Fedora 7 Install off LiveCD Ends at grub prompt

[mowestusa]

I did a quick search of the forums and I also searched the Fedora Wiki for this issue, but have been unable to find a solution that worked for my system.

I used a Fedora 7 Live CD (Gnome version) to install Fedora 7 on a Athlon 1000 with 320megs or ram.

1. Install was reported as being completed successfully.
2. Rebooted without the Fedora 7 Live CD in the DVD drive, but only received a "grub:" prompt.
3. I used the standard options in the installer. I did not change any of the suggestions. I have only one DVD ROM drive and one 60gig Hard drive on this system on the same Primary Channel with the jumpers set for DVD as Master and Hard drive as the Slave.
4. LVM was used because it was the standard partition make up that is suggested. I let Fedora wipe the whole drive (identified as sda) and use the whole drive.

From doing some reading it seems to be a problem with the LVM, but the commands in this post on bugzilla don't seem to work (when I reboot with the Fedora Live CD):

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=241949#c26

Any help would be appreciated. I rarely have issues with the install of Linux or Unix, and have installed Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, and NetBSD, but I will admit that I'm lost when it comes to the bootloader simply not working.

Is there a fix that can be done from the Fedora Live CD or Knoppix (which I also have available) or do I need to download a different Fedora CD and try a reinstall?

Thanks, I would love to give Fedora a try. I'm hopping to make it my new workstation for work, but have wasted a day so far because of a faulty DVD drive. Now the new DVD drive boots and lets me install fine, but the install seems to have failed somewhere.

mowestusa

[bob]

Not sure that this will be the answer, but it's worth a try:

1. Boot off the Fedora CD
2. At the boot prompt type 'linux rescue'
3. The rescue mode will find the fedora installation
4. Type 'chroot /mnt/sysimage' (without quotes)
5. Type 'grub-install /dev/hda' (to install Grub to the MBR of the 1st HD)
6. Restart and you should get the boot menu

[mowestusa]

Well the troubles continue, I tried the following:

1. Booted the Fedora Rescue CD.
2. Tried the following commands exactly as they appear below:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
/sbin/mkinitrd -f /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

3. No, errors popped up, rebooted, and still the same issue.

4. Tried the follow commands which you will noticed added one more command switch by themselves first:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
/sbin/mkinitrd -f --force-lvm-probe /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

5. No errors, rebooted, same issue, still dropped to the command line. So I tried the following which added Bob's suggestion of the "grub-install" but I used /dev/sda because that was how my hard drive was identified during the install even though I'm not using SATA or USB drives, this is how it identified my IDE drive. So here are the series of commands:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
/sbin/mkinitrd -f --force-lvm-probe /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)
grub-install /dev/sda

6. Still no errors put up by any of the commands, and rebooted, and still no joy. Any additional help would be greatly appreciated.

mowestusa

[w5set]

type in

cat /etc/grub.conf

and post back results

It is still dropping to the "grub" command line isn't it?

[mowestusa]

type in
cat /etc/grub.conf

and post back results
It is still dropping to the "grub" command line isn't it?

Yes, it is still dropping to the "grub" command line. I also tried a reinstall of Fedora, and did a custom partition. I eliminated the LVM partitions, and did a simply three primary partition scheme.
/dev/sda1 = /boot
/dev/sda2 = /
/dev/sda3 = swap

Also I have chosen to install grub to the Master Boot Record on the hard drive.

After doing the reinstall, I'm still dropped to the "grub" command line. Just a reminder and a wonder, I'm using just the primary IDE channel on the motherboard. I have the DVD-ROM as the master and the IDE 60gig hard drive as the slave. This would not create the booting problem would it?

Here is the contents of the grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Not that you do not have to rerun grub after makding changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.21-1.3194.fc7)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img


I'm also including the results of "fdisk -l" below:

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 72 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 7216 57858097 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 7217 7297 650632 82 Linux swap / Solaris


I hope this helps to solve the issue I'm having with installing Fedora. It seems weird that such a major bug made it into the release, but I'm thankful for the willing people in this forum that are helping new Fedora users work out these installation issues.

mowestusa

[bob]

That * indicates that the boot is at (hd0,0) instead of (hd0,1). Also, check out that message:

You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /

Perhaps something went wrong? I always just set a root and swap partition for my installs, skipping that boot partition altogether.

Try making that change for root and splashimage to (hd0,0) and see if it boots.

[mowestusa]

That * indicates that the boot is at (hd0,0) instead of (hd0,1). Also, check out that message: Perhaps something went wrong? I always just set a root and swap partition for my installs, skipping that boot partition altogether.

Try making that change for root and splashimage to (hd0,0) and see if it boots.

