Can't get Gentoo 2005.1-r1 to boot... help please
 

I have two hard drives, both IDE. Windows and FC4 on the first HD and Gentoo on the second. I am pretty sure all of the files for Gentoo are where they are supposed to be. The Gentoo install is all on one partition by the way, I didn't separate /boot, well I did separate it initially, but I copied everything in the boot partition to the /boot directory in my Gentoo partition. (I'll explain better in a second. I'm having trouble getting grub to boot up Gentoo though. I'm pretty sure I have it all right, but I've gotten an assortment of errors. I used the grub configuration utility to verify my partitions. I want to use my Grub on my first harddrive to boot everything.

From Linux my partitions are like this.
/dev/hd1 = Windows
/dev/hd2 = FC4
/dev/hd3 = Swap for FC4

/dev/hdb1 = boot partition (not used)
/dev/hdb2 = Gentoo including /boot
/dev/hdb3 = Swap for Gentoo

here is my grub.conf from hda
#####################################################################
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Gentoo
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.14-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hdb2 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.14-gentoo-r2
title Windows XP Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
#####################################################################

If someone could help me out I would really appreciate it. I am doing the Gentoo for a learning experience, but I've tried everything I know. Thanks.

you shouldn't need to map the drives over like you have, and i would also start by making the boot line a lot simpler. why aren't you just using "root=/dev/hdb2"? what's the ramdisk for? i can't think of a reason you'd need to do so. you've not actaully said what's happening or not during the boot though...

Changed Grub, still wont boot.
 

I changed grub.conf to this.
###################################################################
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Gentoo
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.14-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/hdb2
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.14-gentoo-r2
title Windows XP Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
###################################################################

I get an error at boot that says:

Booting 'Gentoo'
root (hd1,1)
Error 22: No such partition
Press any key to continue

not nice.... maybe you had problems writing your partition table during the install? does an dsfik -l under fedora show them? can you mount the gentoo partitions under fedora?

not nice.... maybe you had problems writing your partition table during the install? does an dsfik -l under fedora show them? can you mount the gentoo partitions under fedora?

Yeah I can mount them
 

Yes I can mount them. I've mounted them and checked fstab and a I wrote the grub.conf and did the cmd grub> for the drive (installed grub to the mbr) and unplugged hda (my ntfs and fedora disk) and just tried booting it. And had no success.

Take the "root(hd1,1)" line out of the Gentoo stanza.
Add (hd1,1) to both the kernel and initrd (no spaces - it's part of the path).

See how that goes.

Got it up and going.
 

Thanks for the help guys. I got it up and going on another machine. I think it just didn't like tripple booting with xp, and fc4. But anyway... now I can't get x up and going. I've emerged x11 and let it install. But I get an error that says: Please specify busID's for all framebuffer devices. And I also noticed that there is no xorg.conf. there is an xorg.conf.example though. Should I just edit that to fit my needs and save it as xorg.conf? Also which Graphical Login do you suggest? I tried entrance, but it seems pretty buggy. So I was thinkin GDM. Anyway, thanks for the help guys.

At the end of the handbook there is (or was) a section "what next ??". Points you to the desktop docs.
Go read 'em.

hmhm
 

yeah nice.. best