GRUB problem with VMWare and W2K on physical disk

[James McIninch]

I am running VMWare Server 1.0.1 on a box that has Win2K on /dev/hda1 and
SuSE 10.2 on /dev/hda6.

Both Win2K and SuSE Linux work fine in a dual-boot configuration using GRUB
as the boot loader.

I can create a virtual-machine for the Win2K partition just fine (there's a
good article on the subject here:
http://news.u32.net/articles/2006/07/18/running-vmware-on-a-physical-partition ).

When I start the virtual machine, I am presented with the GRUB menu. I
select the Windows option, and the boot-loader dumps the following to the
screen:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

... after which nothing else happens in the VM. There's no hard-disk
activity, nothing. Mind you, the above is absolutely correct and works
outside the VM to boot Windows with GRUB.

Any suggestions on what the cause might be and how I might go about fixing
it?

[Douglas Mayne]

Post by James McIninch
I am running VMWare Server 1.0.1 on a box that has Win2K on /dev/hda1 and
SuSE 10.2 on /dev/hda6.
Both Win2K and SuSE Linux work fine in a dual-boot configuration using GRUB
as the boot loader.
I can create a virtual-machine for the Win2K partition just fine (there's a
http://news.u32.net/articles/2006/07/18/running-vmware-on-a-physical-partition ).
When I start the virtual machine, I am presented with the GRUB menu. I
select the Windows option, and the boot-loader dumps the following to the
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
... after which nothing else happens in the VM. There's no hard-disk
activity, nothing. Mind you, the above is absolutely correct and works
outside the VM to boot Windows with GRUB.
Any suggestions on what the cause might be and how I might go about fixing
it?

You need to be very careful if you are using real disks (and individual
disk partitions) with virtual machines. When you assign individual
partitions, I _think_ vmware enforces no access to the other disk
partitions and the MBR on the disc, and that could be the cause of your
problem. One workaround is to create a _virtual_ boot floppy for Windows.
I _think_ that either a grub boot floppy or a native Windows boot floppy
will work. Also, if you need a real floppy, assign that as the secondary
drive. Assign the floppy image to the primary floppy (a:)

If you would like to test whether this approach is viable and fixes your
problem, you could download try this bootable CDROM image. Use it similar
to the boot floppy described above. You enter the parameters manually at
boot:


grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
grub> makeactive
grub> chainloader +1
grub> boot

[a***@gmail.com]

Post by James McIninch
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
... after which nothing else happens in the VM. There's no hard-disk
activity, nothing. Mind you, the above is absolutely correct and works
outside the VM to boot Windows with GRUB.

Hey I'm having the same problem, the system here is

***@athena ~ $ uname -a
Linux athena 2.6.18-suspend2-r1 #4 PREEMPT Wed Dec 20 12:15:57 CET 2006
i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

***@athena ~ $ eix vmware-player
* app-emulation/vmware-player
Available versions: 1.0.2.29634 ~1.0.3.34682
Installed: 1.0.2.29634
Homepage: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
Description: Emulate a complete PC on your PC without the
usual performance overhead of most emulators

Guest OS is "Windows XP Professional" Service Pack 2. And when I boot,
the system hangs on the following message

Booting "Windows XP"

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

... and nothing forever (I've left it even for half an hour I think).

Did someone solved this issue? I've seen around couple of people having
the same thing, but still no solving answers.