i just installed fedora core 4 on a new hard drive on this comp (hoping to dual boot with XP)

i selected automatic partition configuration when installing
and chose to install the boot loader (was it GRUB?) on the mbr
i selected windows as the default OS to load cos the rest of my family are not yet linux friendly (not that i am a super linux pro but at least i want to try to use linux)

now its not that i cant boot but its that i somehow go straight into windows xp and i don't get to choose which OS to boot into

any ideas?

thanks in advance
Ackerley

you might want to refer to this: www[dot]neowin[dot]net/forum/index.ph...86761664&st=0&

Two things spring to mind - either you've (a) somehow only added the windows option to the boot list, or (b) set the timeout before it auto-boots the default to zero (or something very small). In both cases, /boot/grub/menu.lst controls how grub works, so showing us the contents of that file would help immensely with the troubleshooting.

let me try and see if i can access that file.... do you have any instructions?

a simple from a console should display the contents on-screen. Ahh... except of course, you can't get into Linux. D'oh. In which case, there are two options:

(a) Make a Linux boot disc, rescue disc or live disc to get some version of Linux running, and find it from there. If you don't already have one of these to hand, it's probably more trouble than the other option, though having a Linux boot disc is always handy. Also, if your filesystem isn't ext2 or ext3 (which is the default, so it will be that if you don't know) then you'll have to do this option.

(b) Get and install Explore2fs, which will allow you to access your linux drives from inside windows. Fire it up, open the partition where your root folder lives, then copy /etc/passwd across to windows and paste the contents of it here.

[Edit]On second thoughts, you're going to need a Linux boot disc to actually change anything about GRUB - so it may be best to make one anyway. Not sure how you'd go about that without access to Linux, though; if you can get to a friend/colleague's Linux box, then this page may help you.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdb1
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

explore2fs helped me with this
oh ya i used a knoppix livecd and tried to edit this with the help of my friend but they kept saying either read-only file system or no permissions

it must be the line that says hiddenmenu isn't it?

Dtsazza's idea is for you to alter

timeout=5 to something like
timeout=50

so that you have 50 seconds to decide which system you want to boot by pressing the direction keys.

In Linux you need the root privilege to alter a Linux system file in a terminal. Typing

su

can change you to a root user in Knoppix booted from a CD. You can see the command prompt change slightly too.

i miraculously managed to edit that file... i hexed out hiddenmenu and changed the timeout to no avail.

You need to tell us a bit more.

Did you see Grub at all? or the system boots as though Grub doesn't exist and no screen for selecting?

Do a fdisk -l and paste the content here.

The file /etc/fstab is also helpfull.

grub doesn't show up at all, as if grub isn't there

i shall go find the files now

sorry i wasn't able to attach files here

pls refer to neowin - i managed to upload my files there
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.ph...entry586768853

hey thx pple! its solved!!!!

now i can boot into FC4

i used mkdir to make a folder in /mnt (i thought that was a dos command?)

then i mounted to that folder, then i was able to copy out the linux.bin and everything else was smooth except this:i can't install my modem even though i got all the rpms and stuff i needed... please see http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=393993