Installing RH 7.3 w/existing 7.2/Grub/Multiboot
 

I'm trying to either install or upgrade a RH 7.2/Grub/Multiboot machine with RH 7.3 but when I boot from CD1, it can't see the partitions.

Here is a copy of my partitions:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 1020 8193118+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1021 1085 522112+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 * 1025 2044 8193150 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4 2045 4865 22659682+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2045 4865 22659651 7 HPFS/NTFS

Any thoughts?

It looks OK. Does it see any of your partitions?

If I try to upgrade it says: "You don't have any linux partitions. You can't upgrade this system".

If I try to just do an install and reformat the partitions, I get to the part where it asks me which partition tool to use. I pick "fdisk" and it says: "An error has occurred - no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem". When I go forward from there, it ejects the CD and reboots the machine.

If I leave the CD out and boot up, it goes into GRUB and I can get into Linux from the Grub menu so I know the partitions are working.

IF this is a downloaded ISO set, please get a new CD1 iso downloaded.
Then, please, before burning, make sure the md5sum matches and that you are using 700MB\80Min media.

If that does not work, what file system are you using for your partitions that Linux is on??? Ext2 or Ext3 or ReiserFS????? your /etc/fstab should be able to yield that inof, so if you got to a console and give it:

cat /etc/fstab | lpr

OR give it

cat /etc/mtab | lpr

(or BOTH, they should be close to the same)

and then maybe do the same for

/bin/grub/menu.lst

with a

cat /bin/grub/menu.lst | lpr

(I 'su' first, enter the root password)

You should get a printout for later use that way of what Linux thinks your file systems look like. My kinda different system uses vfat for the type for the FAT32 partitions.

John.

It's ext3.

Here's the output of cat /etc/fstab:

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

Um, as far as devfsd is concerned, you do NOT have a linux partition
there is no line for /dev/hda1. Someone else will need to tell you exactly what SHOULD be there. Also, the floppy line CANNOT get the floppy to run RIGHT with both noauto and auto in it. And the CD will not automount during an upgrade if you have noauto in it.

Mandrake does not use LABEL= lines at all, so cannot help with that.
I am not sure that the /etc/fstab is valid, to be honest, but a RedHat user might eb able to tell you whay such would be valid. My 7.2 install looked nothing at all like this insofar as /etc/fstab output except for the CDROM line, which was running in auto, and ran fine with both 7.2 and 7.3 and Windows 98.

I am gone from this board, the sysop wants a board for his distros only it looks like.

John.

I changed the first line to reference /dev/hda1.
No change.