booting from CD when using grub???
 

Have set from BIOS to boot on CD first, but will still go to grub. It's quite frustrating and am pretty lost here. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

System: Fedora2 (2.6.5-1.358 #1 Sat May 8 09:01:26 EDT 2004 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux)

[me@hades]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hde3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hde
default=4
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.10-1.770_FC2)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.770_FC2 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.10-1.770_FC2.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.10-1.8_FC2)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.8_FC2 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.10-1.8_FC2.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.6_FC2)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.6_FC2 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.6_FC2.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.521 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.8-1.521.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

[me@hades]# rpm -q grub
grub-0.94-5

To be more precise, I need to make a new clean installation of fedora4 but cannot boot on the installation CDs. I've altered the booting medium sequence from the BIOS but looks like this selection is overriden and system boots from HD (grub).

Do you have more than one cd drive? If so try the other drive... Also I have a similar problem in LiLo... but I don't think it's a LiLo or Grub issue... Your BIOS should override both of the bootloaders... Here is how my strange system operates...

Example:
If I am in Linux and insert a bootable CD in my drive and reboot my system it will boot Lilo... If, however, I COLD boot ie: shut down the computer and restart, it then picks up the cd first... I know it should not do this but maybe your system has a similar problem...

KC

It sounds like the CD is not bootable, and I mean the disk, not the drive. Try booting into rescue mode with a CD from a different version of FC that has been used to install FC in the past.

I was going to suggest trying the “other” CD/DVD drive, but kencaz beat me to it.

Tried the COLD start, didn't work. Then I tried booting on the fedora2 (my current installation) installation disc1 and it did work.

Obviously you were right WhatsHisName... The disc I was trying was not bootable. But how is that??? I burned the iso that is provided for download on the fedora download servers. Shouldn't that be bootable?

Anyways, how can I make it bootable or how can I proceed with the installation using the non-bootable CDs?

Thanks guys.

Any ideas on how to install from a non-bootable CD?

Is there anything that can be done to actually make the CD a bootable one? I just burned the ISO that is provided from fedora.download, so I can't see why that wouldn't be bootable? Have I done something stupid?

1) Did the SHA1SUMs for the iso's match the reference values?

2) In the past, I laughed at people who suggested that you burn the iso CDs “slowly”, but it does sometimes seem to make a difference, especially when the reading/installing drive is somewhat old. You read suggestions of burning the iso's at about 10x.

3) There is also the option of starting the installation using the FC4 Rescue CD by using:

boot: linux askmethod

Most people use this approach to do network or hard disk-based installations, but I think that “CD Rom” is one of the options on the list that pops up.

... never checked the sums ... added in todo list :)

thanks for the rescueCD suggestion as well. There is a 'Local CD' option indeed after the
'linux askmethod'.

Also, just for future reference for anyone facing the same problem, there is a boot.iso file in the /boot folder in CD1 which you can burn to boot on. Have not tried it yet, but it sounds like a possible solution as well.

Thanks a lot guys.