tomfmason Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 I got a new laptop a little while ago. It came with vista home premium on it. I really don't like vista(even less than xp) so I figured I would setup a dual boot and if I got everything working correctly I was going to remove windows. This is the first time that I have tried to setup a dual boot with debian. I have done it with ubuntu before but not debain. I must have done something wrong during the initial install that completely fubared my MBR. I don't have a vista restore cd but I have a really old xp cd. I figured that I could get into the restore console with it but I when I do it asks for an Admin password that I don't know. I am the only user on the system and I *know* what my password is but it keeps telling me that it is incorrect. I tried my password, no password and 123456.. None of which worked. So I decided to try to fix it through grub. Below is the process I used: I entered the debian dvd and when I got to the network dialog I hit alt f2 which brings up BusyBox(the built in shell). Then I did fdisk -l to see my partitions. # fdisk -l Device Boot /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sda4 /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6 * /dev/sda7 /dev/sda5 is the root partition, /dev/sda6 is the boot partition and /dev/sda7 is swap. From BusyBox I did mount /dev/sda5 /mnt chroot /mnt Which dropped me into the root for the debian install. I then loaded grub and tried to setup the MBR like this: grub grub -> root (hd0,5) grub -> setup (hd0) That completes without any errors but when I reboot I am still unable to get grub to boot. It just searches for other bootable media. I don't have a cd burner on my other system but I am going to go buy a usb flash drive and try http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Making-a-GRUB-bootable-CD-ROM.html . I have really bad connection or I would download a live cd. Well, I downloaded the DSL(damn small linux) iso and will try it if the grub booter doesn't work. At this point I am pretty much lost. I don't want to write over the windows install as I have a few things I still need access to. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 I had the same problem, you can go and download this program to change the admin password in windows Vista. http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/ Or you can go here http://www.loginrecovery.com/ Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/#findComment-543557 Share on other sites More sharing options...
neylitalo Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 Um... what? I'm pretty sure you mis-read something. And, Tom, when you say that you "loaded grub", what do you mean? And did you have /boot mounted at the time you were running "root (hd0,5)", "setup (hd0)", etc., in grub? If not, I think that might have something to do with it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/#findComment-543605 Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted May 17, 2008 Author Share Posted May 17, 2008 And, Tom, when you say that you "loaded grub", what do you mean? by entering "grub" at the command prompt the grub command shell environment will be loaded. And did you have /boot mounted at the time you were running "root (hd0,5)", "setup (hd0)", etc., in grub? If not, I think that might have something to do with it. Yes I did.. I left that out last time. Here is what I did mount /dev/sda5 /mnt mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot chroot mnt grub grub>root (hd0,5) #/dev/sda6 grub>setup (hd0) grub>quit exit then rebooted. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/#findComment-543641 Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 I figured that I could get into the restore console with it but I when I do it asks for an Admin password that I don't know. I am the only user on the system and I *know* what my password is but it keeps telling me that it is incorrect. I tried my password, no password and 123456.. None of which worked. So I decided to try to fix it through grub. Below is the process I used: This what what I was reffering to, he said he tried his password, and it didnt work. I have vista on a laptop, and there must be somethigngwith it that the admin password is not your password. I had to use the program to be able to install things, and even search Documents and Settings folder for sessions to work on my laptop for development. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/#findComment-543662 Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted May 17, 2008 Author Share Posted May 17, 2008 after more searching I found a solution and debian now boots From the BusyBox shell in the debian install(alt f4) mount /dev/sda5 /mnt mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot chroot /mnt grub grub>root (hd0,5) grub>setup (hd0) grub>rootnoverify (hd0,0) grub>makeactive grub>chainloader +1 grub>boot exit then reboot Now grub boots fine Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/106062-fubared-mbr-debian-etch-dual-boot/#findComment-543665 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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