ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt, pxe install

[benner]

I am dual booting a lab of 30 machines in an elementary school. They already have XP installed and I don't want to mess with that. I certainly don't want to have to go to each one with a windows CD to 'repair' each one if this goes wrong.

So i tested on one (installed through PXE) and Ubuntu boots fine but I am getting:

'ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt' errors now. I can't move on until I sort this out. Any help is appreciated.

[benner]

bump

[Mark Phelps]

Sorry, but as evidenced by the lack of response -- this is an Ubuntu form -- not a Windows XP forum. If you're in dire need of XP support and are waiting on that, this is the WRONG place to get it.

You might try asking your question in a Windows 7 forum (sevenforums.com) or you can take your question to MS Technet forums.

[benner]

#1) Installing ubuntu corrupted Windows, making it an Ubuntu issue. I believe that the vast majority of Ubuntu users are, in fact, dual booters so it should be of some concern to the Ubuntu community if the process of installing Ubuntu messes up their systems and makes them unable to access their existing Windows systems.

#2) As stated, this is an installation in a computer lab at a school. If you have any interest in increasing the Ubuntu user base, you would be well advised to do what you can to support educators that are willing to put the time and effort into getting it into the hands of kids.

#3) Why would you capitalize the word 'wrong' unless you were trying to make me feel stupid? Are you trying to help or chase me away?

Mr. Phelps, I looked you up. It seems that you have been pretty helpful on these forums. I found quite a number of posts where you did indeed help people solve their dual boot problems and a number of other Windows-related issues.

I have now tested on 3 machines and am continuing to get the same error. Doesn't look like a Windows problem to me. Grub, maybe?

[benner]

Bump

I guess this will be my last try. I have a lab full of XP machines and I want to dual boot them with Ubuntu. If I am unable to do so without mucking up my XP systems, I won't bother. XP runs fine. I just wanted to introduce my students to something different. i anyone has any idea why, or would like to help me find out why I get these errors, I would be most grateful and you will be guaranteed a lot of kids will get an opportunity to try your favourite distro.

[soldier1st]

ubuntu should not corrupt anything. when you installed ubuntu how did you and where did you put it and the grub boot loader? also is the ubuntu install 64bit or 32bit? also did you change any bios settings?
Mark Phelps (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=311399): i do partially agree with you but since he installed Ubuntu then that makes it a valid ubuntu question as ubuntu is involved, surely you have some knowledge of that Windows they call it(lol) that could be put to use in helping the op.

[benner]

I just accepted the defaults for everything.

Even installing from CD, I am still getting the same errors. There is something about Grub2 and these machines, I guess. But it is clearly not a Windows issue. They boot fine, I install Ubuntu by whatever means (PXE or CD) then XP no longer boots but Ubuntu does. Therefore, something about the process of installing Ubuntu screwed up my previously fine XP installation.

So on the newest one, here is what i get from Grub when I click 'e':

insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
setroot+'(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2268f51e68f4f181
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1

Which is quite different from the last time I had to edit a grub menu. I have changed various values here and there but don't see any difference.

Even if I have to install Ubuntu one by one with a CD on each machine, I would like to be able to get this to work. What seems to be the problem? Any suggestions?

[Mark Phelps]

Sorry about not responding sooner ...

Thought you were only asking for help in repairing XP. Didn't realize that it was a dual-boot situation. SO, sorry about the "WRONG" comment ...

I didn't catch HOW you were installing Ubuntu. IS it (1) by shrinking an existing XP partition, creating a new one (or leaving the space unallocated) and then installing Ubuntu in its own partition, or (2) using Wubi to install inside XP.

I'm guessing it's (1) -- in which case, you're probably using the Ubuntu installer to shrink the XP partition to make room.

There have been LOTS of reports of that shrinkage corrupting Vista/Win7 partitions, but not of XP partitions.

To give us a look at what you're up against, enter the following in a terminal "sudo fdisk -lu" (that's a lowercase L, not a one), and post the results back here.

[benner]

Thanks for getting back.

I have installed on a handful of the machines and gotten the same result on all but one. In a couple cases, I resized a partition. But yesterday, I just installed to one of the existing partitions. There was a C;, D, and F: and a couple of gigs unallocated. I reformatted and installed to F: without resizing, then made the unallocated space into swap.

I am going to guess that if I throw in my XP disk and fixmbr then I will lose grub, right?

I read someone else that had the same problem with grub2 and switched to mint because it used an older version of grub. if this is the case it seems like a hassle for me to install ubuntu, use a windows cd to fix the mbr then reinstall grub, then do it all again 27 more times.

I will post fdisk in a couple hours when i get to work. cheers.

