.
>>

Well I do care about the drive contents on the first partition at this time.

Bob Bob · External Since: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 58

Well in that case back up the MBR first, do your test then write it
back. (ie use the dd command in the same way as the test, but save the
contents first)

This wont affect the partition data as such. It does however affect the
partition table at the end of the MBR so try using the first 446 bytes
instead.

This may help;

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

Bob

Rodney Kelp wrote:

>
> Well I do care about the drive contents on the first partition at this time.

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

Bob Bob wrote:
> Is your BIOS set to protect the MBR? Check it!
>
> I have however seen problems using YaST to (re)write the MBR (hung) and
> ended up using the grub install directly. That was on 9.3 though...
>
> Second thought may be a geometry issue but that problem hasn't been
> around for a few years now.
>
> If you don't care about the current drive contents try writing 512 bytes
> to the start of the drive with a Linux boot CD and dd, then read it back
> again to check it worked. ie create a text looking file (testin.txt) in
> the "ramdrive" of that length then write it;
>
> dd if=testin.txt of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
>
> Then read it back
>
> dd if=/dev/hda of=testout.txt bs=512 count=1
>
> Then cat testout.txt (or use diff) and see if it is the same..
>
> If it hangs during write pls tell us!
>
> Bob
>
> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
>> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
>> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.
>>

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower /3072K upper memory)

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

grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,5)

Error 21: Selecte3d disk does not exist

grub> quit

This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
version of Opensuse....How can that be??

Bob Bob · External Since: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 58

Is it possible that the disk is not /dev/hda? It may set to slave or
running from the secondary channel? I have heard of this happening with
some OEM XP boxes. The Linux kernel boot messages will show where the
drive is connected.

I'll admit I haven't checked your grub syntax. It's been a while!

Rodney Kelp wrote:

> grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,5)
>
> Error 21: Selecte3d disk does not exist
>
> grub> quit
>
> This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
> Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
> version of Opensuse....How can that be??
>
>

graham · External Since: May 07, 2004 Posts: 588

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:01:26 -0400, Rodney Kelp wrote:

> Bob Bob wrote:

>> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>>> Well guess what, I downloaded Opensuse 10.3 Alpha 6, burned it and
>>> installed it on a clean, secure erased drive. It hung up on writing the
>>> boot loader! Something is up with hda0 track 0 and I think it's Windoz.
>>>
>>>
>
> GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower /3072K upper memory)
>
> [Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB list
> possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
> completions of a device/filename.}
>
> grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,5)
>
> Error 21: Selecte3d disk does not exist

As you stated you are using 10.3, you should use sd0 etc not hd0.
ide, sata, and scsi disks now all use the same driver.
>
> grub> quit
>
> This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
> Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
> version of Opensuse....How can that be??

Peter KÃ¶hlmann · External Since: Jun 27, 2005 Posts: 1500

Rodney Kelp wrote:

> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> Rodney Kelp wrote:
>>> I decided to wipe my Opensuse system and reinstall it. I just deleted
>>> the partitions and started over. Now during every install after CD1
>>> shows done and all the files are copied it hangs. I did it twice with
>>> the 32 bit version and twice with the 64 bit verson. If I go back to
>>> install and select boot installed system, it boots hda6 no problem but:
>>> I can't log in. Root user does not work. It will not take root for a
>>> login.
>>> I have Windows XP Media center on the other partition. I am guessing
>>> Windows came out with a patch that PREVENTS linux from being loaded with
>>> a dual boot with Windows. It has to be since I have never had this
>>> problem before; on ANY system. THis is an Acer 5100 laptop with athelon
>>> X2 64 processor. ANy Ideas?
>>
>> Well, a few million others, myself included, keep Windows up to date and
>> there are no problems. So that means something else it fault Razz

Windows
>> can't prevent Linux from loading simply because Windows never gets to
>> actually run in the boot process.
>>
>> Maybe a piece of hardware that crashes the detection routines?
>
> Have you wiped your linux partition and reinstalled it lately?
> Also, the boot sector on hda0 on the windows drive could be protected by
> Windows.

No, it can't. Windows can't even look after itself, so how do you propose a
(non-running) windows to prevent a write to the drive?

--
Don't abandon hope: your Tom Mix decoder ring arrives tomorrow

houghi · External Since: Apr 25, 2004 Posts: 3158

Rodney Kelp wrote:
> GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower /3072K upper memory)
>
> [Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
> list possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
> completions of a device/filename.}
>
>grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,5)
>
> Error 21: Selecte3d disk does not exist
>
>grub> quit
>
> This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
> Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
> version of Opensuse....How can that be??

