Multiboot (windows XP-Fedora Core3) - GRUB Problems

[Francisco Mancardi_2]

hi:
I have an IBM laptop R50e.
Initially the disk partioning was:
NTFS (14GB)
IBM RESCUE (FAT32 4GB) hidden
FEDORA+SWAP (17GB)

Multiboot using NTLDR worked FINE, till today ...

Using a Rescue disk with Qparted I convert
the FAT32 to NTFS, and formated it.

Now Windows Boot OK, but when asking to boot
fedora I get the GRUB prompt.

Booting Fedora Install in Rescue Mode
sees with not problems the EXT3 partition.

The same if on Windows XP I use explorefs.
This means the Fedora partition is OK.

If I try with GRUB

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-(myversion) root=/dev/hda2

I got
Error 17 Cannot Mount selected partition

Any Hint ?
(I really want to use Fedora)

[Alexander Rajula]

I think the problem is that Grub is trying to boot the kernel from the wrong partition.
Please run fdisk or cfdisk and post the output here.
You can edit the lines that Grub reades when booting by selecting Fedora in the list and then pressing "e" for Edit. The topmost line will probably say something like root(hd0,0), which means that Grub is trying to load the kernel from the first hdd in order (0) and the first partition on that drive (0).

I hope I could help you.

[Francisco Mancardi_2]

I've found some info on forums.gentoo.org

Now I got Fedora booting but ... No windows XP.

I've done this:

1. start Fedora CD - linux rescue
2. edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
changed hd0,2 -> hd0,1
3. launch grub
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> reboot

Now at boot the system give me no options
and boots Fedora.

I would like:
1. use NTLDR as boot loader
OR
2. launch windows XP with GRUB

Any Hint ?

[Ivan Ferreira]

Please post the results of fdisk -l when booting with the rescue cd, only the partitions names and types are needed.

Also, post the contents of the /etc/grub.conf.

To re-install grub, after you started in recovery mode, use chroot /mnt/sysimage and run grub-install /dev/

And it's likely that your root partition will be root=/dev/hda3.

[Francisco Mancardi_2]

Hi:
I've changed /boot/grub/grub.conf
timeout=15
#hidemenu

Now at boot if I use the TAB key, I see the menu asking what I want to boot.
If I choose xp everything goes OK.

That means I have solve my problem, but
I would be happy to understand why
now GRUB starts instead of NTLDR.

May be it's due the setup(hd0) I have done ?

Excuse me because I've not read the grub manual.

Regards

Francisco

[Andrew Bruce]

First of all, Read The Manual! ;-)

Having said that:

Your HD has a small amount of space at the start which is allocated for your boot loader. It's only big enough for one, so you can either have the NTLOADER *or* GRUB.

When you executed

grub> setup (hd0)

You installed the grub boot loader on the Master Boot Record (MBR) of your HD.

This will have overwritten your NTLOADER (not a big deal).

This means that now you will always have GRUB as your bootloader, until such time as you reset the MBR from windows (fdisk /r if I remember correctly).

There's a pretty good how-to on this subject (actually, there are lots of How-Tos on this subject, but this one looks fairly straight forward) you can find at: http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

Good luck, and welcome to Fedora (it's what I use! :-)

Regards,

Andy Bruce

[Francisco Mancardi_2]

Andy:
Thanks for the explanation.
what until know nodoby has explained
(and I would like to understand) it's
why things changed for GRUB, when I
make the IBM recover partition visible.

FYI: before this moment my laptop was
multibooting (using NTLDR) on XP (obviusly
I dont like it) and Fedora Core 3.

My GRUB / LILO experience is not a must,
but I'm a Unix (Solaris/HPUX/AIX) and
Linux (RH 6.x, RH7.2, RH 9) user for more
than 8 years.
Unix it's the only real OS.

Now I'm happy filling this form using Firefox
from fedora on my Laptop. :)

Regards

Francisco

[Andrew Bruce · Accepted solution]

I'm having trouble understanding exactly what happened.

From the thread I can guess that your HD was originally set up as:

hd0,0 Windows NTFS
hd0,1 IBM Rescue partition (hidden? What does this mean?)
hd0,2 Linux partition

After you used QTparted, did you repartition so that the disk layout became:

hd0,0 Windows NTFS
hd0,1 Linux partition
hd0,2 IBM Rescue partition

That would explain why the grub config needed to be changed. As far as grub could see, your Linux partition *was* the third partition on the disk (2), then, *after* the repartitioning, etc. the Linux partition was the *second* partition on the disk (1).

To really understand what happened, you'd need to be very certain of how the partitions were laid out originally.

QTParted may have shuffled them around.

I assume that now, fdisk -l shows the second scenario?

Regards,

Andy Bruce

ps Not giving any points today? :-(