[benner]

here is fdisk output:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 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
Disk identifier: 0x1caa00e6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 92550464 46275201 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 92550465 125612234 16530885 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 125612235 156296384 15342075 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 156297216 156301311 2048 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[Mark Phelps]

...I am going to guess that if I throw in my XP disk and fixmbr then I will lose grub, right?
Right ...


I will post fdisk in a couple hours when i get to work. cheers.

Don't see anything wrong there -- just confirms that you're installing to separate partitions, not using Wubi.

As to multi-machine deployment, can't help there as I have no experience doing that scale of installations.

[benner]

Well, I am on the right track but still need help. I managed to boot into Windows by repairing the MBR. I did it from within Ubuntu using ms-sys:

sudo apt-get install ms-sys

sudo ms-sys -m /dev/sda

(I got it from here: http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/15/how-to-fix-your-windows-mbr-with-an-ubuntu-livecd/)

Then I tried rebuilding GRUB and it went back to the supposedly corrupt ntoskrnl.exe error. I tried replacing Grub2 with legacy Grub and am still getting the same errors.

Apparently i can instead install grub to the partition where Ubuntu is, then add Ubuntu to the Windows bootloader instead but that is a real hassle, especially if I have to do it on a roomful of computers, then explain it to the network administrators who will be maintaining it.

Hoping for a simpler solution. What do you think is going on?

[benner]

bump

[bcbc]

Can you run the bootinfoscript (http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/) on the computer?

[Ramla]

Can you run the bootinfoscript (http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/) on the computer?

Anybody who doesn't want to help an Arch Linux user on Ubuntuforums shouldn't read more.

Even if the original poster has decided he's had enough, I still don't want to be dependent on Windows bootloader. I have the exact same kind of problem. Last time I bought a hard drive I left room for Windows and now I finally decided to install it for some games. Windows booted fine after installation but I instantly had to install grub to go download me some ethernet drivers. Then ntoskrnl.exe failed me. I've tried replacing it and fiddling with menu.lst and boot.ini settings but nothing seems to help. Here's my bootinfoscript results.


Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub Legacy (v0.97) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the
same drive in partition #1 for /boot/grub/stage2 and /boot/grub/menu.lst.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda7: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 41,945,714 41,945,652 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 41,945,715 104,888,384 62,942,670 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 104,888,385 1,953,520,064 1,848,631,680 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 104,888,448 314,616,959 209,728,512 6 FAT16
/dev/sda6 314,617,023 318,617,144 4,000,122 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 318,617,208 1,953,520,064 1,634,902,857 83 Linux


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 ext4 juuri
/dev/sda2 AA2C35482C3510B5 ntfs
/dev/sda6 56d170c7-6c0d-4710-ae68-cbb5d2a08a03 swap
/dev/sda7 cb2d09c0-f168-4ce3-bda3-f5616b7280a1 ext4 koti

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/disk/by-uuid/8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 / ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered )
/dev/sda7 /home ext4 (rw)


================================ sda2/boot.ini: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

No volume groups found
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

[bcbc]

Have you tried this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477


Method 3
Start the computer by using your Windows XP CD-ROM. Press any key to boot from the CD.
After the setup files are finished loading press R to repair using Recovery Console.
When you are in the recovery console, select the installation to log on to (usually number 1), and then press ENTER.
Login to the Administrator account by typing the password for this account, and then press ENTER.
At the recovery console command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

For Uni-Processor systems:
expand <cd-drive>:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ <hd-drive>:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
For Multi-Processor systems:
expand <cd-drive>:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_ <hd-drive>:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Note In these two commands, the <cd-drive> placeholder represents the drive letter of your CD drive, and the <hd-drive> placeholder represents the drive letter of the hard disk on which windows is installed.
If you receive a prompt to overwrite the file, press Y.
Type exit, and press ENTER at the command prompt.

Edit: this might also work: http://www.ozzu.com/mswindows-forum/ntoskrnl-exe-corrupted-windows-wont-open-t24580.html#p71621


Also your bootinfoscript results look a bit strange: "/dev/sda1 already mounted or busy". Even though it probably is mounted, bootinfoscript doesn't seem to have a problem analyzing the mounted drives on my machine. (Maybe this is different running on Arch? but there could be some other issues).

[Ramla]

Have you tried this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

Edit: this might also work: http://www.ozzu.com/mswindows-forum/ntoskrnl-exe-corrupted-windows-wont-open-t24580.html#p71621

It seems my WinXP media doesn't have a recovery console option, but I've before tried to copy the file from the media in linux with no success. Now I tried the XP option "Try the last known good configuration" which apparently fixes MBR and my XP booted fine. I installed the network drivers and downloaded graphics drivers after which I installed grub again only to see XP fail to boot with the ntoskrnl.exe corrupt or missing error.



