FC4: Grub Starts but will Not Boot

[OMF]

I've upgraded from FC3 to FC4. The grub bootloader is having problems.

Grub starts and displays the menu for Fedora and Windows XP(I have a dual boot). However, whenever I select an OS to boot, the computer simply resets. Nothing is booted.

Also when I try to enter the crub command line by pressing c, the computer also resets!

This is very annoying as now nothing will boot at all. I have tried using the resuce mode and #grub-install --recheck /dev/hdb (my disks are hdb and sda), but nothing seems to have worked.

I did have a lot of trouble with grub on this PC when I migrated the FC3 install onto it a few months ago. As I recall, grub for whatever reason, could not be installed on the sata disc or something.

[RatonGL]

Where is windows installed on sda or hdb? which is your fist HDD?

[OMF]

Windows is installed on hdb. Fedora on sda.

[RatonGL]

you can post the result of fdisk -l and grub.cong, it will help.

[tbl]

yeap : post output of fdisk -l and grub.conf...

[OMF]

#fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hdb 120.GB 120060444672 bytes
255 heads [etc,etc...]

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 5838 46893703+ c W95 FAT32(LBA)
/dev/hdb2 5839 14596 70348635 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda 160.GB [etc,etc....]

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 14665 19457 38499722+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 14 14402 115579642+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 14403 14664 2104513 f W95 FAT32(LBA)
/dev/sda5 14403 14664 2104483+ 82 Linux Swap/Solaris

Partition table entries not in disk order


#cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp)
root(hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11.1.1369_FC4smp ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp.img
title Fedora Core up (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root(hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11.1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows XP SP2
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1




As I look at this I an see that sda1 is marked as boot, but I think this PC is unable to boot from sda for whatever reason.

[RatonGL]

go to rescue mode and iinstall grub in hdb,
go to rescue
dhroot /mnt/sysimage/
grub-install hdb

and what this NTFS an FAT partion are doning in your SATA???

[tbl]

And, ...what about hda ?
:-/
IMHO
i don't think it will boot anything from hdb because no motherboard can boot second hdd... instead of you tell it it the bios...
And, grub consider two hdd : hd0 and hd1 : hd1=hdb, but hd0=hda !!! and what about sda ?
Maybe i am wrong, but it doesn't look good :-/ (to me)

[OMF]

go to rescue mode and iinstall grub in hdb,
go to rescue
dhroot /mnt/sysimage/
grub-install hdb

and what this NTFS an FAT partion are doning in your SATA???
Alas, this didn't work. The problem remains. Grub simply resets no mater what is done, including pressing c to get into the command line.

And, ...what about hda ?
:-/
IMHO
i don't think it will boot anything from hdb because no motherboard can boot second hdd... instead of you tell it it the bios...
And, grub consider two hdd : hd0 and hd1 : hd1=hdb, but hd0=hda !!! and what about sda ?
Maybe i am wrong, but it doesn't look good :-/ (to me)
The sorry tale of woe of this drive is something awful. It siffices to say that this Dell Dimension 5000 will not, cannot and just plain won't play nice with the hard discs. I had all this working before. I'm going to try setting up grub on sda, but I don't think the computer detects sda on bootup.

[RatonGL]

maybe its a problem with mbr, if you have the xp cd insert it and go to recue mode then put ficmbr and try to reinstall grub. i hope it works

[OMF]

Before I forget devices.map lists

(hd0) /dev/hdb
(hd1) /dev/sda

which looks right. Right?

[OMF]

The fixmbr.exe solution did not work.

I ran fixmbr, then ran grub-install /dev/hdb
I ran fixmbr, then ran grub-install /dev/sda

Neither solution worked.

Perhaps if I removed the hdb drive and just booted from SATA? But why would this be affecting grub?

[rega451]

Just a quick question. Is your sda drive an external usb drive? I am asking because if I remember correctly, 'sd(x)' usually refers to an external usb drive or a memory device like a pen drive or mmc/sd memory card. Internal hard drives are hda, hdb and the like. If this is the case you need to have the ability (in CMOS setup) to boot from an external device, and, the external device has to be a bootable device as well.

[OMF]

No, sda is an internal drive, not usb.

I've managed to get the blasted installation working, but not optimally. I'm speaking to you from my FC4 install. Huzzah... . Here's how I did it.

I detached the hdb hard disk, which has windows XP plus another storage drive on it. Then I ran
#grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

Which then set hd0 to sda.

I then had to change grub.conf to point to hd0 for the fedora partitions. Here's what it looks like now.
]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp.img
title Fedora Core-up (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
#title Windows XP SP2
# rootnoverify (hd0,0)
# chainloader +1

It's a bit of a mess and of course I can't use the windows install OR the NTFS store.

So my question now is what to do? I think if I reattached the hdb drive but set it as hd1, the things might work, but how do I go about doing this?

[RatonGL]

when you quit hdd just sda it works? you can try to put hdd on other slot in your mother board