More Fun With Grub!!!

Galaxy_Stranger · 11-02-2008, 07:36 PM

The long and the short: I installed XP, then Fedora, now grub doesn't come up and neither does anything else.

This is what happened: Output of fdisk:

Code:

[fedora@localhost ~]$ su -
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1c9a1c99

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       19456   156280288+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160040803840 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0258783b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              14         274     2096482+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3             275       19457   154087447+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 775221 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x03268276

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1      775221   390711352+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/dm-0: 4294 MB, 4294967296 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 522 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 4294 MB, 4294967296 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 522 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@localhost ~]#

Originally, I had 32bit XP on /dev/sda1 w/ a slave drive for storage on /dev/sdc1. These are both SATA drives. I then decided to dual boot between Fedora 9 and 64bit XP, so I added an EIDE drive from another computer - /dev/sdb. I formatted /sdb with NTFS so it would hold some files during the install. I formatted /dev/sda1 and installed XP. The install went fine, and so I copied the contents of /dev/sdb1 back over to /dev/sda1. Now /dev/sdb could be blown away for Fedora.

At this point, I installed 64bit Fedora 9 on /dev/sdb. I put /boot on /sdb1, swap on /sdb2 and the rest of the install on /sdb3. I installed grub on /dev/sdb1. I reboot and get:

Code:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

This is the current contents of /grub/grub.conf - (after I've screwed with it, of course):

Code:

# 
grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64)
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64 ro root=UUID=5c137789-e149-4b68-a317-9b2235e224ed rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64.img
title XP64
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

So, I type this into grub:

Code:

grub> root (hd1,0)
root (hd1,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

And then, I type this:

Code:

grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  23 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0)1+23 p (hd1,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

I reboot and get the same NTLDR missing error. Should I install Fedora on /dev/sda instead?

Galaxy_Stranger · 11-02-2008, 08:13 PM

Ok, this is quite interesting. I redid those grub commands - now grub loads and I can start up Fedora 9. When I choose XP, it gives me the NTLDR error.

OH, blarg, it looks like NTLDR is fubared. Anyone know how to fix it? I have the option of reinstalling.

syg00 · 11-02-2008, 08:50 PM

Are you seeing the bootsplash ??. Because if you are, you may have splattered that XP partition. fixboot might work, might not; do it from recovery console of the XP install CD.

billymayday · 11-02-2008, 08:52 PM

How come you have your splashimage on (hd0,0) and Windows on the same partition?

Are you sure Windows is on (hd0,0)?

Galaxy_Stranger · 11-02-2008, 09:10 PM

Well, XP is on /sda1. That would be (hd0, 0), right?

I didn't set the splash image location. But I changed it to (hd1,0), that should work. Now that you mention it, when grub comes up, there IS no splash image.

But I'll try fixboot.

-=[EDIT]=-
/dev/sda1 IS mountable and all the data is there.

Galaxy_Stranger · 11-03-2008, 12:41 AM

Ok - there were a couple files missing from the root directory of the XP drive and these were the instructions:

Code:

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
                  copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

And that was it. I guess grub zapped those files or something.

I can switch between Fedora and XP just fine, but there's one thing that's bugging me. The fdisk results I posted here were when I was using the Fedora 9 live cd. The results now have the Fedora drive as /dev/sda and the XP drive as /dev/sdb. Don't know if this is a problem...and right now i don't really care... ;-p

Go fish.