Accessing grub.conf from Vista

jess5691 · 10-14-2007, 05:43 PM

I successfully installed Microsoft Vista and Fedora 7 in a dual boot, and made the mistake of messing around with the /boot/grub/grub.conf file when in linux. Now I cannot boot into Fedora anymore. Is there a way to view the /boot/grub/grub.conf file from Vista. If there is, I know I will be able to fix the problem

bigrigdriver · 10-14-2007, 06:12 PM

My personal bias is: don't try to read/write files in Linux partitions from Vista. There are commercial apps that will allow it if you can afford them. There may also be open source apps that do it.

By far, the easiest is to boot a liveCd distro, mount the partition, edit and save the file, then reboot to see if your edit worked.

saikee · 10-14-2007, 06:22 PM

I second bigrigdriver.

Your Fedora installation CD can be used as a Live CD. Just select the rescue mode. You have to be able to edit the file in the terminal mode though.

The standard command to restore Grub in Fedora is listed as Task B6 in the last link of my signature. Task B4 and B5 can also be used for the same purpose.

matthewg42 · 10-14-2007, 06:32 PM

I second the LiveCD option.

syg00 · 10-14-2007, 07:04 PM

Just fix it at the grub menu screen - once in FC, fix menu.lst
Highlight the entry, hit <e>, follow the prompts.

saikee · 10-14-2007, 07:28 PM

Yes syg00's idea is better.

In Fedora's Grub, which does not use gfxmenu as in Suse, one can edit the booting commands on-the-fly.

jess5691 · 10-14-2007, 08:40 PM

Thanks for your help, guys!

I booted to my Fedora 7 DVD and choose recovered. Eventually, it and sent me to the terminal/command prompt. From there I used vi to fix the grub.conf file and now both Vista and Fedora are booting up.

Thanks again.