SYSLINUX Boot Windows from dm-raid device

Hello,
I have Arch Linux and Windows 8.1 installed on my PC and I boot Arch with syslinux. I tried to configure it to boot my windows but I failed. Now I need your help.
I do have 3 HDDs and one SSD. Two of the HDDs are a FakeRAID 1 (Mainboard Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H) have a look:
# NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
# sda promise_fasttrack_raid_member
# └─pdc_bhfhachjc
# └─pdc_bhfhachjcp1 ntfs Daten 5C588E5F588E3832 /media/Daten
# sdb promise_fasttrack_raid_member
# └─pdc_bhfhachjc
# └─pdc_bhfhachjcp1 ntfs Daten 5C588E5F588E3832 /media/Daten
# sdc
# └─sdc1 ntfs 1E1EED741EED44FD /mnt/hidden (not mounted by default)
# sdd
# ├─sdd1 ext4 8e16936c-938d-4552-bb3e-1cb51117d498 /boot
# ├─sdd2 ext4 516a27f1-1bf3-4ca8-86d3-212fa430d831 /
# ├─sdd3 ext4 e5d9d69e-b9d1-4ce3-8bb9-11292fb883d0 /home
# └─sdd4 ntfs LinuxUndBackup 69E0D72E15010D81 /media/LinuxUndBackup
I can choose in BIOS to boot from Disk2 (sdd) and then my Arch Linux boots or I choose the Disk0 (sda+sdb as raid) and the my Windows boots.
The Windows boot partition is D: (sda+sdb as raid) but Windows itself is installed on C: the SSD (sdc). I tried a lot but I am not able to boot Windows with syslinux.
Thaks for help

my syslinux.cfg
DEFAULT arch
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 50
KBDMAP de.ktl
UI vesamenu.c32
MENU TITLE Startauswahl
MENU BACKGROUND splash.png
MENU COLOR border 30;44 #40ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR title 1;36;44 #9033ccff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #e0ffffff #20ffffff all
MENU COLOR unsel 37;44 #50ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR help 37;40 #c0ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout_msg 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout 1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR msg07 37;40 #90ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR tabmsg 31;40 #30ffffff #00000000 std
MENU VSHIFT 10
LABEL arch
MENU LABEL Arch Linux
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
APPEND root=/dev/sdd2 rw
INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img
LABEL windows
MENU LABEL Windows 8.1
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND mbr:0xFE02F000
and the "0xFE02F000" I got from
hexdump -s 440 -n 4 -e '"0x%08x\n"' /dev/xy
where I tried everything for xy (sda, sdb, dm-1, dm-0, mapper/pdc_bhfhachjc ...)
I also tried APPEND hd0 1

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dvh wrote:
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Apple //GS

