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Dual-Os System Questions

R

RLich8

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
348
Ok, I've got a PC with 2 HDD's.

One drive has a C:\ partition with Windows, and E:\ which is all my files and such. The other physical drive was virgin.

I tried installing Fedora Core 4 on that virgin HDD, and setting up a dual-boot system. I used automatic partitioning. My Windows XP boots up just fine, but when I try loading my Linux drive up, it says "error loading operating system" or some such thing. Mind you I put everything on the default settings.

I re-installed it about 3 times now, and no dice.

What am I doing wrong?
 
Did you have both drives installed when you installed Fedora? Do you boot Linux with GRUB or LILO or through changing which drive starts first? Where did you install the bootloader?

 
I did have both drives installed when I installed Fedora. The 1st drive has WinXP on it, 2nd drive was virgin, now has Fedora on it.

Used GRUB as the bootloader, my WinXP drive starts first. Bootloader is installed on WinXP drive.
 
Okay, so GRUB runs on boot, correct? Then chainloader +1's to WinXP's boot loader. If so, please post your grub.conf, or at least the part related to Fedora.

 
Use fdisk or cfdisk to make sure your linux partion is set as bootable?
 
unhappy_mage said:
Okay, so GRUB runs on boot, correct? Then chainloader +1's to WinXP's boot loader. If so, please post your grub.conf, or at least the part related to Fedora.

Click to expand...
In order to see the bootloader, I have to press ESC after the pc boots up, otherwise it just defaults to Windows.

I'd go ahead and add that line to my conf. file, but I don't know how to access that.

Sorry, I'm a total LINUX noob.

FSCDiablo said:
Use fdisk or cfdisk to make sure your linux partion is set as bootable?
Click to expand...
Will try that as well.
 
The partition being bootable or not shouldn't bother anything. GRUB ignores that for Linux; for Windows I think it makes a difference.

When you press esc, do you get a menu like this (well, not CentOS; that's just what I had a VM around for - just the box with text in it. Ignore the background.):
grub1.png

If so, press 'e' and you should see this:
grub2.png

Tell us what you see there and we'll try to help you out.

 
No, actually, I get a very different one.

It shows all the devices that I can boot off of. It's got my 2 Samsung HDD's, my iPod, I think my CDROM drive, and "bootable add in cards"

Now I'm starting to get entirely thrown off.
 
Ah, okay. That doesn't sound like GRUB, it sounds like a BIOS boot loader. I take it you never get a prompt like the one below, regardless of what drive you boot? If so, we'll have to do a "repair installation" of Redhat so you can install the bootloader. That'll give you a prompt like the one above, and we can work from there. Follow the GRUB instructions on this page.

 
Allright, booted off the cd, started up the repair console thing, did "chroot /mnt/sysimage" then did "grub-install /dev/sda" (also tried sda1, sdb, and sdb1), it wouldn't install on anything.

It gave me an error something to the effect of this: "does not have corresponding BIOS drive"
 
Okay. /dev/sda is for the first SCSI or SATA disk; /dev/hda will be the primary master, /dev/hdb the primary slave, /dev/hdc the secondary master, etc. Replace that device with the correct one and it should work. Also, if you can tell me what your grub.conf looks like (try "cat /boot/grub/grub.conf" (and remember tab-completion!)) that may help if you run into problems.

 
I am using SATA disks. No IDE here. I tried "grub-install /dev/sda", and it didn't work.

Let me see if I can post you my grub.conf file.
 
Try "fdisk -l" to see what the drives show up as. Also, "df" will show you what disk partitions are mounted where, not to mention its primary function of showing how much is used of each.

 
Here's what my grub.conf lookslike

Code: 
boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
          root (hd1,0)
          kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb 
quiet
          initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title other
          rootnoverify (hd0,0)
          chainloader +1

As far as re-installing grub, still a no-go. I followed that guide you linked me to and it won't install on anything.

Edit: I'm re-installing using a link on that page. This one might work for me. I'll post up asap
 
Ok, I can actually GET to GRUB now (it's installed on sdb1), but I get this error when I select Fedora Core.

Cannot mount selected partition.

I'm assuming this is just a configuration error. I think we're pretty close here. Any ideas?
 
GRUB Manual said:
17 : Cannot mount selected partition
This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB.
Click to expand...
So it sounds like it's pointing to the wrong partition, maybe a swap or Windows partition? Are you selecting the second drive from the BIOS thingy to get to grub?

In any case, I'm going to bed. Good luck, see you in the morning. :cool:

 
Yes, I am selecting the second drive on that BIOS loader thing to get to Grub. That's kinda how I'd like it to be setup, so if I have to boot to Linux, I just use that. Otherwise it goes to Windows like normal. Maybe we can finish this tomorrow.

Thanks for your help and sleep sound. :D
 
I'm guessing that when you choose to boot off the second drive, it becomes the primary drive(bios re-orders). So, I would bet that if you install it on sdb, but threat sdb like its sda when grub will initialize, it will work.

boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb
quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
 
Keep it, just glad to help out another Linux user. :D

Also, if you install on sda, you may eliminate the problem and be able to use grub to select windows or linux rather than using the BIOS manager thingy. But on the other hand, if it ain't broke don't fix it ;)

 
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