Can boot OSX or Win7 from Plop floppy but not from Plop on hard disk

[Blix3]

I'm trying to use Plop as my dual boot manager for OS X and Windows 7, because there's a conflict between Chameleon (the OS X boot manager, which can't find Windows) and the Windows boot manager (which can't find OS X).

Other boot managers had the same problem, finding one OS but not the other. Then I tried Plop on a floppy, and it found and booted both OS X and Windows! But the hard disk version of Plop is unable to find or boot either OS.

Unlike the floppy, which lists HDA1-4 as options on the menu, the only HD option Plop offers is HDA1 which is neither OS X nor Windows 7). In reading the online documentation, I gather that if the other HDA partitions aren't offered, then Plop doesn't see them. Why would the floppy version be able to find and offer all 4 partitions and the hard disk version not be able to?

I tried the "q" command to bring up all the disks and partitions, but the ones that boot from the Plop floppy (HDA2 for OS X and HDA3 for Windows) don't boot from Plop from the hard disk.

I've spent hours trying to setup Plop to find and boot OS X and Windows, but I just get error messages or blank screens. I'm probably not understanding something very obvious and basic about Plop. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

[jan4]

Hello Blix3,

Verry strange, is it the same version?
Did  you go in the "SETUP" ??

Goto Profiles and make a profile OS X or so
Enter on one of the 16 entrys then fill in
EDIT LABEL  "OS X" (or any label you like)
SHOW IN MAIN MENU  "YES"
LINKED PARTITIONS    goto "HDA2" and press "B"
With "Esc" out and save .
OS X chould boot now

Make A profile for "Windows 7" too only difference is the label and  "B" must be on "HDA3"

P.S if you don't setup the Partitions then let them at "DON'T TOUCH" !!

Hope this helps
Regards,
 jan. 

[Blix3]

Jan4,

Thanks for the suggestions. FYI, the version number for both the Plop floppy and hard disk is 5.0.12 (installer 0.10).

Yes, I've spent lots of time in SETUP, but if I can boot from floppy without any setup, just by selecting HDA2 or HDA3, and I can't do that from the installed Plop, doesn't that mean something is different between the two versions, even though they have the same number?

Selecting HDA2 on the floppy boots OS X Snow Leopard successfully, but selecting HDA2 from the Hard disk version gives me a blank screen with a blinking cursor. Selecting HDA3 on the floppy boots Windows 7 successfully, but selecting HDA3 from the hard disk version gets me to the "Starting Windows" screen, which freezes and turns black.

Now back to SETUP. I followed your instructions for making Profiles exactly and got exactly the same results as described above when I selected "OSX" (HDA2 above) or "Windows 7" (HDA3 above) after bringing them up on the screen by pressing "q". Then I booted the floppy and tried HDA2 and HDA3, both of which booted just fine. There's something different about the floppy and hard disk versions. Weird, huh?

[Elmar]

hi,

Then I booted the floppy and tried HDA2 and HDA3, both of which booted just fine. There's something different about the floppy and hard disk versions. Weird, huh?

the floppy and the install version are basically the same. there are only some minor differences.

does the os boot still work when you boot the floppy from the hd installed plop boot manager with the main menu floppy boot option?

what computer model is it?

regards
elmar

[Blix3]

Elmar,

If I don't remove the hard disk installation and try to use the Plop floppy, I can't boot OSX or Windows. So I have been uninstalling Plop and then using the floppy to boot my OS's. (I've been using the Plop "full install," and I'm very grateful it's so easy to uninstall, by the way.)

I made my computer. It has an MSI H55-G43 motherboard with an i3 CPU and 4GB ram. Haven't had any problems with the hardware over the past year or so since I assembled everything. I've run Windows 7, OS X 10.63 to 67 and Ubuntu 10.10, all without incident on separate hard disks. But the dual boot disk is what created my boot problems.

[Elmar]

booting osx or windows from the floppy boot manager does not work as soon as the boot manager is installed to the hard disk?

[Blix3]

That's right. I use option 1, "Full boot manager install." Once that's on the hard disk, I can't boot OSX or Windows from the floppy. As soon as I uninstall, I can boot from the floppy just fine.

I wish there was a way to install the exact version of Plop from the floppy to the hard disk.

[Elmar]

I wish there was a way to install the exact version of Plop from the floppy to the hard disk.

believe me. i am the developer and the only difference between the hard disk version and the floppy version is that the floppy version does not read/write the boot manager configuration from the hard disk. so there must be something else that makes problems.

are you able to boot a linux from usb on this computer?

[Blix3]

Elmar,

Yes, I have Lubuntu 10.10 (a low-overhead version of Ubuntu) that runs just fine from a 4GB USB flash drive.

Oh, one other thing that's odd. When I boot without Plop on a floppy or hard disk, OS X 10.67 boots without a hitch. The Chameleon boot manager doesn't show Windows 7. I thought that I had somehow wiped out the Windows boot data from the hard disk when I installed Chameleon, but then I tried HDA3 on the Plop floppy and Windows 7 booted fine.

[Elmar]

send me 3 files when ubuntu runs
the output of dmesg: dmesg > dmesg.txt
when the plop boot manager is not installed to the hd: dd if=/dev/sda of=hd1.bin count=200
when the plop boot manager is installed to the hd: dd if=/dev/sda of=hd2.bin count=200

3 files: dmesg.txt, hd1.bin, hd2.bin

send me the files with an email. i sent you my email address as private message

[Blix3]

When I try to reply to your email I get an error message "Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: (the address you gave me is here)

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.1.1 <your address here>... User unknown (state 14)."

The message I sent was:

Elmar,

You want dmesg.txt, hd1.bin, hd2.bin

I'm no Linux expert, but if you point me to where these files are, I will
send them to you.

Blix3

[Blix3]

Oops, my error. I mistyped your email address.    I re-sent to the right address.

[Elmar]

Elmar,

You want dmesg.txt, hd1.bin, hd2.bin

I'm no Linux expert, but if you point me to where these files are, I will
send them to you.

open a terminal and run the commands
dmesg > dmesg.txt
dd if=/dev/sda of=hd1.bin count=200

when you get a permission denied, then write a sudo at the beginning
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=hd1.bin count=200

the required files will be created in your user home directory

regards
elmar