Linux Lite Grub Dual Boot Windows XP

[W-Exit]

Hallo liebes Forum
ich "Grandpa" bin komplett neu hier.
Langer Rede kurzer Sinn: Ich habe einen alten Laptop mit einer LinuxLite installation anscheinend komplett "verbogen".
Gibt es jemanden der mich Coachen mag?: Und sei es nur eine Lese-Topic hinweis erstmal ??

As said before I am Linux "Grandpa" and LinuxLite newbee ...
Making long story short: I got an old Laptop which I have sent into the NIRVANA with LinuxLite installation.
Anybody out there willing to help with diagnose / advice ?

So here come the details to my issue:
Old laptop (Siemens Amilo, everything factory standard except: 2GB Ram and 500GB SSD)
was running LinuxLite 3.8 32bit & WIN-XP dual boot setup for years.
until LinuxLite started to ask a password (out of the blue, it never did before)
I tried to bypass this with "rescatux-0.74.iso" and resetting the password to something new / known ... which failed.
At this stage GRUB was still working and offering both OS as choice to boot.
Hence I went on to reinstall LinuxLite 3.8 from scratch (over existing)
The first attempt to reinstall over existing failed too (Unknow System Error Message)
So I went on to reinstall LinuxLite beside existing OS, which went through
(I recall being asked to allocate Space)
and voila, here I am:
It is now offering 2 different Linux Versions to boot (1x not working at all and 1x I am currently using when typing these words)
There is no more Win-XP option to boot, which is sort of painfull - the only (not too much) valuable data was residing there - and I needed this to occasionally & flawless run some older Win Software ....

Possibly these partitions / data is still there ?? It is GRUB not working ??
Since I have self-inflicted this damage  :banghead , I reached out (here in this forum) to seek advice on how to possibly save my old win-boot partition ...

  I read somewhere that: issuing "sudo os-prober" in a terminal window would at least show me if an old windows boot partition was found on the system (before entering into grub details). However: This only shows me 2x LinuxLite as:
/dev/sda1:Linux Lite 3.8 (16.04):Ubuntu:linux
/dev/sda7:Linux Lite 3.8 (16.04):Ubuntul:linux

I am totally expecting this post to be moved "elsewhere", but I feel like being lost with tons of much more experienced people ... (I am currently going through all the dos&dont's Jerry kindly replied to me).

So please accept my rather unexperienced help request.

best regards and many thanks
viele liebe Grüße und besten Dank
Gunter  :49:

[stevef]

Gunter,

Both XP and Linux Lite 3.x are past end of life, so there may be problems getting support.  From your description, it seems the damage was done during one of the installs.

Do you have any system backups ?  This may be the best chance of recovery.

In your position, I'd begin by booting the linux OS, opening a terminal and running

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

Check for a Microsoft partition which may be the XP installation.

[W-Exit]

Hello stevef

sudo fdisk -l

is telling me:
Device        Boot Start End Sectors Size      ID Type
/dev/sda1  *                                      117G  83 Linux
/dev/sda2                                      348.7G  5  Extended
/dev/sda5                                              2G  82 Linux Swap /Solaris
/dev/sda6                                          230G  83 Linux
/dev/sda7                                      116.8G  83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

What does this tell me ?? sda2 = windows ??
And if yes, how would I boot this ??

Backup exist (of the data) so there would be nothing lost.
And thanks for the EOL advice ....

[Şerban S.]

[...]Device        Boot Start End Sectors Size      ID Type
/dev/sda1  *                                      117G  83 Linux
/dev/sda2                                      348.7G  5  Extended
[...]

Read articles about partitioning, then read again the output.
This partitioning scheme, seems to be an automated partiton, made with the option "Use entire drive".
The "Extended" label, is just a marker that tells the system that from cylinder X to cylinder Y are the boundaries of a primary partition that has inside LOGICAL partitions.
So, on the entire drive, there are only Linux partitions. Windows has entirely gone.

[...]
What does this tell me ?? sda2 = windows ??
[...]

