dell XPS L502X will not boot
 

My linux system will not boot

I have a dell XPS L502X that came with windows 7 installed.
It worked fine with windows.

I then installed, via a DVD, fedora 16

I let the install procedure use the default partition layout.

The installation process showed no problems.
Other than selecting optional packages, I used defaults about what to do.

But when I try to boot it just says

Operation System not found

Any ideas?

Marty

Hard to say without info. Do you have a (Linux) liveCD ?. If not go get one - the F16 DVD won't do IIRC.
Go here, do as it says, and post the RESULTS.txt.

After much struggle I got a USB Live to boot on the new laptop.
I followed your instructions about getting RESULTS.txt

I have attached it.

Thanks,

Marty

Erk.
I forgot that script doesn't deal (fully) with F16 - F16 installs the bootloader into /boot/grub2/ rather than /boot/grub/ as the script expects. I patched it, so I don't notice it when I run it. I raised a bug report, and a new version is available, but not via the standard download.
Sorry about that. However we still get a reasonable amount of useful info out of it.

Now for the real bad news.
I was surprised you have a gpt disk. So I went and had a look around the net. Seems you must have selected (or defaulted) to use the entire disk (as a new install). This means no Win7. I hope that is what you intended.
F16 has had heaps of problems on install, but most of them seem to be on upgrades. I haven't seen this configuration, so I can't help. Must go find an unused disk and see what happens.
In your case, I'd go restore Win7 (presuming you actually want to use it), and maybe use F15 rather than F16. Or choose another distro that isn't quite so close to the bleeding edge as Fedora.

Found a spare (never used) 500 Gig E-IDE drive. Hmmmm - wonder when I bought that .... ?
Set up a couple of dummy NTFS partitions, and installed off the liveCD - I don't happen to have a DVD for 32 bit hardware, which is what I had to test on.
Default installed along-side the NTFS (left them alone), and booted fine.

Did another install and specified "use entire disk" - it created a disk just like yours; gpt with LVM. Makes me think you must have asked to erase Win7. When I came back to it it was hung, but a reboot got everything going.
No idea why yours doesn't boot - the bootinfoscript data we have looks o.k. I have seen instances where the BIOS demands a boot flag else it chucks that message. Simple enough to fix from that liveUSB if you want to do that.

Yes I did mean to erase Win 7.
I have an older dell XPS on which I did the same thing when I bought it.
It is currently using fedora 14.
I have been using fedora for several years and have been happy with it.
I upgrade once a year.
My goal for this year is that by New Years I can use my new laptop as my primary and my old for testing when I need two network connected nodes.
I had a really old workstation that died and is not worth fixing.
I was using it as my backup.

Two questions

1) You mentioned that the scripts to look for boot info was not set up for grub2 but a new one is. Could you please reply and attach the new version or tell me where I can get it?

2) Is it worth it for me to just try installing via liveUSB?
I have nothing to loose except more time.
I saw that there was an option to load live on the hard disk.
If I do this and boot am I in a mode where I can install a new version of fedora 16?

I will be gone until next Monday so I will not respond until then.

I really appreciate your help.


Thanks,

Marty

No, I did not. bootinfoscript handles grub2 just fine. Fedora install to an unexpected location.
To get an updated version of the script, try thisPost the new RESULTS.txt before you try a re-install (if you decide to do that).

Here are the new results

Hi syg00.

Did you look at my last response?

I have looked on the web for help and have not seen anything.

Do you know why the ?? appears in the following from RESULTS.yxt

Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 2048
of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and
looks for ?? on this drive.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: BIOS Boot partition
Boot sector type: Grub2's core.img
Boot sector info:

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: Grub2 (v1.99)
Boot sector info: Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the boot sector of sda2
and looks at sector 26114 of the same hard drive for
core.img. core.img is at this location and looks for
?? on this drive.
Operating System:
Boot files: /grub2/core.img

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: LVM2_member
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:


Marty

No I hadn't.
Do you see the "Loading Grub" message ?.

Just to confirm - you only have one hard disk in that machine ?.
The only thing that jumps out at me from your listing is that you are attempting to boot from the second hard disk.

Had similar issue and fixed with DISKPART

- Boot using the windows install CD
- When loaded hit SHIT + F10
- In CMD prompt type DISKPART and hit return
- insert code below:

list disk
select disk 0 <<--- assuming this correct number
clean

You will need to re-install Fedora afterwards, but should work from there

Thanks for the info.
I did not order a windows install disk when I ordered my laptop.
I got in contact with dell and after being transferred three times I found someone that helped.
Dell is sending me, without charge!!, the install disk.

When I get it I will follow your advice and report what happens.

By the way I did find a thread on the dell site devoted to linux.
Someone reported the same problem about booting.
It was a different version of linux and a different model of XPS but same problem.
The thread did NOT provide a solution.

Marty

Good luck

Just FYI, I used a MSDN Windows 7 .iso not one which came with the laptop - any install DVD would work

I got the windows 7 install disk.
I did the DISKPART as a previous message suggested.
It did NOT fix the problem.

However I did find a work-around.

I manually created disk partitions that are like what the fedora installer creates if you tell it to use all space
EXCEPT for the /boot partition.
I put the /boot partition on a USB flash disk.

Fedora 16 now works on my new laptop.

Since I only need the usb disk to boot this is not perfect but acceptable.

Marty

Hello,

I had the same issue on fresh install of Fedora 16 64bits on a same machine: Dell XPS 15 l502x with a 750GB HD.

I solved it only changing the boot order in BIOS, seting the HD to first. :)