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Old 06-12-2004, 01:01 AM   #1
jmrich
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Registered: Jun 2004
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Problem w/ MBR, GRUB, Fedora Core 2


Just installed Fedora Core 2 on my machine and it still boots straight to Windows XP (GRUB does not load). My system setup is as follows: Windows XP is on a SATA hd w/ 4 partitions (swap, system, proggies, data), Fedora is installed on a seperate ata133 hd. I know that the Fedora installation did not recognize my sata drive during the install process so I assume this is where my problem lies. If I am not mistaken, the MBR would be on the SATA drive since it is where I installed Win XP when the machine was brand new. Fedora Core 2 installation does not give you the option to boot from floppy. What can I do to get this thing to be in th position to dual-boot w/ GRUB or get Fedora booted up at all?
 
Old 06-12-2004, 10:34 AM   #2
yank2451
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Distribution: Fedora Core 2 (kernel 2.6.6-1)
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Problem w/MBR, GRUB, Fedora 2

I have a setup that is similar to the one you've discussed here. I have Windows XP installed on a serial ATA drive attached to the Promise SATA/RAID controller (PDC 20376). Fortunately upon installation of Fedora Core 2, it loaded the driver sata_promise so Grub was able to see the Windows installation. The reason you are probably not seeing grub at all is because it is installed to the MBR of the ata133 drive with the rest of your Linux install. In your BIOS, whether you realize it or not there is a boot order at which your computer looks to boot your machine. If the SATA controller is listed above the normal PATA controller you will only be able to boot Windows because it is whats installed to the MBR of the SATA drive. If you change the order so the machine looks at the PATA controller first, you should see GRUB at startup instead, but you will only be able to get into Linux, because without the SATA driver installed in Linux it won't see the Windows XP installation. Recommended steps to solve the problem:

(1) Make sure you can still boot into Fedora Core 2 by changing the boot order in the BIOS, IE make PATA controller first.
(2) Find and install the Linux Driver for your SATA/RAID controller so that Linux can at least see the windows partitions
(3) Modify the GRUB.conf file to add Windows as one of the options so the Windows option looks like the following (just an example from my machine)

title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd2,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)

Here hd2 should be in the /boot/grub/device.map file and it should refer to the first drive SATA drive (/dev/sda) the number 0 in root (hd2,0) should refer to the partition on the SATA on which the windows system files are installed.
Hopefully this is of some help.
 
Old 06-12-2004, 11:11 AM   #3
jmrich
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Registered: Jun 2004
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Yeah.....I already tried to do that to no avail. When it tries to boot from that drive it looks like this:
L 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A 9A................this continues on for five or six lines.

Could this be due to the fact that when I installed Fedora I chose to install the boot loader to the root partition instead of the MBR for that drive? Any suggestions of what I could try next short of re-installing (I chose "custom" "everything" and it took forever)?
 
Old 06-12-2004, 11:46 AM   #4
yank2451
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Distribution: Fedora Core 2 (kernel 2.6.6-1)
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Problem w/MBR, GRUB, Fedora 2

If you have the install disks, go into the rescue mode on the disks... then chroot /mnt/sysimage so you can edit your actual system. Then type grub-install /dev/hda. This should install grub to the actual MBR of the PATA disk that you have linux installed on. Thats the only suggestion I have.
 
Old 10-08-2004, 03:03 AM   #5
aus9
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Location: Western Australia
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this is an old post but I came here from keyword sata for my research.

firstly if you are still tracking this post it appears GRUB does not handle hardware raid.

2) however if your boot order was ide sata1 sata2
then your menu file mentioning hd2 refers to sata2 and you need hd1 to get to sata1 different from above

try

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
hide (hd0,0) ########or whatever your linux / boot partition is on. if you have no separate /boot partition its your / partiton
unhide (hd1,0) (sata 1 first partition)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

and your device.map file (if exists) needs to be
(hd0) /dev/hda
(hd1) /dev/sd0
(hd2) /dev/sd1
 
  


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