Fedora 12 Dual Boot Win 7 Issues

[Rotstein]

Hi as a daily user of fedora I have read many post of this forum, but I've never ask anything until today

Well, the thing is that I bought a laptop (gateway n79 intel i3), it came with windows 7 but I want a dual boot machine... since I found easier to work on fedora...

so as soon as I got it I installed Fedora 12 i386, with the DVD, on a different partition on the same drive... at the instalation I chose to place the grub at the MBR... I mess the whole thing up since I could only boot fedora, this was because win 7 detected a corruption at the MBR, so I recover win 7 and I kept this thing running like that for a week (without access to fedora )

Well I read a few other forums and I found that there is a choice called EasyBCD, so I used it and instead of booting with the grub it will be the BCD of windows (as far as I understand)

So I installed again Fedora but I chose to place the grub at the same partition where fedora lived in... no longer the MBR...

I restarted the computer and all I've got was dark screen that said: No bootable device... insert bootable cd... hahaha too bad...

The only solution that came to me was to repeat what i did the last time... reinstall the grub at the MBR and recover windows.... and I did... and it worked (lol)....

well the thing is that now I have a Grub-like menu after the bios and it lets me boot Win 7 and fedora 12 and windows does work!

but fedora just shows the next thing:

grub>

well the thing is that I dont know how to run fedora at this point... but I certainly don't want to return to the same problems!!!

I might have over explained but as you can imagine I'm fed up with the complexity of the task. It was never this hard on my desktop computer :S

Thanks in advance to all of you! and I hope you can help me.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by Rotstein

I have a Grub-like menu after the bios and it lets me boot Win 7 and fedora 12 and windows does work!

but fedora just shows the next thing:

grub>

Hello Rotstein,

I know of only one thing to do for that. It's to re-install the GRUB boot loader. It's not unheard of for GRUB to be busted immediately after a new installation. Re-installing GRUB often fixes it. You can do that by booting with the Fedora DVD. Then choose "Rescue installed system" from the menu. Work your way along until you can start the shell and land at a bash command prompt. Run chroot /mnt/sysimage. Then run grub-install /dev/sda. That should re-install GRUB in the master boot record of the hard drive. Reboot and see if it helped.


Update, change of mind, and correction...

I thought some more about this and my original comments above. Don't do those steps. I re-read your words carefully. Especially this...

Originally Posted by Rotstein

The only solution that came to me was to repeat what i did the last time... reinstall the grub at the MBR and recover windows.... and I did... and it worked (lol)....

I missed that "recover Windows" part the first time. I wouldn't have expected someone to do such a thing (repair the Windows boot loader by first re-installing GRUB in the MBR and then repairing the Windows boot loader). Anyway, all of this now means to me that Windows currently is booting directly from BIOS and that "Grub-like" menu you are seeing may be the boot menu of EasyBCD's NeoGRUB. I have no way of knowing really. Anyway, Fedora will never boot from the Windows boot loader if Fedora's GRUB boot loader is not installed in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition. So if you want to boot Fedora from Windows 7 using EasyBCD to configure the Windows boot loader, then you need to re-install GRUB in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition. But re-install just GRUB not the whole Fedora system. Read on for why it should work out better this time if you do that...

Originally Posted by Rotstein

So I installed again Fedora but I chose to place the grub at the same partition where fedora lived in... no longer the MBR...

I restarted the computer and all I've got was dark screen that said: No bootable device... insert bootable cd... hahaha too bad...

One of the peculiar things that Anaconda (the Fedora installer) does ever since Fedora 11 is to change the active partition to the Fedora boot partition. The active partition is irrelevant to GRUB (that's why it's peculiar). But it's essential to a Windows boot loader. So when you re-installed Fedora and chose to install GRUB in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition, it also busted the Windows boot loader when it changed the active partition. BTW, the developers working on Anaconda have acknowledged that making Anaconda change the active partition was well-intentioned but nevertheless a mistake, and it will not do that anymore starting with Fedora 13.

Therefore and in conclusion, re-installing just the GRUB boot loader in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition will not change the active partition and will not break your Windows boot loader and should make it possible for you to use EasyBCD to configure Windows 7 to boot Fedora. You can do that by booting with the Fedora DVD. Then choose "Rescue installed system" from the menu. Work your way along until you can start the shell and land at a bash command prompt. Run chroot /mnt/sysimage. Then run grub-install /dev/sdxy. You change x & y to the drive & partition of the Fedora boot partition (or root partition if there is not a separate boot partition). Reboot and use EasyBCD to configure Windows to boot that partition.

Originally Posted by Rotstein

but I certainly don't want to return to the same problems!!!

Well, I make no promises of any kind regarding that.

[Rotstein]

stoat, thanks for the time and patience! I'm going to follow your instructions and I'll let you know how it went!

[Rotstein]

Hi stoat, well it feels like somewhere somehow a black cat crossed my path and I didn't even notice it :s lol...

Well I should have added since the beginning that when I first installed Fedora there was a little problem... (Keep in mind before you read the following that I did run the md5 check up when I got the dvd and I ran the self testing option at the installation... It is a 100% functional dvd as far as I know)
When I selected the default installation option the whole environment seemed to load without trouble, but after that the screen turned black and that was all... so I had to install Fedora with a basic video driver.