See above.
One thing that this tells you, is that the type of partitioning is MSDOS, which means that the firmware of your machine, is BIOS.
The other, is that this partition, is the container for the LOGICAL DRIVES.
Since all drives are formatted with extfs, the only OS that can be installed is Linux.
For Windows/Linux, you need a different partitioning scheme and a different procedure for installing both OSes.
Takes too long to explain step by step.

Read entirely this chapter, at least three times:

https://www.freecinema2022.gq/manual/install.html

After reading this, write down (on paper!) all partitions you need:  type (ext2, ext4...), size in MB, destination (/ - Root, SWAP, /home, etc) and the name (mountpoint, like /home or /mydata), like in the fdisk output (/dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc.).
From this output, I can deduce that you have a 1 TB drive.
This translates into this:
1,000,000,000,000 bytes / 1024 = 976,562,500 KB;
976,562,500 KB / 1024 = 953,674.31 MB. <--- This is the value you need to use when partitioning
This translates into 931,32 GB and 0.909 TB.

You also need to create a NTFS partition in order to be able to install and run Windows alongside Linux.

[stevef]

It appears the extended partition sda2 is subdivided into 3 logical partitions (sda5, sda6 and sda7) giving 500GB.
These are all linux, so I also think the XP partition has been overwritten by one of the LL re-installations.

This is confirmed by the os-prober report and GRUB only finding Linux Lite OS.

Unless you have a system (and data) backup taken before your problems started then I think you will need to re-install from scratch.

Good luck.

[stevef]

Read entirely this chapter, at least three times:

https://www.freecinema2022.gq/manual/install.html

After reading this, write down (on paper!) all partitions you need:  type (ext2, ext4...), size in MB, destination (/ - Root, SWAP, /home, etc) and the name (mountpoint, like /home or /mydata), like in the fdisk output (/dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc.).
From this output, I can deduce that you have a 1 TB drive.
This translates into this:
1,000,000,000,000 bytes / 1024 = 976,562,500 KB;
976,562,500 KB / 1024 = 953,674.31 MB. <--- This is the value you need to use when partitioning
This translates into 931,32 GB and 0.909 TB.

You also need to create a NTFS partition in order to be able to install and run Windows alongside Linux.

I think the disk is 500GB, not 1TB.  The fdisk numbers add up to 465.7 GB which would reflect the original post which says 500GB.

[Şerban S.]

I think the disk is 500GB, not 1TB.  The fdisk numbers add up to 465.7 GB which would reflect the original post which says 500GB.

You're right!
I added up twice the size of the Extended partition. I got used to GPT lately and it seems I forgot the times when I used MSDOS Extended... :o

The real size, is: 117 + 348,7 = 465,7 GB = 476,876.8 MB = raughly, 500 GB. In fact, 480 GB.

/dev/sda1  *                                      117G  83 Linux
/dev/sda2                                      348.7G  5  Extended

[W-Exit]

Dear All, thanks a lot for the replies ....
I am now clear that only a rebuild from scratch will probably solve my issue.
However I am still looking for advice on how to do so (e.g. recollect the scattered partitions)
and off coarse on how to handle this forum (e.g. continue a post, ask questions ...)
best regards
Gunter 

[stevef]

Gunter,
You really should consider doing something safer.  Both XP and LL 3.8 are unsupported and should not be used - certainly not connected to the internet.

Installing old software from original media means the system would have widely known vulnerabilities which got patched during support lifetime.  There are some suggestions on the internet that XP updates (up to 2014) are still possible but who knows if the download sources are legitimate ?

[W-Exit]

:imsorry and I do agree.
I do not mind to make this old Laptop a Linux-only machine since I hate to waste old hardware ...
However I am still seeking advice on what to look at and how to do (e.g. the scattered SSD recollect, which Linux to install).
I believe another option was to run XP in a virtual machine next .... ?? I saw that LL is available in 5.0 and 32 bit ??
Even a point me to the right forum pages will be appreciated.
best regards again
Gunter