I have Fedora 11 installed on my pc and partitioned my hard drive to install SLED 11. I tried installing SLED with out a boot loader but it did not work. now the only OS I can boot to is SLED. How do I edit the boot loader to show and boot my Fedora partition?

thanks

If you installed SLED and did not install a bootloader, that would mean that the Fedora loader was still in use. If SLED is the only option, that would mean you somehow reconfigured the Fedora loader to somehow show SLED but not Fedora-----this does not seem plausible.

The trick with GRUB is that it gets "hard-coded" on installation to point to the desired /boot partition.

Regardless, since you can get into SLED, I would proceed as follows:

1. Look in /boot/grub/menu.lst to confirm that you see the same boot options listed as what you see when actually booting. This confirms that we know which partition GRUB is pointed at.

2. Assuming it is in fact the SLED menu being used, simply edit it to add the entry for Fedora.

3. If it's NOT the right menu, then simply re-install GRUB from SLED and have it point to SLED's /boot. Example: suppose you have one drive (sda) and /boot is on sda3. Install grub as follows:
grub ##starts the grub shell
root (hd0,2) ##points grub at drive 1, partition #3 (grub counts from zero)
setup (hd0) ##installs grub on the MBR of drive 1

I find it convenient to alway set up aliases (soft links) in /boot so that the menu.lst can always have the same names for the kernel and initrd files.

easiest would be to redo grub legacy in mbr to point to your fedora boot partition

see my signature on troubleshooter....but I gather you can boot into the other distro but claim it was installed without a bootloader?

Can you explain that a bit more please?

....and then edit the Fedora menu.lst to have an entry for SLED....

aus;
Since when is LXDE a distribution?

hi pixellany

I assume you mean aus9....am I just a string to you as well? lol

I could leave it blank, but it focusses the mind of some ppl that LXDE is my preferred wm and I do not want to recommend my distro ...sidux...as some newbies may think.....illogically...that they should try sidux.

If I was a moderator I might think this is off topic.

sorry I was a bit vague. I tried installing SLED without boot loader and Fedora was the only OS to boot. I then thought if there is no boot loader for SLED how would it boot so I redid the installation with a boot loader but now SLED is the only OS booting or show as an option when booting.
How do I fix the mess I made?

thanks

hi

ok based on your new explanation, the bootloader can point to distro one or your other one....its your choice.

There is only one mbr for each drive but each partition for linux (non-swap) can have grub in it as well.

Therefore boot up SLED and if below confuses you....post your /etc/fstab and the output of fdisk -l

Open a terminal and su to root or use sudo (command)



change to correct hd0,x as grub finds...hd0,4 assumes /dev/sda5

next edit with root powers...your /boot/grub/menu.lst to add an entry for Fedora

------
copy and paste

title Fedora
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

_________

But you must change hd0,0 to what is the correct outputs.

reboot to test.

2) if you can not boot into fedora...create a similar chainload to SLED

title SLED
root (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

remember grub counts from zero as per my signature.

for stuff to try out at menu stage...press C for commands and have a peek this
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hooter-278748/

the fdisk -l came back like this
Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 5951 6078 102816 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 679 13828 62251875 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 13829 14593 6144862+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 * 1 5950 47793343+ f W98 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1 262 2104452 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 263 1568 10490413+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 1569 5950 35198383+ 83 Linux


find /boot/grub came up with Error 15: File not found.

/dev/sda1 is the boot partition for Fedora if I remember correctly.

ok the find /boot/grub/menu.lst command pruduced (hd0,5)

when I type
root (hd0,0)
the output is Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Assuming you are still using the SLED bootloader, the entry aus9 posted above

should work in the SLED menu.lst file if Fedora is indeed on sda1. You could also mount the sda1 parition from SLED and navigate to the /boot/grub directory of Fedora and copy the first Fedora entry from the grub.conf file in /boot/grub directory.

I typed
and now my Fedora partitions is booting again but it's not giving me any options at all it's just booting striaght into Fedora.

I booted from a Parted Magic cd I have and accessed both menu.lst's. I copied Fedora's entry into the SLED menu and the SLED entry into the Fedora menu. Was this a bad or stupid thing to do? will it help at all?

I'm wanting to be able to boot to the multiboot screen and select either Fed or SLED but at the moment Fedora boot and does not even get to the multiboot screen.

hi

you may have a hiddenmenu option in the Fedora menu or...you have a savedefault option.

post the output of fed's /boot/grub/menu.lst

leaping ahead..use root powers to delete any reference to savedefault or hiddenmenu

at top of menu add a new line

default 0

where grub legacy counts menu items from zero...so the first hightlighted entry will be top line...fedora

also look for timeout value...if value is 0 you have NO time to see menu and it boots the default item.

see my signature if needed

I managed to solve my problem (temporarily or not).
I had to reinstall both OS's so I installed Fedora first and set it to boot from /dev/sda1 which is the boot partition I made for it. Then I installed SLED and let it choose where it wanted to boot from. When I rebooted I could choose SLED or Fedora /dev/sda1.

I think I may have messed up my system again....
I had everything running well untill I resized my partitions. I made the SLED partition smaller and the Fedora partiton bigger.now when booting I get an error message saying
how do I rectify this problem? Niether operating system is booting.

thanks

hi

you resized your partitions after install I assume?

reboot into a live cd and re-install (linking grub in mbr to balance of its booting files) grub into mbr

assuming fedora is still first partition

some live cds do not use su so try sux or sudo grub....combining sudo and grub into one line

good luck

if it works last line of messages will say succeeded