FC4 - Grub Can't Find Hard Drive
 

I just tried installing Fedora Core 4 for the first time, on an old 400 MHz computer. Initially, I selected "Autopartition" -> "Delete all Partitions," but it failed. So then I tried "Autopartition" -> "Delete all Linux Partitions." I'm not sure if that was what I was supposed to do, but it seemed to work. The (text only) install completed OK.

Then when I booted up it went to the grub screen, and I'm not sure how to get past it. I tried following the online instructions:

First, I typed "root (" and then hit tab so it would show me my partitions. The only one it found was "(fd0)", the stinking floppy drive!

Second, I tried "find /sbin/init", and it said File not found.

Next, I tried sticking the FC disk 1 into the CD drive (just to see if I could repair or re-install or something), and I went into the BIOS and told it to load from CD ROM. But it still went straight back to the grub shell.

So apparently grub can't see any partitions(?). But FC seemed to install OK... I don't know how to re-partition, or how to see the partition that FC installed on. Help! What can I do to get this working?

If you want to fix the grub setup from the “grub>” prompt, try this:

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
or
grub> find /grub/stage1

which will output something like: (hd0,2)

Only one of the “finds” will find the grub folder. Then:

grub> root (hd0, )

using whatever (hd0, ) was output in “find”. Then:

grub> setup (hd0)


-- OR --


Boot into FC4 Rescue mode from the first FC4 Installation CD (boot: linux rescue) or using the FC4 Rescue CD and follow the instructions about searching/mounting fedora installations.

Once you’re in, run:

fdisk -l

to show the partitions.


Then edit /boot/grub/grub.conf using:

vi /boot/grub/grub.conf

and check that “root (hd0,...)" points to the “/boot” partition and that “kernel...ro root=LABEL=...” points to the root “/” partition. Grub-speak dictates that partitions and drives are numbered starting at zero (i.e., /dev/hda1 usual = (hd0,0) in grub-speak).

If that fails, then run:

grub-install (hd0)

If that fails, then run:

grub

and follow the “find”, “root” and “setup” steps listed at the beginning of this post.

hey, thanks for the reply. i've been out of town so i'm just getting back to this.

i was able to go into rescue mode, but i wasn't totally sure of the changes that i should make to grub.conf, so if you could please clarify, here is all the data:

=========================
Output from fdisk -l:
=========================
Disk /dev/hda: 8455 MB, 8455200768 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1027 cylinders
units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 26 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 27 1027 8040532+ 8e Linux LVM
=========================
content of /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/grub.conf:
=========================
#boot=/dev/hda
default = 0
timeout = 5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
=========================

So, from your instructions, my impression is that in grub.conf I should change
root(hd0,1) to root(hd0,0)? Is that right?

What should I change root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 to? What else needs to change? Should the boot device be hda3 (the one with all the disk space)?

Thanks for your help!

Greetings.... I to am having the same problem, only excepting is I have two drives... my /dev/hda1 partition is the boot partition.. After the install I checked by booting with the rescue CD and discovered there was NO grub.conf file.. Also, the install re-booted without even asking... and I get the GRUB prompt, but not a prompt I can put command into.. just:

GRUB _

I attempted to create a grub.conf file almost exactly as the above example... and still nothing.. It almost appears that it's not seeing the hard drive at all... hence can't find the GRUB can't find the grub.conf file...

Any Ideas would be much appreciated...

Laters,


The Gray Wizard
(aka: Matt)