Linux cant boot
 

Hey

I had a problem after Fedora installation that caused Windows to fail booting.
After some experiments i decided to install windowsXp again.
Now i cant boot Linux.
Then I installed Linux again and said no to the startup manager. To prevent windows to fail booting again.
And i decieded to install af 3part bootmanager.
I installed Partionmagic Bootmagic.

I can boot WindowsXP but not Linux.
Why?

I got to linux partitions.
1Gb Swap (Ext3)
16Gb System (Ext3 Swap)

I also got a partition for Bootmagic 50mb (Fat32)
40Gb for windowsXp (NTFS)
58Gb for Other stuff (NTFS)

All on a 120Gb Maxtor Sata Disk
Drive geometry is something like this:
50mb, 40Gb, 58Gb, 1Gb, 16Gb

How can i make linux boot again?
What is missing?

What error(s) do you get when Linux fails to boot?

Since you're using Boot Magic, you shouldn't be installing grub or lilo in the MBR. When you get to the boot loader during the Linux install, you should tell it to install grub/lilo on the root of the Linux partition - not the MBR.

You might want to reinstall Linux and try that, otherwise please post more info (error codes, the order of the partitions, etc)

Simply nothing happens when bootmagic will start linux.
How do i tell not to install i mbr. I dont think i have seen this posibility...

In my first post you ca se the order of my partitions.

Did you make a boot disk? If you did, boot to that. Does it work? If linux boots then you probably just have a boot loader config problem. If the boot floppy fails, either your linux is hosed or you've made partition changes that affect partition numbering.

I don't remember the exact point of the install but iirc it's fairly obvious. It asks you where you want to install the bootloader (or lilo or grub - I don't remember the exact phrasing). You should have 3 choices: 1) Install in MBR (don't choose this), 2) Install in boot partition/linux partition (choose this), 3) Don't install (for booting from floppy). Again, choose #2.

Ok, I see the order now. Is the 50mb primary and the rest logical?

Also, why is your swap partition 16Gb? Your swap partition is only for paging - not for storing apps. As a rule of thumb, it should be 2x physical RAM. You have 8GB of RAM? And 1GB is enough for a bare-bones linux partition, but probably not enough if you want to run current window managers (Gnome, KDE, etc) and a lot of programs. I'm guessing you'll want to reallocate that space.

As far as your original problem goes, since Boot Magic is pretty idiot-proof (no files to edit -just point and click) then my only advice is to reinstall and put grub/lilo on the boot partition and see if that helps.