"Invalid or Unsupported executable format"

[bobobo1618]

Hello all you people out there,

I am having some difficulty, I have been running a fedora 11 installation for a while now(my problem is with grub). Anyway I put windows XP on my third partition (sdb3, (hd0,2)) and it had been working until I moved computer. This is on an external drive, and I have been using the F12 boot option to boot from my HDD, this is a portable version of XP and Linux works fine but whenever I boot to XP it comes up with "Unsupported executable format" my grub.conf windows entry goes something like this:

title "Windows XP Portable"
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1

note that this has worked before but only broke when i changed computers.

Any Ideas?

[zvacet]

You changed computers so maybe grub is changed too.Type in terminal


sudo fdisk -l

and post output here.

You can also post output of


cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Do you run Ubuntu with Fedora and XP or is this just Fedora question on ubuntu forum?

[bobobo1618]

Here it all is:

fdisk -l:


Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb7e61057

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 26 204800 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 26 24485 196468736+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda3 * 24485 38913 115895104+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2e1e5afa

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 13 12749 102297600 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3 * 12749 12774 204800 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 12775 19457 53681197+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 12775 19457 53681152 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 109.4 GB, 109421002752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13303 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/dm-1: 4198 MB, 4198498304 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 510 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/dm-2: 82.7 GB, 82787172352 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10064 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/dm-3: 50.7 GB, 50755272704 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6170 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/dm-4: 4211 MB, 4211081216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 511 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/sdc: 8086 MB, 8086617600 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002a634

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 983 7895916 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_lfed11-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title New Custom Kernel (2.6.30.1-x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.1 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_lfed11-lv_root nomodeset rhgb quiet
initrd /linux-2.6.30.1-x86_64.img
title Xen (2.6.30.1-x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen-syms-3.4.1 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_lfed11-lv_root nomodeset rhgb quiet
initrd /linux-2.6.30.1-x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_lfed11-lv_root nomodeset rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1
title Internal Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

[cwsnyder]

Windows does NOT install portably, as most Linux distros will do. Windows will not load all of the drivers from the installation disk, only enough to support the hardware it is installed on.

Remember, this is a proprietary operating system, and M$ wants to sell you a new copy of Windows for each machine. If you want to use Windows on a changed hardware setup, you will have to reinstall. Even if you replace the motherboard with a manufacturer replacement or replace just the microprocessor Windows may notice and insist on being reinstalled.

I'm not even certain you could install a Windows XP virtual machine and move it from one machine to another.:(

[bobobo1618]

I obviously did not make this clear. I have modded my windows XP installation so that it loads all of the required drivers etc. on boot. Windows will boot if grub tells it to. This I know.