Yes, Bob, I agree that the comment message at the beginning is weird, especially since no errors were reported at all during the install. I have checked the CD and that came back fine. I'm really at a lose and about ready to just install another distro, at this point.

Well, first I tried your idea, got into the grub.conf with the Rescue disk, and made your suggested changes. Still nothing.

Decided that maybe the 4th install would be the charm. I followed your suggested partition layout which is the same one that I have used on every other system that I have Linux on right now. I have just two partitions. One is /dev/sda1 which is / and the other is /dev/sda2 which is swap.

After install was complete with no errors again, I rebooted and it dropped me into a "grub" command line again. I looked at the "grub.conf" with the rescue CD and everything was the same except all "(hd0,1)" instances were now "(hd0,0)" which you would expect after the new install with only the / partition and a swap.

So, I'm thinking that Fedora and I were never meant to be. If there are any other suggestions, I would appreciate it. There must be a fix that works, because I can't believe on such basic hardware I'm having such an issue.

Thanks for the suggestions.

mowestusa

[bob]

One other suggestion, lame as it is, but since you're using IDE, I'd try my post #2 using hda instead of sda.

[mowestusa]

One other suggestion, lame as it is, but since you're using IDE, I'd try my post #2 using hda instead of sda.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by trying your advice in post #2 with hda. I'm pretty sure that I did try the "grub install" command with /dev/hda and it said that it could not find it. Also fdisk -l does not identify it as hda but as sda. This is the first distro that does this. I don't know if there is some new hardware detection or kernel upgrade that does this. It used to be that hda were your IDE drives and sda were your usb drives and I believe SATA drives were identified in that way too.

Anything else from the community???

mowestusa

[bob]

Well, if it can't find it, I guess that's not going to work anyway, but you're right - this is the first distro that identifies all drives as sda, even though it's IDE. That's why I suggested using the correct term instead of the sda.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by bob
One other suggestion, lame as it is, but since you're using IDE, I'd try my post #2 using hda instead of sda.I'm not exactly sure what you mean by trying your advice in post #2 with hda. I'm pretty sure that I did try the "grub install" command with /dev/hda and it said that it could not find it. Also fdisk -l does not identify it as hda but as sda.Hello mowestusa & bob,

Actually, /dev/sda IS what you should have tried in that grub-install command. Remember, you are using grub-install from within the Fedora OS and the sdx syntax for devices applies. We still must use the (hdx,y) format in the GRUB environment such as grub.conf or the GRUB shell or native GRUB.

I think you should do what bob said in post #2, but corrected as bob meant (but didn't say, I think?) in post #8:grub-install /dev/sda

or, if a "no corresponding drive in BIOS" error occurs...

grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

[bob]

Good point! (especially if it works) Even thought the distro hasn't booted, grub's within it and will need sda.

[mowestusa]

Hello mowestusa & bob,

Actually, /dev/sda IS what you should have tried in that grub-install command. Remember, you are using grub-install from within the Fedora OS and the sdx syntax for devices applies. We still must use the (hdx,y) format in the GRUB environment such as grub.conf or the GRUB shell or native GRUB.

I think you should do what bob said in post #2, but corrected as bob meant (but didn't say, I think?) in post #8:grub-install /dev/sda

or, if a "no corresponding drive in BIOS" error occurs...

grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

Well, I will try "grub-install /dev/sda". I'm doubting it will work, but I have not tried this since my last install which now has just two primary partitions sda1 and sda2 as "/" and "swap". I will use the command by booting with the Fedora Rescue disk.

Thanks, any other suggestions???

[mowestusa]

Okay,

I tried:

1. Booted Fedora Rescue CD

2. Used the following commands, all had no errors:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/sda

3. Rebooted, and I was dropped at the grub command prompt.

Failure again. Any suggestions.

[bob]

Stoat's offline for now, but he did mention this:

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

I can't think of any reason for this problem myself. You only have the one drive, which Fedora has no problem accessing, and which you've already used to install other distros. I'm sure you've already checked the sha1sum of the download, media check and all that to make sure your data was correct going into the install. I suppose you always could try a Live CD download & install as one other option and possibly try a quick install of some other distro that has a grub bootloader to see if the problem persists, maybe PCLinuxOS or one of the 'buntus's. In the meantime, let me poke a couple of my friends and see if they can come up with any ideas...

[Firewing1]

The problem with grub'bing while in a chroot is that there's no /dev entries, so something will always go wrong... If the grub-install /dev/sda worked but is still dropping you to grub>, that's good news - GRUB has been installed correctly at least, but it's dropping you to the shell because it's missing a configuration file. What happens when you type "cat /" and then hit "tab"?
Firewing1

[mowestusa]

Well, thank you Bob, and the rest of the community.

