stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error} ... "oh, great." (so it began...)

The Session Manager Initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000003a (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system has been shut down."

Here we go...
I'm a newbie to Linux and this is one of those times when I feel like I should just regress and submit to the powers of M$, but I'm stubborn and actually care about civil liberties, invasion of privacy, etc, so I'm in this one to win it.

I have searched through th existing threads on this one as well as having done some poking around on the net for a solution and hereby throw myself upon the mercy of greater minds and experience:

Here's how the boys at M$ describe my problem -- that is, this is almost EXACTLY it:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317189

There are 2 things that don't fit
1) they seem to imply it's only an NT thing -- my system is XP Pro (specs follow)
2) their message is for 0xc0000017 status - mine is 0xc000003a

-BRAND new (if it had ears, it would still be wet behind them - I'm talkin' this-week new)
-IBM Thinkpad T42, Pentium M 1.7 GHZ, 60GB, 7200 RPM HDD, 1GB PC2700 DDR SDRAM, Intel Pro Wireless 2200 integrated wireless B/G

It's been partitioned successfully using Partition Magic and all was well with XP... then I installed Ubuntu (www.ubuntulinux.com - latest stable of Warty Warthog): my Linux distro of choice. The concept all along was to buy this machine with the express intent of running Windows parallel with Linux. No I'm starting to feel like it might be cheaper to pay programmers to write scripts for every non compatible peripheral that sparked this fine mess...

Now, I have a machine that loads to the GRUB boot loader beautifully, gives me 5 options (1 Ubuntu and one Windows safe, 1 Ubuntu and one Windows normal, and memory test, although the windows options both appear to be the same since neither says "safe", I imagine one is supposed to be safe... either way, neither works. ) The Ubuntu system works perfectly (of course, it WOULD be Windows with issues... ug.)

Regarding a post I read in the threads of similar topic, if the solution is to take the CDs tht came with it and do a "fixboot" or a "non-destructive reinstall", please provide some detail as I have no idea what the implications are / what I should expect during the process...

Thank you in advance for your time!
-

 

You could try this, it may work.


Make yourself an Ubuntu boot disk and have a WIN98SE boot disk handy.

Boot off the Win disk and at the A: type FDISK/MBR, reboot, (minus floppy), that should clear Grub and hopefully get you into Windows. Sort whats needed.

You should then be able to boot off your Ubuntu floppy, get into your system and set Grub up again, editing as you need.

My particular setup is

1. XP Pro (Default)
2. Fedora Core 3 64


It may not work but it might be worth a try.

BTW Welcome to MG and the source MA gave is an excellent one

 

Thanks, all! I will check out http://www.linuxcompatible.org/ (tried the .com, looks like no dice... The operation you describe (MG) sounds a bit painful, so I'll try there and resort to your solution if I can't find something less... intimidating When you say Ubuntu boot, do you mean live CD? or is there a boot CD I should be making that is neither the liveCD nor the install CD...?
Thanks again for all your help!
Cheers,

 

When in Ubuntu you will have the option somewhere to make a Boot floppy, the reason for doing this is so that you can get into Ubuntu after the first step as you will lose your Linux bootloader, (Grub).

Not intimidating, honest, the whole process shouldn't take more than 30 minutes tops.

 

Here’s the problem:

Install Fedora on the same drive as Windows XP. You have no XP disks to do a recovery because . Fedora has a bug that installs itself on the MBR meaning your NTFS system is inoperable. So, now you cannot boot to the XP partition. Well, after you bang your head against the wall because you didn't just read installing Fedora for 2 hours but should have looked it up to see what other difficulties others were having, I’ve got the fix for it Even after you get the blue screen of “pain in the ass” and message:

[STOP c000021a{Fatal System Error} … 0xC000003a the system has been shut down]

