I can't get GRUB or GAG to do their job

[Virchanza]

A friend of mine recently bought a brand new laptop, and it came with Vista installed.

The Vista installation has all sorts of cool programs for his hardware, for instance he has a fingerprint recognition device, and Vista has the software necessary to use it.

So I told him I'm shrink the Vista partition. Then I'd make two more partitions: One for WinXP and one for Linux.

The idea is that he'll use WinXP for playing games, and he'll use Linux for everything else.

So anyway, I actually used Vista itself to shrink the Vista partition, so there were no problems in shrinking the partition; I even rebooted afterwards and it booted fine. I made two more partitions, a FAT32 partition for WinXP, and an ext3 partition for Linux.

Then I booted up a LiveUSB of BT4-PreFinal and I installed Backtrack onto the ext3 partition. I also installed GRUB into the master boot record of the hard disk.

Here's the problem I'm having:
When GRUB loads at boot-up, if I select Vista, all that happens is that the computer instantly reboots.

I've been searching on the internet for hours about this, and I even came across one site that said GRUB doesn't work right with certain motherboards and it suggested to use GAG instead, so I installed GAG but I still have the same problem: the computer just instantly reboots if I select the Vista partition.

The Vista partition hasn't been altered in any way!

Has anyone ever had this "Vista instantly rebooting" problem?

It's 2:26am and I'm going to bed... I've been at this for the last 3 hours straight.

[archangel.amael]

Is there a hidden recovery partition on the drive the may be interfering?
What about using vista for boot control ?
Does BT boot up correctly?
I will assume since you know how to use BT that grub is configured correctly.

[Virchanza]

Originally Posted by archangel.amael

Is there a hidden recovery partition on the drive the may be interfering?

There were two hidden partitions, one at the start of the drive and one at the end. Vista was in the middle. (So there were 3 partitions in total).

I burned an ISO of the last hidden partition, and then deleted that partition.

I left the first partition intact, except for I turned off its "hidden" attribute.

So the partition table looks as follows:
sda1: NTFS : Recovery Partition
sda2: NTFS : Vista
sda3: FAT32 : XP (yet to be installed)
sda4: ext3 : Linux

What about using vista for boot control ?

I haven't got a DVD for Vista, and the Recovery Partition will only let me re-image the disc! I can't even get a command line if I boot the Recovery Partition. If I could get a command line, I was thinking I'd do "fixmbr" to see if Vista can still boot.

Does BT boot up correctly?

Yes, perfectly.

I will assume since you know how to use BT that grub is configured correctly.

Yeah I've got grub set correctly. Here's a look at menu.lst:

default        0

timeout        10

splashimage=56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title        Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.29.4
uuid        56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.4 root=UUID=56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72 ro quiet splash 
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.4
quiet

title        Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.29.4 (recovery mode)
uuid        56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.4 root=UUID=56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72 ro  single
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.4

title        Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid        56a73476-d529-414e-b1fa-0027d1715e72
kernel        /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title        Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title        hd0,0 (Recovery Partition)
rootnoverify        (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader    +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title        hd0,1 (Vista Partition)
rootnoverify        (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader    +1

I can use GRUB to boot off the Recovery Partition just fine, and the Recovery Partition even seems to be running a scaled down version of Vista.

However when I try to boot off the Vista partition, the machine just instantly reboots. I've tried hitting F8 write after I choose Vista but I still just reboots instantly.

Any ideas?

Am I best to get my hands on a Vista disc to try get a command line and type "fixmbr"?

[compaq]

Vista should in defaults automatical reboot if theres a problem at boot, due to windows.
You could try fixmbr, but i think more than two partions, it doesn't work so well.

Try reloading vista(repair mode), then linux, it might have been caused be Xp