I installed GRUB on root partition. Anyway to access fedora?

L_Masoumi · 03-14-2008, 06:45 AM

Hi, could anyone help in this,

While I was installing fedora when it ask where to install the GRUB I chose root partition instead of MBR. And now I

don't have access to GRUB!! Is there any way for me to get use of the loader I installed (GRUB)? Please let me know

if I can boot my fedora somehow? (I don't want to reinstall the fedora if I can find other way to get this done!).

I'm also interested to know why fedora setup has that option(choosing between MBR and root partition), when in fact

the system is not able to find GRUB in root partition?!! what's the use of it then?

I have XP pro - ver. 2002 - SP2 while I installed fedora. I don't know how to access my fedora now. Is there anyway I

can ask MBR to do chainloading (I'm not sure if I'm saying it right!)and so find the GRUB or my fedora or... from XP?

I'm a newbie in linux enviroment! I know I can just reinstall fedora and choose to install GRUB in MBR and that will

solve all my problem, but I want to learn more about these stuff, so if there is a way to get it done by some

commands or changing some configurations, thats what I appreciate to know.

Thanks in advance,

acid_kewpie · 03-14-2008, 07:03 AM

put in the fedora cd, and boot to rescue mode, scan for existing installation and boot. once in at a prompt run

Code:

# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# grub-install <device> (e.g. /dev/hda)

and you're done. you can install in whatever partition you want as you may have another bootloader in the MBR which can be chained on from, e.g. vista boot loader. i hink it's possible to chain load on the xp too, but generally it's always so much nicer to chain from grub to xp than any other layout.

pixellany · 03-14-2008, 07:19 AM

The link below on booting might help....

Short answer: The BIOS transfers control to the MBR on whatever devices are specified in the BIOS setup. As the previous post says, you can then "chain-load" from there. One of our local experts (Saikee) recommends setting up systems this way---especially when you want to have many OSes installed.

The easiest way to set up dual-boot is to simply allow the Linux installer to put GRUB in the MBR.

L_Masoumi · 03-15-2008, 05:25 AM

Thank you "acid_kewpie", I did as you said and its perfectly working now!

Thanks to "pixellany" also, those links helped a lot. Booting and GRUB gave me a better understanding about this issue.

Cheers!