boot record not found after fresh installation of fedora -- can't fix!

punt · 01-19-2006, 11:23 PM

My old HDD crashed, so I took a brand spanking new drive to install Fedora upon. I burned all 4 ISOs to CD and the installation ran smoothly. When I rebooted, however, my BIOS displayed a funky message:

Searching for Boot Record from IDE-0..Not Found

So, I googled for 9 hours or so and tried everything imaginable to repair:

* I reinstalled (using the CDs once again, and once using a network install)
* I went into linux rescue and performed google-suggested steps that include
1. grub-install /dev/hda
2. grub> root(0,0) / find /boot/grub/stage1 / setup(hd0) (which was successful, by the way, as was the grub-install)
* I edited the grub.conf file manually to match an older grub conf I had used.
* I went back into the linux installation (the GUI) and tried to rewrite my boot loader (I tried both to edit the boot loader and to create a new one with a variety of different options, all of which gave me this error: No kernel packages were installed on your system. Your boot loader configuration will not be changed.)

I did this all to no avail. I'm totally clueless and extremely frustrated here. My Fedora box, prior to the HDD crash, was so nice and friendly, but right now, it's being so mean to me.

Does anyone know what I can do at this point? I am totally out of ideas.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I also want to mention that this harddrive is NOT being dual-booted. The harddrive is dedicated to Linux and according to disk druid, I have no partitions being used for anything else.

Lenard · 01-20-2006, 05:49 AM

From linux rescue with chroot used try something like;

/sbin/grub-install --recheck /dev/hda

If that fails what is the output of;

/sbin/fdisk -l (that's the lowercase letter 'L' not the number one)

cat /etc/grub.conf

punt · 01-20-2006, 08:37 AM

Here's the output:

Code:

# grub-install --recheck /dev/hda
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives.  This may take a long time.
Installation finished.  No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not.  If any of the lines is incorrect, fix it and re-run the script 'grub-install'.

(fd0)   /dev/fd0
(hd0)   /dev/hda

Here's where it's kind of tricky, but I don't really think this poses much of a problem (I have partitioned this way in the past)

Code:

# /sbin/fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = clinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot        Start      End      Blocks      Id   System
/dev/hda1   *         1          25       200781      83   Linux
/dev/hda2             26         2575     20482875    83   Linux
/dev/hda3             2576       3850     10241437+   83   Linux
/dev/hda4             3851       19457    125363227+  5    Extended
/dev/hda5             3851       5125     10241406    83   Linux
/dev/hda6             5126       6400     10241406    83   Linux
/dev/hda7             6401       6531     1052226     82   Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8             6532       19457    103838063+  83   Linux

Code:

# cat /etc/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
# <snip>
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
    root (hd0,0)  
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
    initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img

Hope that helps. I apologize for any typos as I did this all by hand.

Chris Sharman · 01-20-2006, 10:55 AM

I had that problem.
fc4 seems to need symbolic links initrd & vmlinuz - I think it's cp -s you use.
Go to the boot folder, and cp -s vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 vmlinuz
Do the same for initrd, and change grub.conf to use the new links.
That fixed fc4 for me

punt · 01-20-2006, 11:15 AM

I'll try that. I am desperate to get this up and running. I'm out of town until Sunday (thank you, Treo 650, for letting me check this forum and respond) but I'll take any and all suggestions and experiment (hopefully for a shorter period of time this time) when I get back.

Thanks for your help! I'll keep checking this thread and update you with the status. Any suggestions are still welcome and appreciated.

tami

Lenard · 01-20-2006, 09:05 PM

You can also try editing at boot time the kernel line and change the 'root=/LABEL=/' portion to be the actual root partition. Since your grub.conf file has been <snip> I cannot say what that is, but normally it is in the top comments section.

punt · 01-21-2006, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenard

You can also try editing at boot time the kernel line and change the 'root=/LABEL=/' portion to be the actual root partition. Since your grub.conf file has been <snip> I cannot say what that is, but normally it is in the top comments section.

When I say <snip>, I meant that it contains the generic comments that are usually in an anaconda-generated grub.conf and not anything specific to my setup itself. I would have been more thorough in my post but I was running off to catch a train and didn't think those comments were entirely useful. I guess I was wrong. If they are still needed, I will post those comments tomorrow when I have access to my box once again.

Anyway, if you have any other suggestions, please keep them coming as I intend to try everything tomorrow!

Lenard · 01-21-2006, 07:05 PM

Yes they are in fact helpful, you need them I don't really....

From my grub.conf file, for example;

# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5

So, in my case; root=LABEL=/ equates to root=/dev/hda5

punt · 01-22-2006, 04:14 PM

I tried both of the above suggested solutioins to no avail. What do I do next?

btw, the <snipped> code is as follows:

Code:

# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making chages to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition.  This means that all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#        root (hd0,0)
#        kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda6
#        initrd /initrd-version.img

I did replace root=LABEL=/ with root=/dev/hda6 as suggested.

punt · 01-22-2006, 05:05 PM

Okay, I'm thinking this may be related, but I'm not so sure.

I have my grub setup in /boot/grub/

When I go into grub>, I do find /boot/grub/stage1

I'll get Error 15: File not found.

It does work, however, when I do find /grub/stage1 (it returns hd0,0)

I'm not sure if this means anything, but since I really need to get this up and running, I'm going to post any information that may be helpful at this point.

punt · 01-22-2006, 05:54 PM

Two more updates:

I have a feeling this has something to do with FC4. From what I'm reading, this isn't unheard of, and I don't see it happening with FC3. I'm surprised that nobody took note of this and is doing anything to resolve it. I have tried lilo to no avail as well.

I am reformatting my drive -- this time, without a /boot partition (I still will maintain /usr, /, /var/, /home, and a /data partition for personal use). I want to see if the /boot partition has any effect on this (I'm guessing not but since I need fresh ideas, I'm just going to try everything).

I had upgraded grub and glibc (which was required), also without success. I discovered that SELinux had been causing a great deal of problems with regards to using rpms. It's best to disable this.

If this installation fails, I'm going to try to install FC3 and then yum upgrade to FC4. For some reason, I have a feeling that that may be more successful.

punt · 01-22-2006, 10:14 PM

No love on FC3 either.

Lenard · 01-23-2006, 12:06 PM

Been reviewing this thread, The only thing I can thing of that might be an issue is possiblity that your system BIOS may not be set correctly for the new hard drive. You may want to modify the BIOS settings and/or check and see if a BIOS upgrade is available.

punt · 01-23-2006, 12:28 PM

Thanks Lenard, I appreciate it. I'm guessing that's the problem too. I will try to Flash the BIOS but then if that doesn't work, I bought another motherboard to avoid this problem as it's way too time consuming at this point.

punt · 01-23-2006, 04:10 PM

I've gotten further than ever before by flashing my BIOS. I think this will do it!

Edit: This is an ECS K7S5A which was using a 2002 version of the BIOS. The 2003 version of the BIOS seemed to have helped.