So, here’s what I did that worked. I actually did quite a bit which had no effect but that’s neither here nor 3 hours in the past. On a file sharer such as Emule download “Ultimate Boot Disk Ghost” about 16.5 mb iso file. Obviously use the Linux OS or a secondary cpu. Boot from the CD (make sure under BIOS your priority for booting disk is before HD) then run to the C prompt. Enter “ fdisk /mbr” (NOTE- other options are “fixboot” or “bootcfg/rebuild”. Both SHOULD work but fixboot will rewrite the whole boot record not just MBR thus I think “ fdisk/mbr” is best) This will fix the MBR which Fedora writes over. Now, your Linux is inaccessible. So, you have to reboot again to the disk and go down to Partition Magic. Under partition magic you will find the NTFS file system is hidden and the Linux is Active (eg. 1st Boot). So, change the NTFS system that’s hidden which SHOULD be the original partition where your Windows XP is stored. Reboot and you will come back to the Windows OS. Linux is still installed but inactive. To make it active use THIS guide and NOT the one on the Fedora CD. The bug lies in GRUB which typically either writes over the MBR making windows inaccessible or it ends on a partition that is too far (+8.5 GB) for your BIOS to read because it doesn’t use LBA. Thanks to ED for the guide for setting up Linux/Windows correctly.
Guide: http://grayareas.net/other/Knoppix/DualBoot Linux and Windows 2000Windows XP with GRUB HOWTO.htm

 

Did you notice that this thread is 6 months old.

That's not a bug, all Modern Operating Systems will rewrite the MBR of the disk drive, unless you tell it not to.

 

In all actuality I did notice but on another site for linux there was the same problem as recent as 2 weeks ago. So, I figured anyone having this problem would find this on a search.
It is a problem with the GRUB installer that Anaconda hides the NTFS file system. Thats' not my determination but what I found suggests that it is something that should have but wasn't fixed in FC3.

 

Anaconda doesn't hide the NTFS file system. It just isn't very good at configuring GRUB to work with 2000/XP. There are a plethora of threads and web sites that discuss dual boot configurations of Linux & 2000/XP. I have a few posts on that very subject in this forum.

 

Well, I am new at Linux and any posts you think might help i'd appreciate. Thus far I've only found this guide: http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/index.html
which hasn't resolved the issue of how to get a multiple boot without having to shrink the first partition currently being taken up by my recovery XP install. Thanks

 

I should add that it is Parted that hides the NTFS partition; Anaconda is the RedHat/Fedora installer. You don't need to download anything special if you have your 2000/XP boot disks/CD and a copy of Knoppix. QtParted is very good a manipulating NTFS partitions.

Your link to the HowTo doesn't work, I would like to read that article.

 

If you only have one drive, then you have to shrink your Windows partition to make room for Linux. A 10-15Gb partition should be sufficient enough space for Linux. It is always best to setup dual boots systems by placing each OS on separate hard drives.

Dual Boot WIN 2000/XP & Linux
​

1. Use fdisk to partition your drive properly. If you already have Windows installed use QTParted from the Knoppix Live CD to reduce the size of your Windows partition and create an ext2 partition in the now unused drive space.

2. Install Windows 2000/XP on the first partition.

3. Start your Linux Installation and install the /root directory into the second partition. Install GRUB/LILO into the first sector of your boot partition (usually /boot) and NOT in the MBR.

4. Reboot into Windows 2000/XP.

5. Download & install Bootpart.

NOTE: Install Boot part to C:\BootPart

When you run it, you get a report like this:

Physical number of disk 0: ffff6a32
0 : C:* type=42 , size=22659651 KB, Lba Pos=63
1 : C: type=42 , size=17358232 KB, Lba Pos=45319365
Physical number of Disk 1 : ca1dca1d
2 : D: type=83 <Linux native>, size=6184993 KB, Lba Pos=63
3 : D: type=82 <Linux swap>, size=522112 KB, LBA Pos=12370050
4 : D: type=83 <Linux Native>, Size=1542240 KB, LBA Pos=13414275
​

6. Since Lilo/Grub was installed in the first Linux partition, the command for modifying BOOT.INI in this example is: C:\BootPart\bootpart 2 bootlinx.bin Fedora Core

NOTE: Replace Fedora Core if you use a different Linux Distro like Mandrake, Suse, Gentoo, Debian.

Your boot.ini should be similar to this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\BootPart\bootlinx.bin="Fedora Core"​