Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone,

I need some help with my T60 and its boot manager.

I'm running dual-boot configuration (WinXP and ubuntu 8.04) with Windows boot loader installed on MBR and grub installed on linux partition. Recovery partition and ThinkVantage button work as expected.

Now, what I want to do is to run VMWare server under ubuntu and grant VM access to physical hard drive so I can have windows accessing it's own partition. However, if I try to do this, I get
"To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11" message when VM boots. My guess is that thinkpad has some code running prior to boot loader. Does anyone know how to get around this issue?

Thanks,
Alex

no suggestions at all?

Hey Alex,

I've been using VMWare with my T60p with much success. I'm using it from WITHIN Vista, though. VMWare is for running another OS in a virtual machine from within an existing OS environment, so there is no need to mess with the bootloader, or am I missing something here??

Also, make sure to enable Virtulization in the BIOS! It makes a big difference! Hope this helps!

sluramod wrote:Now, what I want to do is to run VMWare server under ubuntu and grant VM access to physical hard drive so I can have windows accessing it's own partition. However, if I try to do this, I get
"To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11" message when VM boots. My guess is that thinkpad has some code running prior to boot loader. Does anyone know how to get around this issue?

From what I understand, you are attempting to let Windows boot from the physical partition both on its own and under VMware. (If you're just trying to give a separate installation access to a FAT drive, please disregard the rest of the post.) This is a neat idea, however, there is a fundamental problem:

VMware emulates a pre-defined standard set of hardware - the CPU speed and amount of RAM can change, but all VMs see the same hard drive controller, graphics chip, etc. These are pretty low-spec devices to lower the overhead. What you are essentially trying to do is to boot a computer on a different computer - Windows doesn't like switching between two computer profiles very much (to the point of, I believe, newer versions requiring re-activation when it detects a new "motherboard"). The Rescue and Recovery utility is likely getting confused as well when it sees someone is trying to start it - effectively - on a non-Thinkpad computer.

I do not know how to get around the R&R issue - but be warned that even if you do, Windows will give you more issues.

I m here for the exact same problem

VMWare 1.0.9 on Ubuntu,
When i m adding the HDD i choose : "use a physical disk"
Then i tried with /dev/sda (the whole disk) and /dev/sda1 (only the windows partition) but i get STUCK at :
"To boot to the rescue and recovery environment, press F11"
and i can't pass this step that will take me to the Windows menu !!

Is anyone have an answer to that ?

The first partition is a hidden EISA partition that contains recovery software. The partition is accessible as FAT if you point at it explicitly.

If you want the first user partitition you probably want /dev/sda2 but I would load fdisk and look at the partition table just to be sure

VMware is best used on one physical drive. It's VM's are just disk files after all. You can convert a VM to physical and physical to VM but I don't think that is what you are trying to do.

Partitions do not allow you to run two systems at the same time, and I don't think VMware lets you circumvent that. ... JDH

It seems that specifying the raw partition option should work (as the docs state this use for physical dual boot situations) and as Ursus mentioned, I would verify the partitions and look at sda2.

Back in the "real" windows it's probably best to create a new hardware profile for use with the VM.

thanks for the answers,

But i already check the partitions and /dev/sda1 is the one with windows

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xed1f86f7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13836 111131968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13836 14593 6085800 12 Compaq diagnostics
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 14594 14606 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 14607 19457 38965657+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 14607 19214 37013728+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 19215 19457 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Does someone know how to pass/skip the F11 option ?

if i do
fdisk /mbr to erase the MBR, will this option be erased or not ? (F11 to rescue and recovery environement)

I cannot answer your question factually because I do not know. However, I would never do fdisk /mbr unless I was wiping everything out (including the recovery partition) in order to start fresh and begin by restoring the recovery partition. ... JDH