My Dual Boot Does Not Work To WinXP From Grub Menu, Help?

[cliff-bjazz]

Hi,
I have posted here before and you guys really helped fix my issue.
I have a new problem which is a bit tricky, or at least for me.

Firstly, I installed Lubuntu along side my Windows XP installation using the option to dual boot. When Lubuntu had installed I never tested the dual boot function to see if it worked with launching Windows XP, I just assumed it was fine.
I since went on to upgrade Lubuntu to Ubuntu Full version 20.04, this allowed me to overwrite the previous version whilst still maintaining the option to dual boot to Windows.
A few days ago I tried to test the dual boot, but it didn't work, it just produced a flashing cursor to the top left of the screen and hung there.
I was advised through research to install 'Boot Repair' from within the Ubuntu Terminal. I did this successfully and clicked the 'recommended repair' option. After rebooting I went straight to the Windows OS in the menu to try and boot that, but unfortunately the problem is still there and I cannot boot Windows from the Grub menu.
I was given a URL after the Boot Repair program had finished and I was advised to share it here in the event of an ongoing problem for anyone who may be able to understand what might be wrong.
Here it is:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/675xWKpbPc/

I hope this makes sense to you because I have no idea what to do for the best.
Thanks for reading,
cliff.

[yancek]

Your boot repair output shows only a fraction of what is normally available and does not include some important information so I would suggest you run it again and post the new link here.

[cliff-bjazz]

ok yancek I will give it a go, thank you for responding.

[cliff-bjazz]

Hello Yancek,

I did as you suggested and I re-ran Boot Repair. First I ran it and then uploaded the boot report after the initial scan, without completing the repair process, This is the result of that scan:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/7Q4kZxdKmd/

Then I ran Boot Repair again and allowed it to complete the repair process after the initial scan, this is the result of that process:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/kG2ccgDWW6/

But nonetheless, I rebooted after the repair process and my PC still hung with the blinking cursor in the top left corner of my screen after the flash screen etc.
I don't know if I should have left it blinking for a long time or not, but I was aware that my CPU was not turning over at all during the 'blinking cursor' activity, which could suggest that it had gone dead, I'm just guessing.
I hope that these reports have offered more information than the first one did. I have no way of interpreting them because my knowledge does not extend.
I hope you can help.

Thank you,
cliff.

[yancek]

Clarify please that you CAN successfully boot the installed Ubuntu, correct?
When you select the windows option from the Grub menu, you get a blinking cursor and it fails to boot, correct?

On line 195 of the second boot repair you posted you will see this:

# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation

That means Ubuntu at some point was installed UEFI which you should not do if you want to use an old OS like XP. The boot repair output shows that the system is booted in Legacy mode which it would need to be.

Line 38 as well as line 93 show that XP was detected. The boot repair is still incomplete as it should show the contents of the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and an entry for XP. Some other information generally seen is also missing. Can you go to the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and look for an entry for windows xp and if it there, post just that entry.

[oldfred]

What video card are you using.
Some that are over 10 years old are not supported or well supported.

[tea for one]

Line 92 of https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/kG2ccgDWW6/ shows that the report was created in an installed system.

Is it not more usual to run the boot-repair utility in a live session?

[oldfred]

I run it on my working system, just to document system & copy report into /home so it becomes part of backup.
I think I have seen once or twice where it has some issue with updates on a working system, but should normally work.

[tea for one]

@oldfred

I'm sure that some of the actual repair processes of boot-repair will only work if the utility is run in a live session.
I can't identify exactly which options but, in the dim and distant past, I saw a warning Unable to proceed followed by This should be run in a live environment - or words to that effect.

Apologies, a bit off topic

[cliff-bjazz]

Thank you Yancek, Tea for one, and oldfred.

I looked at your advice and the first thing I did was to run Ubuntu in live mode from the original usb stick with the installation media on. The option to 'try Ubuntu'.
From there I connected an Ethernet cable and managed to download and run Boot Repair. This method did not work either and the result was the same when I tried to boot WinXP. here is the result of the repair process:

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/NkYvNsfGFb/

In regards to your request Yancek,
I found the Grub.cfg file and I found an entry within it for Windows XP. I will try to replicate the entry below:


318 ### Begin /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
319 menuentry 'Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/
sda1)' m--class windows --class os
$menuentry_id_option 'osprober-
chain-1448A9AE48A98ED4' {
320 insmod part_msdos
321 insmod ntfs
322 set root='hd0,msdos1'
323 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ];
then.........etc

The following on code seems to concern ms dos, although I have no real way to be sure. I hope that what is pertinent is shown here, if not then I could always try to find and add more code.
I also apologise if there is a better way to add code information to forum posts, I could not get the .cfg file to open in Windows 7 notepad, it just changed to mush.

Thank you for all your help,

cliff.