RHEL and Vista Dual boot problem on HP dv9700z

jdlandry · 02-19-2008, 01:45 PM

Hello, I've just purchased a HP dv9700z. It came with 3GB RAM, the AMD Turion 64bit 2.2GHz processor, 2 160GB hard drives, NVIDIA 256MB GeForce 8400M GS video card and Vista Home Premium 32bit ... I am trying to install RHEL4 onto the other drive and it is hanging on running /sbin/loader ... I saw another thread (anaconda installer hangs during running /sbin/loader) and waited for an hour but it didn't start ... anyone have any ideas?

Lenard · 02-19-2008, 02:16 PM

Yes, use the all-generic-ide option to install, remember to add this switch to the kernel line when done. Do yourself a favor, do not use LVM on a laptop.

Update the system ASAP when done with the installation.

jdlandry · 02-19-2008, 02:30 PM

You said "Yes, use the all-generic-ide option to install, remember to add this switch to the kernel line when done. Do yourself a favor, do not use LVM on a laptop.
"

Ok ... I'll admit it ... I'm a rookie ... what did you just say in English please?

Lenard · 02-19-2008, 09:10 PM

When the installation menu screen is displayed type: linux all-generic-ide

For not using LVM, this is a personal choice. LVM is best when one is not constantly booting and shutdown the system and switching from one OS to another.

As a suggestion download and review the installation guide;

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

And maybe review: http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/...stallation.php

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 07:00 AM

Lenard, I tried as you suggested ... and still getting no where past the "running /sbin/loader" ... the cd-reader even stops spinning ... and I went out and read the docs you pointed me to, but they were for if you got to the menu, which I haven't ...any suggestions?

Lenard · 02-20-2008, 07:26 AM

One can try checking/asking in the HP Linux support forum;
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/home.do

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 08:11 AM

Lenard, went to HP but new registering is unavailable. Thanks for your help tho.

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 02:19 PM

Ok ... I got RHEL4 installed on my second HDD, with Vista installed on my first ... I chose not to install GRUB during install as concensus here at work was that it may overwrite/wipe-out my Vista install ... now, since I don't have a boot-load manager installed like Grub or Lilo, how can I create a boot cd? I saw an article on how to use Vista's Boot Management to boot to Linux and would liket ot try that, but I need to get into Linux to copy the boot files. Thanks

Lenard · 02-20-2008, 02:36 PM

Congratulation's on getting Linux installed, good job and welcome to Linux.

You should have installed Grub to the boot partition of the Linux setup, you still can by the way. Boot with the installation media this time choose the rescue mode, you may have to add whatever switches you used to install Linux in the first place for this. Answer a few question and use choot as directed on screen. Then type something along the lines of;

fdisk -l
(to figure out which partition is you first Linux partition)

grub-install --recheck /dev/sda2
Modify for you actual Linux parition please.

You should review this so you can use the Windows Boot manager(a bit old but should work);

http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html

As far as creating a boot CD this is done by typing something like;

mkbootisk --iso --device boot.iso `uname -r`
Note that is the bicktick character (by the 'Tab' and 'Esc' keys) in the command above. You should copy this boot.iso file to someplace / partition so you can burn it to CD.

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 03:47 PM

Lenard, the command grub-install /dev/sdb1 did not work ... I decided to just reinstall and install grub at the same time ... question tho ... when I reboot, how does the bios see grub to ask me if I want to boot to Linux?

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 03:48 PM

Ok ... let me clarify ... I have two disks: sda and sdb ... Vista is on sda and I re-installed RHEL4 onto sdb along with grub into /boot in /dev/sdb1 ... I rebooted and my laptop does not see Linux or grub ... how do I get it to boot into Linux without overwriting the mbr on sda?

Lenard · 02-20-2008, 07:17 PM

The BIOS has to be set to boot from the hard drive that has GRUB installed to be used for booting before the other.

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 07:52 PM

Hi Lenard ... thanks for answering this thread this late. I figured as much ... only problem is, my bios doesn't (for some reason) separate the hard disks ... it only says "laptop hard disk" in the boot sequence ... my guess is, and I don't really want to do this, is reinstall (again) and this time overwrite my MBR on sda ... any thoughts on something other than that?

Lenard · 02-20-2008, 09:01 PM

You should be able to use the Windows boot manager as described here;

http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html

Quote:

You may choose to let another boot loader handle the install, in which case you will want to:

Boot into Linux and copy the boot image from the first sector of your boot partition. You'll want to take 512 bytes of this partition once, and write it out to a file called bootsect.lnx. The entry should look like:

dd if=/dev/hdX of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

Move that file onto your c:\ drive and edit boot.ini, adding the following line:

c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"

jdlandry · 02-20-2008, 09:16 PM

Ok ... since I can't change my bios to boot to sdb, how do I get Linux to boot up?