Well, because it is either not there, or because it does not see it, so
it thinks it is not there. Read this:
https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/l-grub/l-grub-a4.pdf

Or if you are paranoid and are afraid to give your spamtrap email adress
away, here some small tips:

When you are in `grub>`, type `root ([TAB]` to see what is
available, next do `root (hd0,[TAB]` (Or any other hdX or sdX you can
find)

Here an example of what you might see:
grub> root (hd0,[TAB]
Possible partitions are:
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83

houghi
--

This space left blank intentionaly

David Bolt · External Since: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 494

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Rodney Kelp wrote:-

<snip>

>grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,5)
>
>Error 21: Selecte3d disk does not exist
>
>grub> quit
>
>This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
>Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
>version of Opensuse....How can that be??

First, check you have a file called /boot/grub/device.map and, second
post a copy of it here.

From the look of things, it appears as though either the file doesn't
exist, or it's got the mapping wrong. Either of these will explain the
"Selected disk doesn't exist" error.

Regards,
David Bolt

--
Member of Team Acorn checking nodes at 100 Mnodes/s: www.distributed.net
RISC OS 3.11 | SUSE 10.0 32bit | SUSE 10.1 32bit | openSUSE 10.2 32bit
RISC OS 3.6 | SUSE 10.0 64bit | SUSE 10.1 64bit | openSUSE 10.2 64bit
TOS 4.02 | SUSE 9.3 32bit | | openSUSE 10.3a6 32bit

David Bolt · External Since: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 494

On Sat, 4 Aug 2007, graham wrote:-

<snip>

>As you stated you are using 10.3, you should use sd0 etc not hd0.
>ide, sata, and scsi disks now all use the same driver.

No. Grub continues to use hd0, hd1, etc. The /boot/grub/device.map file
maps these devices to the names the kernel uses. As an example, here's
the device map from a machine dual-booting both 10.3 and 10.1:

davjam@cobra-mk1:~> cat /etc/SuSE-release ; sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map
openSUSE 10.3 (i586) Alpha6
VERSION = 10.3
root's password:
(hd0) /dev/sda
davjam@cobra-mk1:~>

davjam@cobra-mk1:~> cat /etc/SuSE-release ; sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map
SUSE LINUX 10.1 (i586)
VERSION = 10.1
root's password:
(hd0) /dev/hda
davjam@cobra-mk1:~>

As I mentioned in my reply to Rodney, my guess is that the
/boot/grub/device.map file is pointing to the wrong device.

Regards,
David Bolt

--
Member of Team Acorn checking nodes at 100 Mnodes/s: www.distributed.net
RISC OS 3.11 | SUSE 10.0 32bit | SUSE 10.1 32bit | openSUSE 10.2 32bit
RISC OS 3.6 | SUSE 10.0 64bit | SUSE 10.1 64bit | openSUSE 10.2 64bit
TOS 4.02 | SUSE 9.3 32bit | | openSUSE 10.3a6 32bit

David Bolt · External Since: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 494

On Sat, 4 Aug 2007, David Bolt wrote:-

>On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Rodney Kelp wrote:-

>>This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
>>Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
>>version of Opensuse....How can that be??
>
>First, check you have a file called /boot/grub/device.map and, second
>post a copy of it here.

Forgot something else to add as well. Along with the copy of
/boot/grub/device.map post the results of this:

fdisk -l

Regards,
David Bolt

--
Member of Team Acorn checking nodes at 100 Mnodes/s: www.distributed.net
RISC OS 3.11 | SUSE 10.0 32bit | SUSE 10.1 32bit | openSUSE 10.2 32bit
RISC OS 3.6 | SUSE 10.0 64bit | SUSE 10.1 64bit | openSUSE 10.2 64bit
TOS 4.02 | SUSE 9.3 32bit | | openSUSE 10.3a6 32bit

Rodney Kelp · External Since: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 12

David Bolt wrote:
> On Sat, 4 Aug 2007, David Bolt wrote:-
>
>> On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Rodney Kelp wrote:-
>
>>> This is what happens. It is saying that /dev/hda does not exist yet
>>> Windows XP boots fine. It can't see hda for some reason. Now that is 3
>>> version of Opensuse....How can that be??
>> First, check you have a file called /boot/grub/device.map and, second
>> post a copy of it here.
>
> Forgot something else to add as well. Along with the copy of
> /boot/grub/device.map post the results of this:
>
> fdisk -l
>
>
> Regards,
> David Bolt
>

This is wierd. Ubuntu v7.04 had no problem install grub. I install from
the live CD. It did have a problem partitioning the drive and had to
reboot after it hung up. But it is all well now.