LinuxQuestions.org - Fedora Core 6 won't dual boot

- Linux - Newbie (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/)

- - Fedora Core 6 won't dual boot (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/fedora-core-6-wont-dual-boot-510062/)

Fedora Core 6 won't dual boot

I downloaded fedora core 6 and installed it on my pc's on my second hard drive. When I got to the screen to set up grub, I set it to install on the hda master boot. I saw windows and linux in the box of operating systems, and set linux as the default. once the installation was complete, I restarted the computer and windows xp automatically loaded. Is there something I need to do to get the grub screen to show when I turn on the computer? Please don't give me a fix that involves a floppy disk because I don't have a floppy disk drive installed on my computer.

shawn

I'm going to assume 2 drives, with Windows in the first (only) partition of #1, and Fedora in the 1st partition of #2.

During install, it seems that grub did not get onto the mbr of drive 1. It is also possible that you set default to Windows and grub is just going by too tast to see it.
Assuming grub is not installed here is one way of getting it there:

Boot from the Fedora CD and select rescue mode or something like that. You might be able to get a terminal by simply typing crtl-alt-F1.

Once in a terminal, do this:

Code:

grub      puts you in the grub shell

root (hd1,0)    tells grub that it's files are in the /boot directory on disk 2, partition 1** 

setup (hd0)    installs grub stage 1 on the mbr of drive 1

reboot

**If Fedora set up a separate /boot partition, then use that ID--the partition needs to be the one where /boot is.
Note the grub counts from zero and always uses "hd" for drives--regardless of type.

If for some reason, you cannot do this from the Fedora install disk, you can always boot up from a live CD such as Knoppix.

It also may be easier to just re-install.....

well ill have to try this, im a complete noob with linux so hopefully nothing gets messed up. i did try installing something called w32grub, and i added a line to the windows boot.ini file, and i now get a screen that i think is the windows boot loader when i start the computer. it shows windows xp, and then grub under that, but if i open grub it has an option that does not load the linux i installed, and i'm not sure how to edit that. the first thing i tried after i had installed linux was reinstalling it, but i had no luck even with linux set to the default.

it is two hard drives, and windows is on the first.

Quote:

Originally Posted by millertime588

In installing ANY version of grub, it has to be told where to find its config files. The code I gave you does that.
I don't know how w32grub works--ie how does one tell it where to find its files?

The Grub commands worked great for me!

Thanks Pixellany! I used your listed grub commands on a Dell 860 dual disk config with Windows x64 2003 Ent on the primary disk and Fedora Core 6 on the second disk. Fedora Core 6 install did not properly set the location of the config files. Thanks again!

Quote:

w32grub.zip contains the GRUB boot loader. This is
necessary if you don't want to boot from floppy or
CD-ROM.

Just unzip it to c:\ then run c:\boot\grub\w32grub
This would patch the necessary files(under XP, not
linux). Then add :

c:\boot\stage1="GRUB" to c:\boot.ini

and you now have a grub boot loader on your XP system
which can be used to boot all flvors of linux. Check
the GRUB manual for detail how to add entries to GRUB.

Within w32 grub your have to edit the menu.lst file to load Fedora Core
i use wingrub to load linux in my system. Because i have to leave the MBR intack

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duck2006

Within w32 grub your have to edit the menu.lst file to load Fedora Core
i use wingrub to load linux in my system. Because i have to leave the MBR intack

now the question remains, where do you find the kernel and initrd?

the default is some Woody distro

where can i find the Fedora Core 6 kernel and initrd, if i can't boot?!?!?

someone please help

rawDawg, why did you drag up an old thread to post as opposed to starting your own thread?

Anyhow, the kernel and initrd are on your Linux /boot partition (assuming you made a separate /boot when installing Fedora as is the default). To find the exact file names you can boot your install CD and type "linux rescue" at the CD's boot prompt. That will mount your system so you can browse to the /boot directory and get the name of the kernel (vmlinuz-2.6<<something>> and initrd <<something>>,img where <<something>> is the kernel version string),

lol i dk

ty ill try that :D

This is a good site for you how have dual drives. If you have fedora cor 5 or 6. http://danleff.net/myarticles/fedora...rddrives4.html

If I install in the second time with out erasing all. I use

http://danleff.net/myarticles/fedora...rddrives5.html

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install --recheck /dev/hda

that should work!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Code:

grub      puts you in the grub shell

root (hd1,0)    tells grub that it's files are in the /boot directory on disk 2, partition 1** 

setup (hd0)    installs grub stage 1 on the mbr of drive 1

reboot

I am also brand new at this thing, and I have had more headaches than not trying to figure out FC 6, so before I give up with it alltogether I figured I would try a forum. I tried the advice you gave him and maybe I just don't understand commands.

To start off with I have 2 hardrives. I have windows on the first hard drive, sda, and I want FC6 on sdb, hardrive 2. Ended up with the same grief about how Grub is there but you have to tell its there, which seems a bit redundant but oh well. And I ended up with a bunch of errors that talk about parsing and devices, so I am guessing I just can't type the command correctly. Finally I got sick and tired of ruining my MBR everytime the installation crapped out so I decided to but GRUB on the first sector of my second hard drive. When I was at the command and used the df it said my boot was /dev/sdb2. It would be really nice if I could get a fix for this becuase I would really like to learn linux, yet I can't learn it, if I can't boot it.

It seems like it was only a problem when I attempted to install Fedora on the second drive, because I have done a dual boot splitting up the first drive, so I must have skipped over something when I was using two drives. Anyway, I'm using Fedora as my only os right now, so that pretty much solves it for me. There have been a few attempts before now to go completely linux, and then when I ran into something that I couldn't figure out I kept reinstalling Windows and getting rid of Linux, but for some reason it always brings me back, and this time I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with it because everything is in working order and I've gotten better and finding directions on the internetz. To anyone trying to dual boot, unless you really can't give up gaming, just go Linux completely. Its much more motivating to solve issues with Linux when you can't just restart your computer and boot Windows. My opinion of Linux so far is this, installing things blows(like drivers and a lot of stuff thats not in the package manager, compared to Windows's double click to run), but other than that Linux is awesome and worth the switch. Hopefully others will stumble across the directions in this thread though if they really desire to dual boot.