I recently installed fc2 on my P4 2.8 Ghz 512 Mb RAM machine with a Promise Sata150 controller and Seagate 80 Gb SATA drive. The install was a bit tricky with the SATA drive, but I managed to get it working and booting just fine. I use Boot It NG as my boot mgr and have other distros installed on this drive as well. Using MDK 9.2 right now and the install was flawless with this distro. My problem has to do with trying to install Slackware 10.0 yesterday. Slack has a problem with SATA, still trying to work that out, but after all the things I tried to get it working, now my fc2 won't boot. It just comes up with GRUB on a text screen with a blinking underline cursor and that is it. I mounted the fc2 partition via MDK 9.2 to take a look at the grub.conf file. Here is what it looks like:

# 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 (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda1
default=4
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.435)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.6-1.435.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.427)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.427 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.6-1.427.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=/dev/sda1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,3)
chainloader +1

I thought the boot=/dev/sda1 line being commented out was not right and tried to uncomment that but it didn't change anything. I don't really know enough about GRUB to see what else could be the problem so if anyone has an idea please resond. BTW, this system also has an 80 Gb IDE drive installed and at one point the system was trying to boot from it and so I unhooked the power connector from it temporarily. My fc2 problem happened after I did that.

if you get a grub console, it means that grub is not loading your config file.
so editing your config file aint gonna do anything.

boot from grub console like so...

root (hd0,0) (or wherever the partiton with /boot is)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/whatever
initrd /boot/initrd
boot


to re-install grub (so it loads your crub.conf)
run setup at the grub console

Okay I tried that, but it won't let me type anything in. It's just like it's locked up. I didn't make a boot floppy, is there any other way of doing this?

you cant type !!!
wow, yeah, thats bad !

do you have any working OS ?
you could use windows to make a linux boot disk.
or if you have knoppix or somthing like that.

or the fc2 install disks will work.
boot disk 2, use rescue mode to re-install grub to the disks MBR

Told you I didn't know much about Grub, have only been using Linux about 6 months now. Thanks, will give the the re-install a try. Also have MDK 9.2 install on this same SATA drive, that is how I was able to check out the grub.conf file.

Okay, I managed to muddle through and get back into my fc2 partition. It booted just fine with only a slight problem. I knew from what you suggested and what I read on how to restore Grub, that the boot files would be installed on the MBR. What I need to learn how to do is to install the boot files on the SDA1 partition instead so I can continue using my Boot It NG boot mgr program. I'm sure when I reactivate Boot It, I will no longer be able to boot into fc2 again. Seems I had this problem when I first installed fc2 but now I've forgotten what I did to solve it! Anyway, thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.

why do you have 2 different boot loaders on the same disk ! ?

That was a bigger mistake than I previously thought. Seems by installing Grub on the MBR, I completely wiped out my Boot It NG stuff and so I've lost all of my different OSes! Damn, I had DOS, Win98SE, WinME, WinXP, MDK 9.2, Peanut Linux, Fedora Core 2 and Slackware 10.0 on that HD! I used Boot It NG because it was the best boot mgr I had found and it works so well. I always installed Lilo or Grub to the boot partition to keep everything working together. Now when Windoze takes over the MBR when installing you can simply boot with the Boot It NG floppy and an option will pop up to reactivate Boot It. Guess it don't work that way with Grub Guess it's time for me to start all over again. Think I'll go out and work on my porch again instead...

you only need one boot loader on the MBR.
that will boot all your OS's !

I realize that, that is why I always put Lilo or Grub on the boot partition. My mistake was not knowing that Grub would destroy Boot It. Oh well, perhaps it's time to try something new anyway, I see MDK 10 is out now as well. My biggest problem is finding distros that will work with the SATA drive right out of the box. Either that or I need to learn how to fix them so they will! Thanks for you help.