Can't get FC2 to load with GRUB on same box with XP. Going crazy!!!

AdamBige · 11-01-2004, 07:31 PM

Hi, newbie here.

I just finished installing Fedora Core 2 to my Compaq.It has an Athlon 3000xp, 512 ram, and 2 HDD's. I have XP (it boots just fine) installed on the main hard drive (160GB). It has a recovery partition, a boot partition just for FC2 (just inside the 1024 boot barrier) I access it with an addition to the Boot.ini file. I learned that lesson the hard way. The first time I did the install it wiped my MBR and totally screwed up my system.The last partition is the Windows partition. I installed the root on my secondary hard drive (40GB) along with a swap partition. When I boot my computer it shows me my OS choices: Windows XP, Recovery Console, Linux.

When I choose "Linux" it does the handoff to GRUB and locks. I know that it isn't my boot.ini. It's like it doesn't have a grub.cnf file to access. I use the rescue mode to get a prompt. I checked "/boot" and it has a grub file along with the Kernel file name (not a directory) but all it does when I enter it is give me a console like this :

Grub>

I try "help" but all I get are a list of commands that I don't understand. I found my grub.cnf file in "/etc" I can view it with "cat" and I can see that it is not pointing to the right directory, but I cannot edit it with the "vi" command or even get it to copy to the "/boot" directory. Should I just try to use LILO? If so, how do I install it. Is there a way to boot Linux without a boot loader? Like maybe keeping it on a separate drive and using a disk to boot it without grub? Sorry about the long post but I wanted to be exact. I am at my wits end. Any help would be appreciated.

SirSlappy · 11-01-2004, 07:39 PM

honestly, man. GRUB sucks. It's a big pain in the ass in my opinion. LILO is much easier to config and easier to deal with. Look into using it.

If you get it installed, you'll be able to config it in a few minutes and it works. GRUB just sucks in my opinion.

AdamBige · 11-01-2004, 07:50 PM

I kinda figured that. The way it screwed my system the first time I ended up just formatting and doing a system restore. (nice thing about a Comqrap). I just need a guide for loading, installing and configuring LILO or something.

HappyDude · 11-01-2004, 10:24 PM

EDIT: And you could look into a linux boot floppy if you dont even want a boot manager.

I would honestly look into using something besides Window's boot manager. I use grub with my system and it works fine. My grub.con file looks like this:

Code:

title Fedora Core 3 (2.6.7-1.478)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.478 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.7-1.478.img
title Windows
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

It works like a charm.

aus9 · 11-03-2004, 09:17 AM

Shame shame shame,,,the error is not grub

it is FC2 own partition tool that creates a false geometry.

read it if you dare in my signature or do a search yourself.