I've tried using linux rescue to get into GRUB and I received a message saying "access denied". I'm installing dual operating systems on my computer, W2k & Fedora Core, on separate hard drives. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

hi
could u post the procedure u were following and at what point did u get what type of error msgs

regards

I'm new to linux, so I need all the help I can get. Ok, I was able to get into grub by typing "grub" after getting into linux rescue. I haven't been able to figure out what to do next...

Ok, sounds like something happened to your comp and you need to fix something.

1. typing linux rescue from cd #1 will try to mount your / onto a partition so that you can do maintenance. I don't know exactly which part you are stuck on but it should be self-explanatory from the help screens. So, perhaps you may need to explain more on this part. Like what do you see? Do you see a prompt of any sort? Is the screen black? Can you type? Any message on the screen that you are stuck on?

2. Another attempt to fix your comp without linux rescue is to go to single user mode (init 1). Ok, so you reboot your machine and GRUB shows you which kernel it's going to load within its 10 second delay. Immediately press 'e' and then pick the one that shows "kernel" and type 'e' again. Now you are shown the kernel line, go to the very end, add a space, and append the word "single" (without quotes). Now press 'b' and it will boot to single user mode.

Let us know if you need more help. Good luck!

-twantrd

Fedora rescue will mount your / under /mnt/sysimage. If for some reason your Grub got wiped you could try to reinstall it. To do so you first need to change root to the system root (not the one you use throught the rescue CD) You can do that by typing "chroot /mnt/sysimage". Provided you haven't got a seperate /boot partition you should now be able to invoke 'grub-install' (if not you may need to mount the /boot partition first). In order to install Grub to the MBR you should add the parameter '/dev/hda' (check the man pages if in doubt).

Thanks for the responses everyone. I apologize for being so vague. I'll try to be more specific.

Here's where I'm at...

Grub is fine & seems to be working properly. I went throught these steps (I think I found them on this web site):

"From here you can try to find out which drive grub thinks is first and which is second in the boot order. Try typing "kernel (hd" and then pressing tab:

grub> kernel (hd<tab>

You should see the possible completions that grub can find. Drive 0 (hd0) could be either C: or L: (in FC1, hda or hdb) depending on your partitions. If you post your partition layouts for both physical drives and which cables and IDE channels they are connected to, it would help us. The output should look something like this:

grub> kernel (hd
Possible disks are: hd0 hd1

grub> kernel (hd

So now add a character (0, 1, 2, whatever you want to try). Here is what I see:

grub> kernel (hd
Possible disks are: hd0 hd1

grub> kernel (hd0,<tab>
Possible partitions are:
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type vfat, partition type 0x0a
Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x83

grub> kernel (hd0,0)/<tab>
foo sandbox junk.txt

Using this method, you can explore your drives using grub and see where files live and which drives contain the data you want.

The problem we are looking for is this, what looks like (hd0) in grub at boot time, might look like (hd1) in grub when the system is up and running (i.e. start grub and do the same thing from within Linux and see if the drives have been reordered). This would account for the problem you see where installing grub to the MBR is actually installing it elsewhere.

Now that you can find your Linux partitions using grub, let's try to boot your FC1 Linux installation.

Use the command 'configfile' and the tab completion to try and locate the grub.conf or menu.lst file. It should be in the 'boot' directory on your root Linux partition, or on it's own partition if you created a separate partition for boot.

grub> configfile (hd1,0)/grub/menu.lst

Press an arrow key before the timeout expires so we can examine the entries.

Highlight your FC1 entry and type 'e'. This will allow you to edit the entry and view the hard drive that it is trying to boot from. You should see some entries like this (after pressing 'e' once).

root (hd0,9)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl ro root=LABEL=/1 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.img

In this example, the root drive is (hd0). If this doesn't match where you found the menu.lst file, then you will want to change it. You can use tab completion to help find the vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl file, your kernel, and make sure that root is set to be the drive where the kernel is found. For example, if you find the menu.lst on (hd1,0) and the kernel there too, set root to (hd1,0).

Press 'e' while 'root (hd0,9)' is highlighted and edit it to read 'root (hd1,0)'. Then press enter and you'll see all the entries again. Then, since the root is now properly set, you should be able to press 'b' to boot.

Your Linux installation should now boot."

Is anyone familiar with these steps? The problem seems to be the "menu.list". It did not show up when I entered "grub> configfile (hd1,0)/grub/menu.1st" command (it responded with "file not found"). Might this be due to faulty installation or am I looking in the wrong place? From reading these directions, it should be in the same place as the kernel vmlinuz file. If it is in a different place, is there a way to find it?

One more thing...

I didn't install grub on the MBR, I read in more than one place you shouldn't do that because it can't load win2k.

Okay, I found the "menu.lst" file & it seems to be setup correctly. From what I understand, I now must copy "linux.bin" onto a floppy, then boot into windows & copy it onto C:\

Then I edit C:\boot.ini

Do I need to edit anything in the grub.config file? How do I go about that?

hi there

grub can be installed on MBR and it loads win2k, i have nben doing the same
also the loadlin file u r talking about
u need to use one bootloader
either grub
to boot linux+windows using grub

or loadlin --boot windows +linux using windows bootloader

to edit the grub.conf

vi /etc/grub.conf
will openup the grub.conf configuration in ur vi editor in linux

regards

what's the vi editor?

hi
vi editor is a simple editor
i meant to say that u ned to open up ur /etc/grub.conf in any editor
vi editor is one of them

regards

Yes, it worked, thanks. Now how do I save the edits to the grub.config file?

hi

using the vi editor u need to use

press
ESC,
then
:wq

will write the changes and exit from that grub.conf file


regards

Ok, now do I copy the linux.bin file to a floppy, then save it to my windows c drive? How do I go about that?

Thanks for your help.

hey

thats waht i told u earlier
u do not ned to go for loadlin
either go for loadlin or grub

regards