I've spent the last week trying to get a 64 bit version of Gentoo installed on a this dual Opteron box. Finally succeeded but it took a number of attempts as gcc would just stop in the middle of some randomly chosen compile. Resolved by forcing single CPU during install.
That's not my reason for posting though, Gentoo64 was the fourth OS to be installed on this box, in addition to the initial 32 bit WinXP, I added an install of 64 bit XP and an install of 64 bit Longhorn/Vista. 32Bit XP is installed on a VIA (Pseudo HW) SATA RAID array, which is the primary boot drive as designated by the BIOS. Unfortunately there is no Vista64 driver for the VIA controller, there is an XP64 driver for it, and lastly Gentoo sees the individual drives that make up the array, but does not see the array.
I put in an 80G IDE drive and gave each of Vista64, XP64, and Gentoo 1/3 of the drive, I also made it the boot drive in BIOS as that was the only way to get Vista installed. I then switched the boot drive back to the "array" and installed XP64, and Gentoo. XP64 recognized the array as the boot drive and correctly added an entry to C:\boot.ini. I knew that I would be able to install grub to the /boot partition of Linux and write the boot sector of the partition to a file the use that from the Windows boot manager. That did indeed work, though accomplishing it was not as straight forward at it usually is due to different drive ordering between Linux & BIOS from GRUB's viewpoint, because of the VIA array not being recognized.
That left Vista as the only OS I couldn't boot when the array was the designated boot drive. Just adding an entry to boot.ini pointing to it did not work. I suspect that's because when it was installed, the IDE was the primary boot drive and when it's not, some important/critical paths are incorrect. Anyway I figured I would just have to switch the IDE to the boot drive in BIOS when I wanted to boot Vista, a pain, but doable. Then I remembered that GRUB had some commands for manipulating the BIOS drive order and simulating alternate configurations before passing control to another boot loader. I did a little research, added what I thought was the series of commands that would make Vista happy to grub.conf and sure enough the Longhorn splash screen came up and the OS loaded with no problem.
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility. GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.
--
T.G. Reaper Gentoo & Windows user..The right OS for the right job. ******************************************************
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:25:09 -0700, Reaper, TG wrote:
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.
Hooooleeee shiiiite! Never thought I'd live to see the day where a staunch pro-Windows/anti-Linux faction actually gives honest and unconditional praise to an OSS tool.
What's next? Erik extolling the praises of apt? DFS paying homage to git? Where will the madness end?!?
-- rapskat - 01:19:10 up 21:37, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.11, 0.06 I'm waiting for their "...for Fucking Morons" series. - Stump on Slashdot, referring to a "for dummies" trademark dispute.
After takin' a swig o' grog, Reaper, TG belched out this bit o' wisdom:
That left Vista as the only OS I couldn't boot when the array was the> designated boot drive. Just adding an entry to boot.ini pointing to it> did not work. I suspect that's because when it was installed, the IDE> was the primary boot drive and when it's not, some important/critical> paths are incorrect. Anyway I figured I would just have to switch the> IDE to the boot drive in BIOS when I wanted to boot Vista, a pain, but> doable. Then I remembered that GRUB had some commands for manipulating> the BIOS drive order and simulating alternate configurations before> passing control to another boot loader. I did a little research, added> what I thought was the series of commands that would make Vista happy> to grub.conf and sure enough the Longhorn splash screen came up and> the OS loaded with no problem.>
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.
What's really neat about grub is that you can interrupt it, and go in an edit its commands, and issue other commands, without ever having booted to any OS. That's great when you goofed up in your edit of menu.lst/grub.conf (speaking from, ahem, experience).
Website Has Email 9 October 2005 16:31:14 [ permanent link ]
LinГёnut wrote:
After takin' a swig o' grog, Reaper, TG belched out this bit o' wisdom:>
That left Vista as the only OS I couldn't boot when the array was the>> designated boot drive. Just adding an entry to boot.ini pointing to it>> did not work. I suspect that's because when it was installed, the IDE>> was the primary boot drive and when it's not, some important/critical>> paths are incorrect. Anyway I figured I would just have to switch the>> IDE to the boot drive in BIOS when I wanted to boot Vista, a pain, but>> doable. Then I remembered that GRUB had some commands for manipulating>> the BIOS drive order and simulating alternate configurations before>> passing control to another boot loader. I did a little research, added>> what I thought was the series of commands that would make Vista happy>> to grub.conf and sure enough the Longhorn splash screen came up and>> the OS loaded with no problem.>>
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.>> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader>> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written>> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.>
What's really neat about grub is that you can interrupt it, and go in an> edit its commands, and issue other commands, without ever having booted> to any OS. That's great when you goofed up in your edit of> menu.lst/grub.conf (speaking from, ahem, experience).
