Hi,

I am fairly new to Linux, especially the administration side (i.e. my own linux box).

I have a box that had WinXP on the only hard drive. This drive I moved to become a secondary drive and put a clean WD 80GB in as the master. I installed RedHat Fedora Core 1 without any problems and Linux came up great. The only problem was that the GRUB loader wouldn't boot Windows. So, I tried changing the menu.lst file (or, actually, the .cfg file that it points to) based on several website's recommendations. None worked, but I managed to get GRUB not to work as well.

What actually took out GRUB I don't remember as I have been trying to fix this for several weekends, now. Here's what I do know:

1) I originally set up hd0 to be split into 2 partitions: the first is linux, the second is unused right now (hopefully later it will be a "shared partition" between windows and linux, but that's not the issue, now.)
2) The entire hd1 is Windows XP, which, also, is unimportant right now as GRUB seems to be having issues.
3) I ran the GRUB fix that I later found out to be for Linux Core 2. (I am currently downloading the disc-images for Core 2.)
4) I can get linux to boot using the boot disk I made during the install procedure.
5) I have a boot disk for GRUB, but it doesn't work.
6) If I run a terminal window and run grub and enter "root (hd0,0)" I get an error "Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x93".
7) If I run "grub-install /dev/hda" from the terminal window, I get an error "The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly."
8) If I reboot the system without any boot disk, I get "GRUB Loading stage1.5." and "GRUB loading, please wait..." and "Error 17" (each on its own line.)

Any help would be appreciated and please be fairly specific for this recent Linux "convert" ;v)

- JimmyGourd

so are you using fedora core 2 or what ?
i heard tha fedora core 2 had a bug that prevented it booting on some machines.

you deserve a but of a slapping for editing the grub vonfig file without knowing what you were doing and without first making a backup.

all i can durget is getting the latest version of grub.. (install it) then install to the mbr with the command

grub-install root=/ /dev/hda

then re-write the menu.lst in the grub folder...

somthing like

[code]
default=0
timeout=10
title Linux
kernel /path/to/kennel/kenrl_image root=/dev/hda1 (other kernel options)
initrd /path/to/kenrel/initrd_image (optional !)

If you moved windows to hdb you might have to reinstall window mbr and then install grub so window can find itself,may be looking on hda.

comprookie2000,

Thanks for the info. I actually did reinstall the Windows MBR and, now that you mention it, that was what hosed GRUB. I had installed it onto hda instead of hdb... I guess it doesn't pay to work on this machine late into the night...



qwijibow,

I am still running Fedor Core 1, but I did download the 5 discs in the Fedora Core 2 distro. Actually, I read up a lot on the GRUB loader before changing anything (and I have it fairly memorized from messing with it so much...). I'll leave the slapping to my next sparring partner ;v)

I installed GNU GRUB v0.95 via RPM and tried running grub-install and got the listed results:

# grub-install root=/ /dev/hda
More than one install_devices?
Usage: grub-install [OPTION] install_device
Install GRUB on your drive.

-h, --help print this message and exit
-v, --version print the version information and exit
--root-directory=DIR install GRUB images under the directory DIR
instead of the root directory
--grub-shell=FILE use FILE as the grub shell
--no-floppy do not probe any floppy drive
--force-lba force GRUB to use LBA mode even for a buggy
BIOS
--recheck probe a device map even if it already exists

INSTALL_DEVICE can be a GRUB device name or a system device filename.

Report bugs to <bug-grub@gnu.org>.


I don't see where it allows using root=/ in the options... Am I missing an option to allow this?

Thanks so mucy for your help and any further help you can provide!

oops.. that should have been --root-directory=/ sorry.

(Sorry, work's been keeping me hoppin'!)

Re-ran with the --root-directory option and got results stating that stage1 can't be found as follows:

# grub-install --root-directory=/ /dev/hda
The file //boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

Also note that there are two forward slashes at the beginning of the file name. Does this mean anything useful?

Thanks again for any help.

I was going to try installing FC 2, but disc 1 doesn't seem to validate properly when I check my media. The other discs validate just fine... I downloaded the disc again and tried the new one, but also to no avail.

If I can get FC 2 downloaded, will that install fix the problem? If not, any other things I can try?

I was able to get the first Fedora CD, so I am attempting an update. I chose to "update the settings" on my boot loader, so we shall see what happens.

OK, I upgraded to Fedora Core 2, but this did not fix the problem. Does anyone know how to get GRUB to see Stage 1 and Stage 2?

Well, it seems I have solved the problem. The issue was that I had hidden one or both of hd0,0 hd0,1.

Solution (in case anyone might find this useful):
1) reboot using the rescue disc following all prompts until the command shell appeared
2) #chroot /mnt/sysimage
3) #grub --verbose
4) #unhide (hd0,0)
- Confirmation of the file-system type was displayed
5) #unhide (hd0,1)
- Confirmation of the file-system type was displayed
6) #root (hd0,0)
- Confirmation message
7) #kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb
- Confirmation message
8) #initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
- Confirmation message
(Note: I am running the 2.6.5-1.358 kernel.)

Since this worked I "quit" grub and edited the grub.conf file:
#nano /boot/grub/grub.conf

I basically but the same sequence of commands (from unhide (hd0,0) to initrd ...) under my "title Fedora Core" line of my grub.conf and saved it.

Finally, I removed the rescue disc (and made sure there was no boot floppy in the drive) and rebooted. Linux came up like a champ!

One webpage that I found useful was http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=996 . There were others (including LinuxQuestions.org) that were helpful, but this page hit my issue head-on.

Thanks again for those who helped!