I'm very very very new to Linux. I set up my win 7 laptop to dual boot w/Fedora 3.11.10-301. I thought it was Fedora 18 or 19 but the boot screen gives 3.11.~ as one of the options.

OK. I installed Fedora and went and in and messed around a bit. Messed w/email, got the internet connection working. I left and when I came back I was told there were updates so I updated.

Upon restart I now have 4 options
1) win7
2) Fedora 3.13.3-200 Heisenbut (this came up after the update)
3) Fedora 3.11.10-301 (The 'original' Fedora I think)
4) Fedora, with linux 0-rescue

If I choose 2 it just boots to a grey screen and nothing ever happens. I assumed this was the updated Fedora.
If I choose 3 it boots to Fedora as I know it. I assume THIS is the updated OS?
If so, what is 2?

Also, is there a good beginners cheat sheet somewhere?

The 3.xxx is the kernel version and not the Fedora distribution version. 3.13.32-200 is more recent than 3.11.10-301 so that makes sense if it came up after the update.

It is very possible that bugs in the kernel updates affect your laptop and it is common practice not to delete the old kernel version just in case this happens.

To find the actual kernel name look at the output of:
rpm -qa | grep kernel

You can remove it via the command
yum remove kernel-3.13.32-200.xxxxx

What do you expect from a cheat sheet? What information are you looking for?

Heisenbug is fedora 20

also fedora 18 is now 3 months past it's END OF LIFE and should NOT be used

Fedora 19 is still supported fedora 21 is not do until this summer ( then 19 goes END OF LIFE )

we are not mind readers .
What did you do ?

the site you downloaded fedora from
like the install instructions
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...ide/index.html
release notes
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...tes/index.html

and the list of guides on the fedora site
http://www.fedoraforum.org/?view=fedora_setup

then there is Amazon books

1 members found this post helpful.

What I did...

I opened up Firefox and read about Fedora some. I opened the email program and put in my email details.
I updated the system per the pop up that told me to update.

Basic functionality. How it differs from windows, etc.

For example, I really am not sure about rpm -ga | grep kernel. I guess I open the (a?) terminal and type that in?

Yes those command are run in a terminal and you need to be logged in as root i.e.
su -

Plus you don't need to type terminal commands; you can copy & paste for accuracy.

from this
then that makes this 100% normal
fedora has 3 options
it keeps 3 backups of the last kernels as back up
and there is a 3 second countdown before the DEFAULT set OS boots

during those 3 seconds you CAN override the DEFAULT setting you set

normally the default is the FIRST OS listed
in this case it looks like you set Windows 7 AUTOMATICALLY boot as default os to use

use the down arrows to navigate to the newest kernel
boot into the newest Linux kernel

as to option #2 giving you a "gray?" screen

did you install a video driver and NOT use "yum" to do it

and did the update actually complete
the very first update on fedora CAN BE OVER!!!! 3 GIG in size!!!!!
it is normally VERY HUGE!!!
did it fully finish
it might take some time to do

Chris, just adding to what the guys above have already written. When your laptop boots you are presented with all the kernels you can boot into.

3.11.10 is your original installation which is a few months old now. So when you first booted into fedora you got this version. After booting fedora will have realised that your version is quite old, I am guessing there was a prompt on the screen which you clicked and this installed all the latest updates. Including the latest kernel 3.13. As highlighted above though, sometimes new kernel versions give problems with laptops so an old version is maintained as a fallback. So you get a choice of booting into either 3.11 (which seems to work) or 3.13 (which is causing problems). So there is no problem booting into 3.11. It is still Fedora 20 but you are missing some updates.

I hope this gives you an idea of what you are seeing. Where I can't help though is what happens if you install some more updates as, from memory, only the last 2 kernels are referenced at boot time and you don't want to lose 3.11 until you know why the latest version doesn't work.

Typically the problem you see relates to the video card. After booting can you go to a terminal and type:

this gives a run down of hardware on your system. If you can post this here then one of the more learned contributors may be able to diagnose your problem.

For reference the output looks like this:

HTH

That is the problem, the newest kernel does not boot.

I see how the boog (grub?) works so nothing is actually loading automatically. Am I choosing Hbug manually.
I hit update and walked away for quite a while.
I know what yum is but have never used it (like I said, Newb!). I have not installed a vid driver on this OS or the previous one. (pre update one)

---------- Post added 04-10-14 at 08:11 PM ----------

So going to a terminal is impossible, correct? My problem is that the OS is simply not loading...so this is possible a conflict w/my lenovo z575 w/samsung 840 evo SSD?

Suggestions? Should I load the original Fedora and update again?

fedora is a very VERY terminal centric Operating System
you need to use the terminal for MOST things with fedora
( except for just changing the look of the gui , then you use the gui to edit the desktop look )

there have been problems in the past ( might be fixed)
there is a app called "apper" that pops up a window that lets you know if there are updates
it might not install everything needed , or work correctly .

for using fedora the BEST way to update is to use the terminal and type
( fedora is NOT!!! a "point and click" operating system like Microsoft is )

one of the issues with the apper program is you really have no idea if it is done

a 3+ gig update might take 12+ hours to even download , if you have a slow internet connection

Fedora changes SO FAST that since fedora 20 came out( 5 months ago) almost EVERYTHING has been updated
A full install of Gnome and KDE desktops will have a first update of about 3 gigs of data

OK. I'm doing this to learn so it's better if can't point and click. I will load the pre-update Fedora and force it to update.
I have 20/2 down/up.

I went into terminal and
yup update said updates 20/x86 64 1kb 00:00
no packages marked for update

yum version said' 20 /x86_64

that is good
it did indeed fully update.

so as to the gray screen

dose this computer have a ATI or Nvidia 3d card
and did you install any "driver" for it

both cards have a default driver installed BY DEFAULT
so for most ati or nvidia hardware there is no need to install a driver