Now that I finally have the answer for the original trouble, I can't run the commands because the same thing happens after I select the "Rescue installed system" option... I can see how the system starts to load something called intrd.img (or something like that) and a bunch of other stuff but when it should show a graphical interface or even a command prompt it just turns black... (The screen isn't turned off, it just becomes black)

Any other ideas?

Thanks again!!!

[stoat]

Originally Posted by Rotstein

When I selected the default installation option the whole environment seemed to load without trouble, but after that the screen turned black and that was all... so I had to install Fedora with a basic video driver.

Now that I finally have the answer for the original trouble, I can't run the commands because the same thing happens after I select the "Rescue installed system" option... I can see how the system starts to load something called intrd.img (or something like that) and a bunch of other stuff but when it should show a graphical interface or even a command prompt it just turns black... (The screen isn't turned off, it just becomes black)

Any other ideas?

I'm sort of losing track of what's happening. That's why I split instinct246 off to a new thread. So you've re-installed Fedora again? Where did GRUB get installed this time? Is Fedora or Windows booting from BIOS now?

I guess if you're trying to boot the DVD in rescue mode, then you're wanting to re-install GRUB in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition in order to use EasyBCD to configure the Windows boot loader to boot it. Is that right? If it's not right, then take moment to summarize for your readers the current situation and what you want to do now.

Anyway, if I guessed right about the situation and what you are doing, then try this idea to get into that rescue mode with the basic video driver...

1. Boot with the DVD.
2. At the Welcome to Fedora! menu, press the Tab key to edit the kernel command line.
3. Add a single space and these words to the end of that line and press Enter to boot...

   xdriver=vesa rescue

4. No promises.

P.S.: When you get to that grub-install /dev/sdxy command, make sure you get the x & y right. The problem will be made worse if you install GRUB into the wrong partition boot sector. If you aren't sure what x & y should be, then post the result of fdisk -l run at that bash prompt in linux rescue. I know it's hard to post stuff from the rescue mode screen. Try hand-copying just the lines that start with /dev/sd... and post those. Or take a digital picture of the screen, reboot into Windows, and upload it as an attachment to your next post.

[stoat]

@instinct246,

To prevent a tangled mess of words from two lines of discussion at once in the same space, I moved yours and my comments about your issue to a new thread here...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=244659

[Rotstein]

Hi stoat, you are right.

I'm trying to place GRUB at the first partition, I think the target partition is (HD0,4) but i will show the output so I'll be sure.

Thanks.

---------- Post added at 03:10 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 AM CDT ----------

Hi stoat

Well 'tabbing' at the "rescue installed system" option (xdriver=vesa rescue) line did not work... the screen continues black...

I don't know if anymore possible solutions come to your mind...

[stoat]

I think it would be good for your readers to stop briefly and summarize this thread so far...

1. Windows 7 was installed.
2. You installed Fedora on the same drive but had to install using the basic driver option.
3. Fedora booted okay, but you never were able to boot Windows 7 from GRUB.
4. Then you "recovered" Windows 7.
5. A week later, you installed EasyBCD in Windows 7.
6. You installed Fedora again with GRUB in the first sector of the boot partition, but now nothing would boot.
7. You re-installed Fedora again with GRUB in the MBR.
8. You "recovered" Windows 7 again.
9. Now you have a GRUB-like menu that boots Windows 7 but not Fedora.
10. You want to re-install GRUB in the first sector and use EasyBCD, but you can't get rescue mode of the DVD to work even with the basic video driver.

Honestly, I think what you did at the beginning was the right thing, but you gave up too soon...

Originally Posted by Rotstein

I installed Fedora 12 i386, with the DVD, on a different partition on the same drive... at the instalation I chose to place the grub at the MBR... I mess the whole thing up since I could only boot fedora, this was because win 7 detected a corruption at the MBR, so I recover win 7 and I kept this thing running like that for a week...

People boot Windows 7 with GRUB all the time here. I can easily prove it, but try to believe me for now. There are various known issues that can interfere with it, but they can be solved. If I were you, I think I would restore the Windows 7 boot loader to its normal condition with Windows 7 booting directly from BIOS without any menu of any kind including EasyBCD's. Then re-install Fedora like you did at the beginning with the basic video driver and GRUB in the MBR. If Fedora boots and runs okay, but Windows 7 does not boot from the GRUB menu, then return here and post the results of these commands in a Fedora terminal...

su
fdisk -l
cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

Of course, do what you want to do. But I think considering all that has happened so far, this is the best idea.

[xuniltoor]

I dont know what version of easybcd your using but it sounds like you didnt configure it properly. I would remove easybcd (if you can still get to windows) and let grub handle the windows boot by installing to MBR. Remove easybcd first.

[Rotstein]

Hi stoat, well first thanks for summarize the problem, it's all there

I will try again to get my computer working with the dual boot and I will post the result of the code you mentioned
"su
fdisk -l
cat /boot/grub/grub.conf"

But I'll do it until weekend :s I need to get other stuff done... Thanks for your time!

[Rotstein]

Well Thanks everyone I gave up with fedora 12, so I'm trying with 13

[xuniltoor]

Well post your results after you install. I would be interested to see how it turns out.

[Rotstein]

Hey! I've just started a new thread that talks about a completely different problem on Fedora 13... but i think it will be easier to fix it!!!!

Thanks!