Also your bootinfoscript results look a bit strange: "/dev/sda1 already mounted or busy". Even though it probably is mounted, bootinfoscript doesn't seem to have a problem analyzing the mounted drives on my machine. (Maybe this is different running on Arch? but there could be some other issues).
I googled for some BIS results from arch users and found all of them report the failed mount except ones run on a live system. I'll be right back with the live kind of results.
...and here they are:
Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub Legacy (v0.97) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the
same drive in partition #1 for /boot/grub/stage2 and /boot/grub/menu.lst.
=> ISOhybrid (Syslinux 3.82-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:  Arch Linux () ()
Boot files: /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/fstab

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda7: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: udf
Boot sector type: ISOhybrid (Syslinux 3.82-4.04)
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 41,945,714 41,945,652 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 41,945,715 104,888,384 62,942,670 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 104,888,385 1,953,520,064 1,848,631,680 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 104,888,448 314,616,959 209,728,512 6 FAT16
/dev/sda6 314,617,023 318,617,144 4,000,122 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 318,617,208 1,953,520,064 1,634,902,857 83 Linux


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 4016 MB, 4016046080 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3830 cylinders, total 7843840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 0 346,111 346,112 17 Hidden NTFS / HPFS


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 squashfs
/dev/sda1 8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 ext4 juuri
/dev/sda2 AA2C35482C3510B5 ntfs
/dev/sda6 56d170c7-6c0d-4710-ae68-cbb5d2a08a03 swap
/dev/sda7 cb2d09c0-f168-4ce3-bda3-f5616b7280a1 ext4 koti
/dev/sdb1 udf ARCH_201005

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda7 /media/wtf ext4 (rw)


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/menu.lst: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
#
# Linux Grub
# -------------------------
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/sda (hd0)
# /dev/sdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/sda3 (hd0,2)
#

# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# for more details and different resolutions see
# http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution

# general configuration:
timeout 1
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

# (2) Windows
title Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0
UUID=56d170c7-6c0d-4710-ae68-cbb5d2a08a03 swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=8d01f754-262a-43b8-bfce-2cc6e97723d5 / ext4 defaults 0 1
UUID=cb2d09c0-f168-4ce3-bda3-f5616b7280a1 /home ext4 defaults 0 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

12.492354870 = 13.413563904 boot/grub/menu.lst 1
18.404319286 = 19.761487360 boot/grub/stage2 1
2.680285931 = 2.877935104 boot/kernel26-fallback.img 1
2.251693249 = 2.417737216 boot/kernel26.img 1
18.634437084 = 20.008574464 boot/vmlinuz26 1

================================ sda2/boot.ini: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

?? = ?? boot/vmlinuz26 1

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

No volume groups found
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

[bcbc]

Ramla, you have a problem with /dev/sda5. I'd start by fixing that. Everything else looks okay, near as I can tell.

[Ramla]

Ramla, you have a problem with /dev/sda5. I'd start by fixing that. Everything else looks okay, near as I can tell.

It's an unformatted partition to be used with Windows once I get it to boot. Doesn't count as a problem.

[bcbc]

Searching around it appears this message can come from a whole bunch of things (even a bad keyboard/mouse, assuming the sources are accurate)

So it's best to eliminate grub. Have you confirmed that when you have a Windows bootloader, XP boots fine? And as soon as you install Grub you have this problem?
Obviously at some point XP was booting okay so I suppose you'll have to go through the steps and see what triggered the problem - maybe that will point to a possible solution.

Also run a complete chkdsk /r from a windows repair disk while you're at it.

[Ramla]

Searching around it appears this message can come from a whole bunch of things (even a bad keyboard/mouse, assuming the sources are accurate)

So it's best to eliminate grub. Have you confirmed that when you have a Windows bootloader, XP boots fine? And as soon as you install Grub you have this problem?
Obviously at some point XP was booting okay so I suppose you'll have to go through the steps and see what triggered the problem - maybe that will point to a possible solution.

Also run a complete chkdsk /r from a windows repair disk while you're at it.

I do not have a Windows repair disk, and I cannot access the recovery console from my installation media, nor does automated system recovery work because I don't have some required diskette or a diskette drive. All I could do to fix windows' bootability was to select Last Known Good Configuration. I guess something might be up with the installation though, since that doesn't fix the MBR anymore.

However I would say that grub is at least the trigger here, since I could boot into Windows several times straight doing all kinds of driver installations, but only after installing grub back Windows fails to boot.

Maybe later I'll try another XP version, hopefully with a recovery console on the media, and see if anything changes.