[NTLUG:Discuss] Suse / Win2K Dual Boot issue - ntoskrnl.exe missing?

[David Simmons, PE]

UPDATE - just wanted to provide an update and other suggestions - and
for upkeep/record's sake, here's my fdisk partition layout:

Disk /dev/hda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1           10957       11046      722925   92  Unknown
/dev/hda2   *          14       10956    87899647+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3           11047       24790   110398680   83  Linux
/dev/hda4               1          13      104391   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

so basically I have:

/swap
Windows 2K
/  (linux)
/boot

here's a great list of possible fixes:

> Try here:
> http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html
> and maybe even give GAG a try:
> http://gag.sourceforge.net/index.html

I haven't tried GAG yet...but read below for a why.

Here's one that really got me thinking:

You don't need to fdisk /mbr.  The problem is that since you installed 
Win2K on a second partition and not on the first, it flips out.  You 
need to add 2 map lines to GRUB's config file that 'tricks' Win2k into 
thinking that it is installed on the first partition.

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

-----------------------------------

With the mindset of the above, I looked into RTFM for GRUB and came up
with the follow as a 'best hope' GRUB entry:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name:
windows###
title Windows
    unhide (hd0,1)
    hide (hd0,0)
    root (hd0,1)
    chainloader +1
    makeactive

Didn't work - came up with the original error <windows-
root>ntoskrnl.exe  - Not found

While this is probably the most true answer:

Welcome to kernel 2.6.
This is a well-known issue, brought on by kernel 2.6's full LBA48
compliance, which breaks NT4SP4-NT5.1's non-compliance on buggy BIOSes
(IBM notebook?).
BTW, this is being reported by most people as a "Fedora-only" bug.
It's a general issue that affects any installer with 2.6 + Parted + GRUB
dual-booting with NT4SP4-NT5.1, and you have a non-LBA28/32 compliant
BIOS (which really screws up the new LBA48 standard).

I'm too stubborn to accept the truth to start with....SO, I'm left with:

On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 10:42 -0600, Ralph Green, Jr. wrote:
> Windows may get confused if some Windows is not the first
> partition.  I think I would try the install again and organize
> the partitions like this:
>   Win2K
>   /boot
>   swap
>   /

because of allocating /boot at the 'beginning' (first cylinders) of the
drive...AND writing GRUB to the MBR (which is a no-no) instead of the
first cylinder (see admonishment in first link in this email)...looks
like 'Frankenstein' needs an enema and start-over?

Dave