I run OS X from one drive, have my home account on a second drive and improves performance.
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I got a new work computer and am trying to recreate my formerly successful setup, which I documented here some time ago. Unfortunately... I'm having issues. Just a note up front from scouring the internet for ideas: I cannot use syslinux (or any other bootloader) to chainload Win7 vs. the other way around! The computer drive is encrypted with McAfee Endpoint Encryption, and doing anything whatsoever with the MBR from outside of Windows will brick my computer. Just wanted to add that, as almost all issues involving dual boot inevitably bring about the suggestion to "just chainload windows from grub/syslinux/etc."
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drive setup
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- /dev/sda2: C:, Win7 (pre-existing)
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# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1e6513b3
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 2101247 2099200 1G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 2101248 177278975 175177728 83.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 177278976 177541119 262144 128M 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 177541120 500103167 322562048 153.8G 83 Linux
# modprobe dm_crypt
# cryptsetup -c aes-xts-plain64 -s 512 -h sha512 -i 5000 -y luksFormat /dev/sda4
# cryptsetup open /dev/sda4 root
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/root
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda3
installation
I just followed the Arch installation guide but documented my steps to a text file just to be sure...
# mount /dev/mapper/root /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/boot
### connect to internet
# pacstrap /mnt base
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# arch-chroot /mnt
# echo arch_zbook > /etc/hostname
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
### uncomment en_US.utf-8 in /etc/locale.gen
# locale-gen
# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
### add encrypt before "filesystem" in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf hooks
# mkinitcpio -p linux
# passwd
# pacman -S syslinux
# cp -r /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
# extlinux -i /boot
### the above echoes "/boot is device /dev/sda3"
Then I edited /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg:
LABEL arch
MENU LABEL Arch Linux
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
APPEND root=/dev/mapper/root cryptdevice=/dev/sda4:root crypto=sha512:aes-xts-plain64:512:: rw
INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img
EDIT: I deleted the contents of /boot, reinstalled syslinux, linux, and mkinitcpio, and repeated the above with `extlinux -i /boot/syslinux`, noting that syslinux.cfg points to ../vmlinuz-linux. Same result.
Just to double check proper syslinux setup, here's the dir contents:
# ls /boot
initramfs-linux-fallback.img
initramfs-linux.img
ldlinux.c32
ldlinux.sys
lost+found
syslinux
vmlinuz-linux
# ls /boot/syslinux
cat.c32
chain.c32
cmd.c32
cmenu.c32
config.c32
cptime.c32
cpu.c32
cpuid.c32
cpuidtest.c32
debug.c32
dhcp.c32
disk.c32
dmi.c32
dmitest.c32
elf.c32
ethersel.c32
gfxboot.c32
gpxecmd.c32
hdt.c32
hexdump.c32
host.c32
ifcpu64.c32
ifcpu.c32
ifmemdsk.c32
ifplop.c32
kbdmap.c32
kontron_wdt.c32
ldlinux.c32
lfs.c32
libcom32.c32
libgpl.c32
liblua.c32
libmenu.c32
libutil.c32
linux.c32
ls.c32
lua.c32
mboot.c32
meminfo.c32
menu.c32
pci.c32
pcitest.c32
pmload.c32
poweroff.c32
prdhcp.c32
pwd.c32
pxechn.c32
reboot.c32
rosh.c32
sanboot.c32
sdi.c32
sysdump.c32
syslinux.c32
syslinux.cfg
vesa.c32
vesainfo.c32
vesamenu.c32
vpdtest.c32
whichsys.c32
zzjson.c32
EasyBCD and boot attempt
At this point, exited the arch-chroot, unmounted/closed my partitions, and rebooted into Win7. Using EasyBCD, I added a entry for a syslinux bootloader, pointing it to "Partition 3 (Linux - 128MiB)."
I reboot, get the EasyBCD menu, but then the lone words "Boot error" on a black screen. Any key press takes me to some sort of BIOS boot thingy which tells me to "Please install an operating system!" I think this is something built into the laptop BIOS, not anything from the syslinux side. Selecting "Boot existing OS" from the Arch install USB doesn't give me any options at all.
From what I can tell, I'm using the same procedure that I ended up with on this former troubleshooting exercise.
Thoughts
I'm really struggling to understand what I'm doing wrong. I originally had a couple variations on logical/extended partitions since I need my eventual setup to hold a shared TrueCrypt partition so I can access my work files from both Win7 and arch. I tried /boot as primary and Arch/TC as logicals, as well as a primary TC partition with boot/root as a logical drive combination. I've simplified to just primary partitions (as shown above) to troubleshoot.
It's quite difficult to troubleshoot as I don't know if this is an installation issue or an EasyBCD one. Is there a way to manually try and boot my HD arch install from the install USB? I wanted to try that using the "Boot existing OS" option, but am wondering if it fails since only /dev/sda1 features a bootable flag and it's encrypted so only the HP BIOS can handle it? I thought about making /dev/sda3 bootable, but from my reading I can only have one bootable flag on a Windows system.
On that note, I checked my BIOS settings and the MBR is set to "Legacy mode" vs. the othe UEFI alternatives, so I don't think that's an issue. I also used blkid to confirm that it's using an MBR (output was "dos").
I will try UUIDs in /etc/fstab and syslinux next, as there are some other posts (example) talking about this as a potential issue (and, indeed, I sometimes get my HD as /dev/sdb* when booting from the arch USB drive. I can also try grub2 in case it's a syslinux issue.
Thanks for any ideas/suggestions. Does anything look awry in my description/setup above? I can chroot and do stuff just fine... so I think the install appears to be sound; it's just booting it!
Last edited by jwhendy (2015-06-06 04:38:09)

A bit of progress, though this couldn't be much more awful in my opinion. Installed Arch to an sdcard to use as a bootloader, only to find that I can't boot from an sdcard, even though the HP docs say there's an sdcard boot option in the BIOS (which there's not). If the BIOS were in UEFI mode, there is an sdcard option listed in the boot order, but not in legacy mode. Sigh.
I don't have another sdcard laying around that's big enough to install Arch on, as I'm using my sole 8g drive for the installation media (and no optical drive). Sigh.
I did, however, through trial and error get my sdd arch install to boot using the installation drive's "boot existing OS" option! Took me a while to figure it out. In my opinion the drive/partition numbering is quite odd. Using the Hardware Information tool, the usb stick shows up as the first drive (so I'd assume hd0), but it can't be as "hd0 3" got me into the sdd installation. I'd have assumed hd0 0 was /dev/sda1, but that must be incorrect, as hd0 3 is /dev/sda3.
So, where I'm at now:
- going to re-partition how I originally intended (with truecrypt shared storage as a primary partition and boot/root as logical partitions)
- reinstall arch
- try to boot using the above procedure from the installation media
If that goes well, I'll try to find some teensy tiny usb stick to use as a bootloader device unless someone has any insights on why I can't boot by chainloading from Windows. I think at this point I've narrowed it down to a BIOS or drive numbering or EasyBCD issue, so maybe this post isn't a good fit for the Arch forums after all. Sorry for all the noise/updates... just wanted to provide the updated information as I uncovered it.
Thanks if you have any ideas or things I could try.

