Hi,
I tried my first Linux installation on a 4GB computer with Windows already installed. My aim was to have a dualboot computer with Windows using about 2.8GB and Linux getting only about 1.3GB of hard disk space.
This first Linux installation went fine but was not very user-friendly, i.e., no GNOME or KDE environment, only X because I was trying to scrimp on space.

However, I had no idea how to get to Windows after I installed Linux because Windows did not show up on the list when I rebooted the system.

So, I tried to reinstall, again from a CDROM, because I wanted a more user-friendly version and I wanted to see what happened to the Windows.

I deleted all Linux partitions and repartitioned the hard drive at the beginning of this install process using the Automatic partitioning tool. From this, I saw that the Windows partition was still intact so I couldn't figure out why it didn't show up during boot as an option.

Anyways, I continued with the Linux reinstallation. I went through all the configuration processes with the graphical installer without any problems. It actually began to install smoothly enough until it asked for me to insert (CD) disk 2. I inserted the the CD, clicked "OK" and got an error message saying "The CDROM could not be mounted"
I don't understand how the CDROM could not be mounted if it had been reading from the first CD and installing the files. Maybe it's that I don't understand what "mounted" really means.

I'm new at this so the only thing I've tried is taking out the CD and putting it back in before clicking "OK" but I keep getting the same message.
I've also tried doing the entire thing over but I still get the same message.

What should I do?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, which distro are you trying to install?

If you are reading from one CD okay but not from the other, then it's quite likely that you have a duff CD. See if you can read the second CD under Windows (try searching for “restore Windows bootloader” for steps on how to get Windows back).

During the install, you can press Ctrl+Alt+F1 through Ctrl+Alt+F7 to switch between various “virtual consoles”. Normally, F2 gives you a login prompt where you can examine the current state of the computer in detail, F7 is the graphical installer, and F3 logs any error messages.

Take a look and see what messages you are getting. You can also sometimes scroll up and down by holding down the Shift key and pressing PgUp and PgDn.

If you can work out where the CDROM is supposed to be mounted, you might also try switching to the login terminal and typing (replace /media/cdrom with the actual mount location, which could be any combination of /media /mnt /cdrom /cdrecorder etc; see the logs).

Hope that helps,

— Robert J. Lee

Thanks for the reply!

Firstly, it's Red Hat 7.3.

Secondly, I'm going to try out your suggestions and see what they do.

Thirdly, the original RH Linux boot floppy disk that I have now miraculously works and I get up to the point where it asks for the user login (I guess it's in text mode) but it doesn't recognize my login/password.
Would it be easier to try solving that problem than to try reinstalling the entire thing?

If it hasn't got as far as installing all the software from the various disks, then the chances are that you don't have a working system anyway. In which case, I would recommend reinstalling as you'll have a lot of manual installs and probably some configuration issues otherwise.

But if you do want to boot from the disk, try typing ‘s’ at the boot prompt to enter single-user mode. Then use the command to create a new user called “user” and to set the user's password, as well as to set the root (administrator)'s password.

Thanks again for your suggestions!
You were right about system not being installed anyways. So, I just emptied hard drive repartitioned it as a single Windows partition, put on Windows. Then I used PartitionMagic to partition it for Linux and then reinstalled Linux.

BUT now while Linux works fine I cannot get into Windows at boot time. The boot loader I'm using is GRUB and the only thing that shows at boot on the list of OS is Linux.

I was wondering if it had to do with the way I installed Linux.

Like I said I had already partitioned the drive before beginning Linux installation. But when I was installing it, at the point where it asks about the partitioning the drive, I selected Automatic Partition. Then I tried to select the option to Leave all partitions as they are and install on available free space. That didn't work. It said it wasn't possible. So I chose the option to delete all Linux partitions and continue with the install process. I don't know what happened b/c the thing showed the partitions correctly and after that it seemed like smooth sailing.

Only that now I can't get into Windows.

First off, I would check to see if the windows partitions still exists. If if does, then there really shouldn't be much of a problem. If you can't use something like Partition Magic's Recovery Disks to check your partitions, try the Redhat Hardware Browser. In the end, if it does still exist, you'll probably need to add a couple lines to the grub.conf file under /boot/grub/grub.conf similar to the following:

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

The title can be anything you like, while hd0,0 indicates that this is the first partition on the first hard disk. If windows was loaded hypothecically on the 3 partition of the second hard disk, it would look like hd1,2.... you get the point. Secondly, you MUST INCLUDE THE LINE chainloader +1. This is REQUIRED for all MS OS if you wish to boot them with GRUB!! You may also need to add boot at the end of this to get this to work, like so:

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

This is not necessarily required but who knows, it may come up. .. :P As a side note, I love Partition Magic, but have never used it to actually partition my hard drives for Linux, because Linux (or at least the Redhat Anaconda Installer) seems picky about it's partitions. So usually I simply delete the partition I want to install Linux on, leave it as free space and let Anaconda handle the actual formatting of the partition with Disk Druid. Not the only way, but I've never had a problem like yours either...

However this works out though, IMHO you should always manually partition drives. Computers make mistakes (sort of), and even if you use the default values set by the installation, manual confirmation make the whole process alot easier. I hope this helps...

The “free space” on a drive is that that hasn't been allocated to a partition; if you created a second partition for Linux then you don't have any free space to install on; that's why it wouldn't let you.

By the way, it's recommended to have at least two partitions for Linux; one for the filesystem and another for swap space, because it's much more efficient to use a contiguous partition rather than a file that can get chopped into bits.

As to getting Windows to boot; that's quite easy. Just add the entry for Windows to the bootloader.

Thank you for your suggestions!