bugGNU GRUB - Bugs: bug #30796, Unable to boot WinXP -...

 
 

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bug #30796: Unable to boot WinXP - ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt

Submitted by:  James Duffy <supay>
Submitted on:  Tue 17 Aug 2010 11:15:59 AM UTC  
Votes:  1  
 
Category: BootingSeverity: Major
Priority: 5 - NormalItem Group: Software Error
Status: FixedPrivacy: Public
Assigned to: NoneOriginator Name: 
Open/Closed: ClosedRelease: 
Release: 1.98Reproducibility: Every Time
Planned Release: None

Sun 03 Jun 2012 04:13:06 PM UTC, comment #3:

Sorry, I meant to come back and post here after I solved it but forgot to do so.

It turned out to have nothing to do with either Windows or GRUB. My onboard USB controller was failing and eventually died. For some reason unknown to me, if I booted the PC with the onboard USB enabled then I could not dual boot whatsoever, I would only be able to boot using whichever bootloader was the primary one at startup.

Turning off the onboard USB controller immediately fixed the problems and would allow me to get into GRUB, then from there either boot whatever Linux distro I had or load the Windows bootloader to start that up or vice versa in using the Windows bootloader first.

I don't know why my USB controller would cause this problem but it was definitely this as I could reproduce the error or stop it occurring simply by turning the controller on or off.

James Duffy <supay>
Sun 03 Jun 2012 04:02:44 PM UTC, comment #2:

It was a bug in windows which was unable to handle a tiny free memory region left after install. GRUB doen't create such regions anymore. If problem persists please open a new bugreport

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Project Administrator
Sat 06 Nov 2010 10:47:55 PM UTC, comment #1:

Can you check that the right partition is active (with e.g. fdisk)?

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Project Administrator
Tue 17 Aug 2010 11:15:59 AM UTC, original submission:

Installing Grub2 onto a system already containing Windows XP prevents XP from being able to boot.
The Grub2 menu contains a listing for Windows XP Professional and selecting it takes me to the Windows XP loader where I get a choice of booting to Windows or to Recovery. Selecting Windows returns an error of:

"NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt."

It is not missing or corrupt and neither is my boot.ini file. All are there and appear correct.

Running fdisk returns:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000001

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 38305 307684881 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 38306 60194 175817728 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 60194 60802 4882432 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000972e0

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 182401 1465136001 83 Linux

XP is in sda1, Ubuntu is in sda2 and sdb1 is an external hard drive for data storage.

This error did not occur when I used Grub Legacy on the Ubuntu 9.04 and only began occurring after Grub 2 was introduced in 9.10. Running recovery on Win XP and restoring the Windows Bootloader allows booting into XP but now no options for my Linux installs.

I have repeated the error over and over, using different hardware and different copies of Windows XP, Home and Professional, different Linux distributions and allowing Grub2 to install automatically as part of an OS install or manually myself. A friend's system has been tested as well and reproduces the same error.
Grub Legacy works every time, Grub2 does not.

I'm not a hugely experienced Grub user, so if this is well known and I've done something stupid, please advise. However, I find this error with Grub2 commented on all over the place with noone seeming to know what is happening or how to fix it. All suggestions so far have failed to work.

I include a copy of my current grub.cfg. If anything further is required, please email me and I can provide.

James Duffy <supay>

 

Attached Files
file #21241:  grub.cfg added by supay (5KiB - text/plain)

 

Depends on the following items: None found

Items that depend on this one: None found

 

Carbon-Copy List
  • -unavailable- added by phcoder (Posted a comment)
  • -unavailable- added by supay (Voted in favor of this item)
  • -unavailable- added by supay (Submitted the item)
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    Follow 4 latest changes.

    Date Changed By Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced By
    Sun 03 Jun 2012 04:02:44 PM UTCphcoderStatusNone=>Fixed
      Open/ClosedOpen=>Closed
    Wed 18 Aug 2010 11:14:50 PM UTCsupayCarbon-Copy-=>Added supay
    Tue 17 Aug 2010 11:15:59 AM UTCsupayAttached File-=>Added grub.cfg, #21241

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