129 replies to this topic

[SodiumBenzoate]

Hey guys,

I recently found Grub4Dos and I wanted to use it for managing the two operating systems that are required on a machine I am making.

Unfortunatly as soon as I select Grub4Dos from the primary boot menu, it returns the error:

<windows root>/system32/hal.dll The file is missing or corrupt. Install a copy of the file.

I have googled the problem and of all the results, the most likely problem I found was that my boot.ini file is wrong.
Except that when I boot into either of the 2 windows XP installs, they work.

My guess is that my menu.lst file is wrong, as I made a few changes to steamline the process for the user.

Here is the modified menu.lst:

color blue/green yellow/red white/magenta white/magenta

timeout 10

default 0



title Windows XP

root (hd0,0)

chainloader /ntldr



title Windows XP (TEST RIG)

root (hd0,1)

chainloader /ntldr



title commandline

commandline

password .12.98

Any insight into my error(s) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
SB

[steve6375]

You seem to be using two partitions. So does the boot,ini of hd0,1 point to the 2nd partition?
How do you boot into each one when it works?

[SodiumBenzoate]

Firstly, the second partition has no boot.ini file, but the boot.ini file in the primary partition has an entry for (hd0,1). (in addition to not having a boot.ini file, windows seems to have not installed any of the protected operating system files on the second partition...)

When I can access both "sides" is when I am using the NTLDR to choose the OS I want to boot.. When i choose Grub4Dos from the NTLDR menu is when the HAL.DLL error appears.

Thanks,
SB

[steve6375]

You are using ntldr on the 2nd partition, so won't it expect a boot.ini and boot files on the 2nd partition?
I don't quite understand why you are doing this if you can boot to either partition via boot.ini anyway?
I think to boot as you are trying, you need to install XP to the 2nd partition as a separate install by disabling/hiding the 1st ptn when you install the 2nd partition.

[SodiumBenzoate]

After reading your first reply, I was starting to think that this may be the case, the active XP partition interfering with the newer install.
I am primarily using Grub4dos because of the password protection on the OS selection menu, but at this point I think a password on the usedr account should be robust enough to deter students from trying to access the other OS.

Thank you for your help :-)

[stevesr0]

I have used grub4dos in booting a "frugal" linux distro installation on an ntfs partition which has win XP on it.

I used the method described on the LIN'N'WIN project webpage (http://www.icpug.org...p00-linnwin.htm)

This uses the grldr, and menu.lst, but not grub.exe. It calls for editing of the boot.ini file to add an entry to allow grldr to be executed.

I am planning to make a presentation on my experience with grub4dos and want to be able to explain the difference in grub4dos functionality when the grub.exe file itself is not installed.

Appreciate comments.

Thanks.

Steve

[Wonko the Sane]

I am planning to make a presentation on my experience with grub4dos and want to be able to explain the difference in grub4dos functionality when the grub.exe file itself is not installed.

I guess it will be difficult.
Grub.exe is NEVER "installed".
grldr and grub.exe are the "same" thing.
First one is compiled in such a way that it can be used as "stand-alone" (like with a bootsector directly invoking grldr) or chainloaded by the NTLDR through a BOOT.INI entry.
Second one is compiled in such a way that it is at the same time a DOS executable and a Linux kernel.
What can be "installed" is grldr.mbr which is a "portion" of the above two files that can be insatelle to the MBR (+a bunch of hidden sectors) and act as a replacement for the MBR, initiating the load of grldr bypassing any partittion/volume bootsector).
Due to the different way BOOTMGR chainloads files, you cannot chainload grldr (nor grub.exe) directly and you need to chainload grldr.mbr (which will then load grldr).
The link you provided is about one of the most basic usages of grub4dos, inserting it as an option in boot.ini in a "normally" booting 2K/XP sequence.


Wonko

[bee4u]

Hi diddy and ALL... when will be latest version fo the guide :" Grub4dos Guide " with new tips and upto dates will be available...

[steve6375]

I try to keep my site updated with the latest changes for the chenall build which is currently maintained and regularly updated, etc. See Tutorial #21, #71 and here.

[bee4u]

THX steve .. its good to know that Grub4dos Tutorial are updated and your doing nice job of maintaining it..
i checked it... wonderful..
i hope diddy too update his " Grub4dos Guide " so the Grub4dos community benefits from him ,you and all others doing great work to maintain it....

[irjhamar]

Hi guys,

 

I want to setup a PC for running windows 7 completely from Ram. I successfully did it with XP but Win7 would be more convenient for me.

Obviously I would need at least 32 or 64 GB memory for this (I do not really want to hack it too much). This would cost quite a bit.

 

I just want to be sure that grub4dos would see this amount of memory to begin with....

 

Anyone tried this before?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Csaba.

[dark2150]

Hi!

Offline versions (chm,htm) of the guide from the original website are not avaible.

So here's a compleate epub.

[Zoso]

Hi!
Offline versions (chm,htm) of the guide from the original website are not avaible.
So here's a compleate epub.

hopefully someone can fix the links, thanks for the notice, I checked them and indeed they result in error message.

but since this is your first post here, maybe also someone can verify your file too?

