Hello, everyone, in short, my problem with my dual boot (Windows XP, FC-5) PC is this:

Dual Boot (Windows XP, FC-5) PC.

- Athlon 1.2 GHz
- 384 MB SDRAM
- XFX GeForce 5200 FX
- 30 Gb Maxtor Hard Drive

For now, When I go to Windows from GRUB, it's fine, however, when I go to FC-5, I get the following error: Can anyone help, please? Thank you.

Note that I'm an extreme noob in linux.

==========================================================
Booting 'Fedora C5 (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)'

root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

Press any key to continue...
==========================================================



Here are thedetails of everything that I've done and has happened so far, if you have to know...:

I'm a noob in Linux. Decided to take the plunge... but have dual boot for now. And it's been a pain so far.

Anyway, my initial Installation: (1 hard drive only, 30 GB)

Partition 1 (about 10 Gb) - Windows XP Pro (C
Partition 2 (800 Mb) - swap
Partition 3 (15 Gb) - Fedora Core 5
Partition 4 (4 Gb) Empty

Everything was fine for a few days... I loved how Linux was seeing my home network (WIndows) and copied files over etc... I could never get to play the audio though. Anyway, while in Windows and downloading some songs, I decided to make use of the 4 Gb empty partition from Windows to use as music storage. I went to the Windows disk management and formatted the fourth empty partition to be NTFS drive (D I am not sure if I restarted my computer right after that.

... but then I also was trying out skype... and my sound recorder wouldn't work. So I found my motherboard cd and installed one of the sound drivers that it had for windows xp. It asked to reboot the compuer... so I did.

Then I got this:

grub>

What the hell does that mean? I tried the usual things i knew about linux... or unix... the "ls" command to see what might be available for me, where i might be at... etc. etc. it doesn't work. then i went to my other pc (yes windows xp again) and tried to find what grub was anyway, eventually got to this page... in LQ

windows xp screwed fedora 5 grub loader
(thread # 445291), I can't put the URL here (don't have 3 posts yet) even to a link to this site's page... , that's kind of strange

I tried what was explained in the Post # 8 by dear mr. bobnutfield...

I tried the following:

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

... it gave me something like .... (hd0,2)

grub> root (hd0,2)

... then it gave me some info... I assumed this set the GRUB root device ... then i tried this...

grub> setup (hd0)

... then it gave me again this...

grub>

Then I did a Ctr + Alt + Del

Now...

Normally, I would have got a green screen, the Fedora Core 5 boot screen which either took me to Windows XP (default in 10 seconds) or I could choose to boot with Fedora Core 5.

Now, this one was a black screen. Not a biggie, I thought. I don't really care for the startup colors (although strange how it changed without me making the change). Then I tried to go to Windows, I was successful. i was happy. Then I rebooted the pc again. and got the same black screen with white text and this time I tried to go to linux, but it gave me this error message:
==========================================================
Booting 'Fedora C5 (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)'

root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

Press any key to continue...
==========================================================

Then it takes me the same place where I get to choose Windows vs. Linux. again, Windows works fine. But Linux. Although I'm stark pissed off at Linux, I really really wanna try to get it working. I think after I get all things sorted out, I'll like Linux. I really want to feel like, "yes Linux isn't only for geeks, it can be used by regular folks like me." So, please help me. Thank you.

It looks like your menu.lst file is borked and GRUB is trying to mount and boot from your swap. If I understand your somewhat rambling post, you're getting a boot menu with Win and FC5 as choices? If that is correct, select FC5, press 'e' and changetoThen hit 'b' to boot (if i remember correctly).

Once FC5 is working, change the same line in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Thank you so much. That works. You're a life saver. Thank you. Now, only if my mp3s somehow played in FC-5.... hmm... how am I going to play my wmv's and mp3's in FC-5? and... um how do I install my k-lite codec pack in linux? Or is that even possible?

Different problem, start a new thread.

Good idea. thanks. This case is closed!