LinuxQuestions.org - FC2 post-install hangs on dual boot system

FC2 post-install hangs on dual boot system
(sorry for the long entry but I try to explain as much as possible).

Problem:
========
Setup Agent stalls and will not finish dual boot installation after reboot.

Scenario:
=========
Trying to dual boot Windows XP Pro and Fedora Core 2 on a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2 PC with
- Intel motherboard, Pentium 4, 875 chip set,
- two SATA drives, one CD-ROM, one DVD drive,
- Video card: ATI Radeon 9800 XT.
- Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 193P LCD.
- WinXP Pro came pre-installed on first SATA drive.

BIOS drive info:
================
SATA RAID -- On (although I do not use RAID)
Primary Master Drive -- Off
Primary Slave Drive -- Off
Secondary Master Drive -- CD-ROM device (my CD drive)
Secondary Master Drive -- CD-ROM device (my DVD drive)
IDE Drive UDMA -- On

* Repartitioned system with PartitionMagic.
* Using WinXP Pro on first SATA drive (/dev/sda):
- Primary partition Drive C (active) as /dev/sda2 (/dev/sda1 is used by
Dell utility).
- Extended partition with logical drives D,E,F,G,H, as /dev/sda5,6,7,8,9).
* Using Linux on 2nd SATA drive (/dev/sdb):
- Extended partition with logicals /boot, /, /usr, /home, /tmp, /var, swap
as /dev/sdb5,7,8,9,10,11,12 (/dev/sdb6 is used for a logical drive I under
Windows). (see fdisk and df output below).

FIRST QUESTION:
I assume that I can install Linux on a logical drive (doesn't have to be a
primary and active). Correct?

Here is the installation sequence:
* Boot from FC2 CD.
* Use manual partition option in Disk Druid
- did partition before w/ PartitionMagic, only do the mounting in Disk
Druid.
* Boot loader options:
- selected "Configure advanced boot loader options"
- selected "/dev/sdb5 First sector of boot partition"
i.e. installing GRUB on /boot partition on 2nd drive (/dev/sdb5), *not* on
MBR (/dev/sda) because of known problem of installer messing with MBR and need Windows for family. (see grub.conf info below).
* Installation proceeds with no problem.
* After installation finishes the system is rebooting.

Here is catch 22:
Since I put GRUB only on the /boot partition, *not* on the MBR the system
cannot boot Linux directly.

* Ok, I boot linux from FC2 installation CD (command "linux rescue").
* After I get to the bash shell, I make the system the root environment
with command "chroot /mnt/sysimage".
* I mount the floppy and copy the first 512 bytes from the /boot sector.
/bin/dd if=/dev/sdb5 of=/mnt/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

* Boot into WinXP Pro.
* Copy bootsect.lnx from floppy to C:\.
* Modify Boot.ini and add "C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux Fedora Core 2".

* Reboot and select "Linux Fedora Core 2" from Windows boot loader menu.
* GRUB boot loader comes up with three entries
- Fedora Core 2 (2.6.5-1.358smp)
- Fedora Core 2-up (2.6.5-1.358)
- Windows XP Pro

SECOND QUESTION:
Why is GRUB giving me two linux kernel options to boot from and which one
should I use?????

* If I select "Fedora Core 2 (2.6.5-1.358smp)" I get error (like observed in
other posts on the web)
"ACPI: PAE and S3 don't like each other, disabling S3", booting proceeds
with no further problems,
last OK message is "mounting local filesystem" and then the system hangs.
* If I select "Fedora Core 2-up (2.6.5-1.358)" the booting seems to run
through its motions with issues as above,
last OK message is "mounting local filesystem". Then the Setup Agent
starts in graphical mode (the nice looking
PC graphics is displayed). At this point, nothing happens anymore, the
"Show details" link doesn't show anything, the rotating graphics (indicating actions) keeps rotating but the system just sits there and does nothing.

THIRD QUESTION:
What am I doing wrong?

What I did so far:
- Reinstalled, same problem.
- Changed from S3 to S1 suspend mode in BIOS, same problem
and same message despite having S1 now:
"ACPI: PAE and S3 don't like each other, disabling S3".
- Disabled SATA RAID in BIOS, enabled SATA for both hard drives,
SATA RAID -- Off
SATA Primary Drive -- Hard drive
SATA Secondary Drive -- Hard drive
Primary Master Drive -- Off
Primary Slave Drive -- Off
Secondary Master Drive -- CD-ROM device (my CD drive)
Secondary Master Drive -- CD-ROM device (my DVD drive)
IDE Drive UDMA -- On
Did *not* do reinstall but tried to do FIRST boot, same problem.

Here is the device.map info
---------------------------
# this device map was generated by anaconda
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

Here is the grub.conf info
--------------------------

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,4)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sdb7
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sdb5
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 xxxxxxxxx
title Fedora Core 2 (2.6.5-1.358smp)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358smp.img
title Fedora Core 2-up (2.6.5-1.358)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title Windows XP Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

Here is the disk partition info via "fdisk -l"
----------------------------------------------

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 6 2555 20482875 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 2556 14589 96663105 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2556 7017 35840983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7018 9567 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 9568 13392 30724281 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 13393 14030 5124703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9 14031 14589 4490136 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2 14589 117178110 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 * 2 17 128488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 18 12129 97289608+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 12130 12639 4096543+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 12640 13914 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/sdb9 13915 14169 2048256 83 Linux
/dev/sdb10 14170 14186 136521 83 Linux
/dev/sdb11 14187 14314 1028128+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb12 14315 14576 2104483+ 82 Linux swap

Here is the "df -a" info:
--------------------------

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb7 4032092 248260 3579008 7% /
/dev/sdb5 124427 7828 110175 7% /boot
none 0 0 0 - /dev/pts
none 4032092 248260 3579008 7% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb9 2016016 32828 1880776 2% /home
none 0 0 0 - /proc
none 0 0 0 - /sys
/dev/sdb10 132206 4129 121251 4% /tmp
/dev/sdb8 10080488 2822648 6745772 30% /usr
/dev/sdb11 1011928 68840 891684 8% /var
/dev/fd0 1424 5 1419 1% /mnt

Thanks in advance for any help
Rainer.

P.S.
Dual booting Windows 98 SE and Fedora Core 2 on older PC on one IDE drive and using GRUB on MBR works fine.