On this same hard drive I had installed Slackware 10.2, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS with MythTV. Those installs went well without a problem. However, I did make some recent changes to the hardware.

Now, I changed out the motherboard, because of stability issues, which gave me a faster Athlon Processor, but it is the same hard drive, graphics card, and I also changed out the DVD drive because it seemed flaky. Now, in all of my hardware testing which I did with the Fedora LiveCD and Knoppix, I have the current configuration:
===========
Athlon 1800 which is running at 1157 because the motherboard only has a 100mhz bus.
320 megs of RAM
DVD-ROM Drive (on the primary IDE channel set to "master")
60 gig Western Digital Hard Drive (on the primary IDE channel set to "slave")
Floppy Drive connected to the floppy connector and working (as far as I can tell without a booting os)
- The Secondary IDE channel is not being used.
=============

I took Bob's advice. First the Fedora install sums checked out fine, I even did the on disk check as well, besides checking the file before the burn. Second I downloaded and burned a Ubuntu Desktop 7.04 LiveCD. Checked the sums, and it is fine too. Next I installed Ubuntu off of the LiveCD. I got the result of a "Successful Install". I rebooted without the LiveCD, and bam, I was dropped back to a "grub prompt", just like under Fedora.

So now I'm thinking the problem is in one of two places. 1. Neither distro likes the DVD-ROM and hard drive on the same channel with the hard drive set to "slave", or 2. I have a bad hard drive, which seems weird because both installs have no issue installing, and the grub-install /dev/sda seemed to work fine too.

What are your suggestions?

1. I could try another hard drive (I have a 40 laying around, don't know if it is any better than what I got)
2. I could wipe the drive to 0's using dd (I know that dd can wipe the whole hard drive and it can wipe the MBR, although I don't have those commands at my finger tips.)
3. I could try putting the DVD-ROM on the Secondary Channel set to "master", and put the Hard drive on the primary channel set to "master", and do a reinstall.

Any thoughts from the community of which way to turn. I really appreciate your help, I think I'm making progress, although it has taken too much time. I guess that is what I get for keeping old computers and old parts in service, but at least these parts did not cost me a cent yet, just a lot of time.

[Firewing1]

I'm betting it doesn't like the DVD as master - Try switching it to slave or putting it on the secondary channel.
Firewing1

[bob]

Dang, I LOVE Frankenputers! :D Thanks, Firewing1 - that might be the core problem and it's a good idea to use that second IDE channel if it's free, since you'll be getting max speeds with both the DVD and hard drive that way; no conflicts in data flow.

[mowestusa]

Dang, I LOVE Frankenputers! :D Thanks, Firewing1 - that might be the core problem and it's a good idea to use that second IDE channel if it's free, since you'll be getting max speeds with both the DVD and hard drive that way; no conflicts in data flow.

Well, this Frankenputer, caused all the problems. Thank you to everyone. This is what I tried, and what finally worked. Now I have Fedora 7 installed, booting, no grub prompt, no boot errors, at least for tonight. :)

Taking Firewing1's advice to heart I did:

1. Disconnected the IDE HD 60gig, plugged the ribben cable into the 2nd IDE channel with only the DVD-ROM set to "master". Attached a second IDE cable to the primary IDE channel and to the IDE HD 60gig as the "master". After doing this the computer no longer saw the IDE HD.

2. Tried the same set up with a 40gig drive. Still no love.

3. Tried both the 40gig and 60gig drives with two different ribbon cables, in both positions on the cable. Still no love, the computer simply never saw the IDE HD, but always saw the DVD-ROM.

4. Finally tried the ribbon cable attached to the DVD-ROM drive on the primary channel with the DVD-ROM set to "slave" and then attached it to the 40gig IDE HD and set it to "master" and bingo, the computer saw both drives. I did the Fedora install, and everything worked like a charm. I believe that I could have done the same with the 60gig IDE HD because I just put it into a USB enclosure, and it seems to be working just fine (I didn't because I was so sick of unscrewing the 40 and 60 drives by this time, I was just happy it worked). So this whole thing has just been weird all around.

So what do I believe is the issue. I believe that either I have two bad IDE ribbon cables that I should just throw away. Or I have a weird motherboard that will not see the Primary Channel if I have something plugged into the Secondary Channel.

The other advice that I can give, is that if you do put the DVD or CD drive on the same IDE channel as the primary IDE hard drive put the hard drive as the "master" and the DVD as the "slave".

Now you guys can just sit back and wait as a new Fedora user runs Fedora 7 though its passes as my main work desktop. Thanks for all of the help, this community is great!!!

[bob]

Good for you! As info, "master" is used when there's a "slave"; otherwise it's 'single' or 'cable-select'. Don't toss the cables just yet.... And, thanks again Firewing1 for having that quick solution when I've lost a few more brain cells without progress.