Installed Redhat 8.0 - windows xp unavailable

[Bulldog13]

Greetings.

I finally took the dive into linux, because, well, wanted to learn it, and I have an unsatiable desire for maximum efficiency via tweaking. From what I hear linux can provide this .

Anyways, originally I had a RAID array set up using a raid card (Koutech I/O Flex raid controller, which is based upon the SIL680 chipset). Windows XP was installed on this and working fine.

I installed redhat 8.0 on a hard drive not on the raid array. It was a 60 gig that was set as master secondary. It worked fine and am using linux now to type this.

I chose LILO as the boot loader. I setup the 60 gig as the linux partition, default I believe, and set the the another boot option to boot from C: and set it as windows xp. Linux could detect C: and D:, but had problems figuring anything else out. It knew the hard drives were there, but, I believe, did not know they were in a Raid array. So now when I try to boot into windows, nothing happens. I think this is because setting just C: as the bootable component was the incorrect thing to do. Any advice on how to configure LILO so it recognizes the RAID array and can use that to boot off of?

Thanks alot.

 

[cleverhandle]

Sounds like Linux isn't recognizing the RAID card's array correctly. If you can get that part to work (i.e. you can boot to Linux and mount XP's filesystem properly), fixing the boot situation is not that hard. But a quick search didn't turn up any pointers on that card - if it's possible, you may have to dig for it a bit. If you get the card working, you can use LILO to boot XP.

If you can't get Linux support for the card, you could try the info in this FAQ - that will use XP's bootloader to boot Linux (vice versa of the first way). But I think that trick only works on a single drive.

 

[Bulldog13]

I have looked at that particular FAQ before, unforunately it didn't seem to help (at least with my limited knowledge anyways).

Linux is recognizing the raid card on the pci bus. I found some command to display information about pci devices and it correctly listed the card and chipset.

When I go into the hardware browser it lists the 2 raided hard drives as /dev/dhe and /dev/hdg, just not sure what to do now.

I got this card from the hot deals forum and someone had said they got it working in redhat 7.3, but their PM is turned off.

Any help is greatly appreciated because I would really like to get back into windows again

Any searches I do on google don't seem to be too helpful.

Where's n0cmonkey ?

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Bulldog13
Linux is recognizing the raid card on the pci bus. I found some command to display information about pci devices and it correctly listed the card and chipset.

Yes, but that doesn't mean that Linux is recognizing the array, just the card. Recognizing the card is nothing more than having a listing for the PCI-ID string in an include file somewhere. Actually supporting the RAID function properly is a different story.

When I go into the hardware browser it lists the 2 raided hard drives as /dev/dhe and /dev/hdg

Which tells you, again, that Linux is not seeing the array. If it did, you should see something like /dev/ataraid0 or similar in the boot messages. An array will look like one big disk to Linux, and support the regular filesystem/mount operations. It looks like, at the moment, the card is acting only as an IDE controller, which doesn't help you much.

 

[Bulldog13]

Hrmmh ok. I guess this could also be a good thing. If linux can't see the array then hopefully it didnt mess with it.

Any advice on getting linux to either truly recognize the array or to at least boot off the card or something?

Is there a way to completely avoid LILO and boot into windows?

I am getting desperate here...

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Bulldog13
Any advice on getting linux to either truly recognize the array or to at least boot off the card or something?

This would probably require a kernel module. Like I said before, I didn't see anything obvious when I searched before. It may not be possible.

Is there a way to completely avoid LILO and boot into windows?

If you just want to boot back to Windows, boot from the XP CD, and do a "fixboot" or maybe "fixmbr". That will make it impossible to boot to Linux without a boot disk, though, so you may want to create one if you didn't already.

 

[Bulldog13]

If you just want to boot back to Windows, boot from the XP CD, and do a "fixboot" or maybe "fixmbr". That will make it impossible to boot to Linux without a boot disk, though, so you may want to create one if you didn't already.

Windows XP isn't showing me any love. When I boot off the CD, hit F6 to load the Raid Driver, I get an error saying a certain file from the disk (pnpsomething.sys) has created an error in (file from cd) at some line. I have a feeling the physical diskette I am using might be the culprit as they are old, and have given me trouble before. Going to buy some new ones and try it.

I tried booting into the XP repair console and repairing, but when i do a "dir" command at the C: prompt I get a "disk enumeration" error. Same thing with the A: drive and the D: drive. It can read the dvd-rom fine. This leads me to believe that I definately need the Raid driver loaded.

I tried a fixboot command on the C: at this point, said it rewrote it, then I tried a fixmbr, but it gave me a warning stating something to the effect of, "Don t do this if you are having problems reading your hard drive". This being my problem - I voted against doing the fixmbr.

Anyone else got any ideas - screw linux at this point - not concerned about that, just interested in getting back into windows.

Thanks again

-Mike

 

[Bremen]

Is it possible to set the BIOS to boot from the raid card? Or is XP installed on another drive? What drive are you currently booting off of? The linux drive? Unless you used to boot windows off it, why not just remove the drive?

 

[Bulldog13]

Originally posted by: Bremen
Is it possible to set the BIOS to boot from the raid card? Or is XP installed on another drive? What drive are you currently booting off of? The linux drive? Unless you used to boot windows off it, why not just remove the drive?

I thought this idea might work. I can enable BIOS to boot "Boot other". I tried taking the HD with linux installed on it out, but no dice. Now I just get a boot error saying no boot drive or something to that effect.

Grr. This is killing me.

Any other suggestions?

 

[cleverhandle]

Problem is that it's still unclear to us where the boot loader was installed. Answer me these questions three... er, two.

1) What was the BIOS boot order before you installed Linux, and did you change it after installing Linux?

2) What devices are on what IDE channels? And again, did you change any of these when you installed Linux?

That should help sort things out...