[SOLVED] Unable to Boot Windows 7 from GRUB

I recently reinstalled Arch onto my laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad t520) and have been having problems with Grub. For the last week I've been having trouble getting it to run grub at boot at all, only being able to run windows 7 by flagging it as the bootable drive. The other day I finally got it to boot into grub, and from grub I can boot into Arch. However, I can not boot into windows 7 through grub. When I attempt to, it throws an error:
Invalid EFI file path
I'm somewhat new to arch, and especially new to efi bootloading and such. Right now the only way I can get into windows is either booting from the arch install disk > boot other os and specifying partition 2 (where I have windows installed) or by pressing f12 at boot. When I do this (not sure what the term is, if anyone knows please tell me), it brings up a menu asking where I want to boot with "arch_efi" "cd drive" "Hard drive" etc. I choose hard drive and it will then boot to windows by default. Booting normally takes me to grub where I can boot into arch but not windows. If there's any more info you need please let me know and I'll try to provide it. Thanks in advance.
Also, here is my current partition setup
/dev/sda1 /boot/efi
/dev/sda2 Windows7
/dev/sda3 Extended partition containing sda 5,6, & 7
/dev/sda4 swap
/dev/sda5 /boot
/dev/sda6 /
/dev/sda7 /home
UPDATE
Terminator seems to be right (still on a roll!), so I wiped the partition I had grub on, removed grub, and installed syslinux. Now I have another problem that I'm hoping can be solved in the same thread to avoid another. It boots to syslinux no problem, and I can boot to windows from there all good, but when I select arch I get:
Root device mounted successfully but /sbin/init does not exist
I haven't been able to look for solutions too much on my own, but any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Last edited by IamFuzzles (2012-08-22 04:20:56)

Terminator wrote:If I understand it correctly, what you are trying is impossible: you are trying to boot windows using UEFI on a disk with MBR partitioning. Windows 7 only supports UEFI on discs with GPT partitioning but AFAIK, extended partitions only exist in MBR partitioning.
i also saw this in the arch wiki, but i have a brand new lenovo ideapad y570 running windows 7 64-bit that i'm in the process of setting up for someone, and it has what i think is an efi system partition but the disk uses mbr partitioning. does anyone know why this might be, or is there a way i can verify that the system is actually being booted via bios-mbr?
Last edited by e_tank (2012-08-21 11:56:15)

Boot Windows AND FreeBSD from my MacBook Pro 8,3 using an external DVD drive. I'm considering to remove my DVD-ROM and replace it with an SSD drive. That doesn't seem to work. Why not?

As the title says, I'm attempting to boot off my favorite operating systems, Mac OS X, Windows 7 and FreeBSD from an external DVD drive. However, for some odd reasons, booting the Windows DVD and FreeBSD 9.1 install DVD from the external drive does not seem to work. I was able to create a bootable USB with the Windows installer, but whenever I attempt to do the same with FreeBSD, I only get an error message that says "No bootable device -- press any key to restart." Is this a limitation that Apple deliborately created? If so, why won't Apple let its customers do whatever they please with their computers, considering that customers who want to change the hardware and/or operating systems knows what he is doing, without having to worry about some silly Apple limitations?
If I sound rude, I apologize for that, as no impoliteness is intended from my side.
In advance, thanks. Have a wonderful day, everyone.

That is only partially correct at best.
When you are booting off Windows or any other operating systems that usually don't support EFI (including Windows), your Mac uses something called CSM-BIOS. And as long as that CSM-BIOS implementation on EFI-based Mac do not support booting off from USB (note that Mac OS X Installer works fine when booting from USB), not even a USB Apple SuperDrive which once was an internal drive, there mot definately is something for Apple to fix.
When attempting to install Windows via BootCamp, a somewhat hybrid GTP/MBR table is created. When you boot off the installer disc of the OS you intend to install (i.e. Windows 7, FreeBSD, etc), your Mac might not support the EFI boot option (at least my 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro doesn't support that), so the only way of booting that second OS installer is via the regular BIOS, which Apple's EFI based systems implement as CSM-BIOS.

SYSLINUX Boot Windows from dm-raid device

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