Its a shame it can't make sounds at the grub interface. I want to play .OGG warnings when expeeh is loading.
"Are you sure? You are about to load a cheesy OS! Have you paid?"
or
"WARNING WARNING WARNING! Danger Wil Robinson! Don't boot this OS Wil Robinson! Or I will call the BSA!"
I've spent the last week trying to get a 64 bit version of Gentoo> installed on a this dual Opteron box. Finally succeeded but it took a> number of attempts as gcc would just stop in the middle of some> randomly chosen compile. Resolved by forcing single CPU during> install.>
That's not my reason for posting though, Gentoo64 was the fourth OS to> be installed on this box, in addition to the initial 32 bit WinXP, I> added an install of 64 bit XP and an install of 64 bit Longhorn/Vista.> 32Bit XP is installed on a VIA (Pseudo HW) SATA RAID array, which is> the primary boot drive as designated by the BIOS. Unfortunately there> is no Vista64 driver for the VIA controller, there is an XP64 driver> for it, and lastly Gentoo sees the individual drives that make up the> array, but does not see the array.>
I put in an 80G IDE drive and gave each of Vista64, XP64, and Gentoo> 1/3 of the drive, I also made it the boot drive in BIOS as that was> the only way to get Vista installed. I then switched the boot drive> back to the "array" and installed XP64, and Gentoo. XP64 recognized> the array as the boot drive and correctly added an entry to> C:\boot.ini. I knew that I would be able to install grub to the /boot> partition of Linux and write the boot sector of the partition to a> file the use that from the Windows boot manager. That did indeed work,> though accomplishing it was not as straight forward at it usually is> due to different drive ordering between Linux & BIOS from GRUB's> viewpoint, because of the VIA array not being recognized.>
That left Vista as the only OS I couldn't boot when the array was the> designated boot drive. Just adding an entry to boot.ini pointing to it> did not work. I suspect that's because when it was installed, the IDE> was the primary boot drive and when it's not, some important/critical> paths are incorrect. Anyway I figured I would just have to switch the> IDE to the boot drive in BIOS when I wanted to boot Vista, a pain, but> doable. Then I remembered that GRUB had some commands for manipulating> the BIOS drive order and simulating alternate configurations before> passing control to another boot loader. I did a little research, added> what I thought was the series of commands that would make Vista happy> to grub.conf and sure enough the Longhorn splash screen came up and> the OS loaded with no problem.>
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.>
Sun Microsystems also uses GRUB now to boot Solaris and Linux on their Ultra-20 machine.
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 10:56:12 -0600, GreyCloud <cumulus@mist.com> wrote:
"Reaper, TG" wrote:>>
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.>> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader>> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written>> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.>>
Sun Microsystems also uses GRUB now to boot Solaris and>Linux on their Ultra-20 machine.
Hmmm...it's a trend..Wonder if there's any hope of getting Microsoft to adopt it as their boot loader, probably not, but one can always wish.
--
T.G. Reaper Gentoo & Windows user..The right OS for the right job. ******************************************************
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 10:56:12 -0600, GreyCloud <cumulus@mist.com>> wrote:>
"Reaper, TG" wrote:> >>
This was a very long post to give some praise to a very small utility.> >> GRUB managed to load a Windows OS that Microsoft's own boot loader> >> couldn't. In my opinion GRUB is a solid, functional, well written> >> piece of code, and I thought that deserved acknowledgement.> >>
Sun Microsystems also uses GRUB now to boot Solaris and> >Linux on their Ultra-20 machine.>
Hmmm...it's a trend..Wonder if there's any hope of getting Microsoft> to adopt it as their boot loader, probably not, but one can always> wish.
According to one fellow, he did manage to get GRUB to boot all three. The ultra-20 is windows certified as well.
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 20:10:43 -0600, GreyCloud <cumulus@mist.com> wrote:>
According to one fellow, he did manage to get GRUB to boot> > all three. The ultra-20 is windows certified as well.>
Too bad there's hardly any Windows software for Itanic.>
The poor old Itanium is about to die. But at least Intel used the technology to build the new P4-D. It'll be nice to see 16 general purpose registers now.