[Wonko the Sane]

Comeon guys , it is just the link (which senselessly uses a stupid "dynamic" approach) that is invalid.

 

The files are available alright:

The .chm:

http://diddy.boot-la...rub4dos_chm.zip

The .htm:

http://diddy.boot-la...rub4dos_htm.zip

 

Wonko

[steve6375]

This is more up to date (but it is translated from chinese)

http://www.rmprepusb...commands-primer

[tinybit]

@steve6375

(cd0) first drive, equivalent to (hd32), --init created by cdrom
(cd1) a second optical drive, which is equivalent to (hd33), --init created by cdrom

(cd0) is not (hd32)
(cd1) is not (hd33)

In fact, (cdX)'es are drives created by the grub4dos builtin ATAPI cdrom driver (with command "cdrom --init").

whereas (hd32), (hd33),..., (0xFF) are usually a virtual cdrom drive created by a map command.

Also note that (cd) is the eltorito cdrom drive created by BIOS (during Power-On-Self-Test). It is usually the booted-up cdrom drive. It can also be a virtual cdrom drive that just booted up from.

[carfan]

I'm sorry. I've been away from the forum for a very long time. Is there a way to transfer to the correct forum or just start a thread there?

[Wonko the Sane]

I'm sorry. I've been away from the forum for a very long time. Is there a way to transfer to the correct forum or just start a thread there?

Moved here:
http://reboot.pro/to...b4dos/?p=192822


Wonko

[btreut]

http://diddy.boot-land.net appears to be vanished, but the tutorial can be found at http://web.archive.o...os/Grub4dos.htm

[pollo]

http://diddy.boot-land.net appears to be vanished, but the tutorial can be found at http://web.archive.o...os/Grub4dos.htm

 

I could'nt download the html or the chm guide file from the web.archive.org , can somme one share that guides please and upload it in another server like mega or some where else.

 

thank you.

[Wonko the Sane]

I could'nt download the html or the chm guide file from the web.archive.org , can somme one share that guides please and upload it in another server like mega or some where else.

 

thank you.

HTML:
http://web.archive.o...rub4dos_htm.zip

 

CHM:

http://web.archive.o...rub4dos_chm.zip

 

Wonko

[pollo]

thank you wonko for the links.

[agni]

I am planning to upload the html guide to github or host it under a subdomain on my site.

 

Diddy are you ok with that ? (Although it looks like Diddy has been away from these forums for a while )

[steve6375]

The latest grub4dos (2019-05-07) now supports Alt+ key code translation.

 

Some non-English non-QWERTY keyboards are engraved such that AltGr+v produces the @ character, but the setkey command did not support this. The latest grub4dos 0.4.6a now supports AltGr-a to AltGr-z and AltGr+0 to AltGr+9  (Aa-Az, A0-A9).

Alt, AltGr and Ctrl+Alt all produce the same key codes under grub4dos.

setkey also now supports the extra oem102 key found on 102-key keyboards (the key between Z and leftshift) - oem102 and shiftoem102.

For an example of setkey commands for a Hungarian keyboard, see my blog post here.

French QWERTZ
#clear all settings
setkey
#setkey [new character] [QWERTY-USA character]
setkey less backquote
setkey greater tilde
setkey ampersand 1
setkey 1 exclam
setkey tilde 2
setkey 2 at
setkey doublequote 3
setkey 3 numbersign
setkey quote 4
setkey 4 dollar
setkey parenleft 5
setkey 5 percent
setkey minus 6
setkey 6 caret
setkey backquote 7
setkey 7 ampersand
setkey underscore 8
setkey 8 asterisk
setkey backslash 9
setkey 9 parenleft
setkey at 0
setkey 0 parenright
setkey parenright minus
setkey numbersign underscore
:: no change for equal
:: no change for plus
setkey a q
setkey A Q
setkey z w
setkey Z W
setkey caret bracketleft
:: no equivalent for diaresis => we keep the US braceleft
setkey dollar bracketright
:: no equivalent for pound => we keep the US braceright
setkey q a
setkey Q A
setkey m semicolon
setkey M colon
setkey bracketleft quote
setkey percent doublequote
setkey asterisk backslash
setkey bracketright bar
setkey w z
setkey W Z
setkey comma m
setkey question M
setkey semicolon comma
setkey period less
setkey colon period
setkey slash greater
setkey exclam slash
setkey bar question
#for new grub4dos
errorcheck off
setkey greater oem102
setkey less shiftoem102
setkey tilde A2
setkey numbersign A3
setkey braceleft A4
setkey bracketleft A5
setkey bar A6
setkey quote A7
setkey backslash A8
setkey caret A9
setkey at A10

Edited by steve6375, 08 May 2019 - 11:41 AM.

[alacran]

Good, also I'm sure the example of setkey commands for a Hungarian keyboard on your  blog post is very good info for Hungarian people.

 

But what about the info for other language keyboards as Spanish and Latin American, used for many more millions of people than the Hungarian keyboard users, do you know where we can look for the info?

 

And I need both because when new, OEM laptops and desktops come with Latin American Keyboard, but for non OEM desktops or when you go to buy a replacement keyboard, there is always only Spanish keyboard available, so you never know wath setkey commands you will need next time.

 

Thanks in advance

 

alacran