fresh install dualboot sys - boots straight to xp

looptoad · #1 4th March 2010, 07:04 AM

Hi People,

after fresh f12 install says reboot & i do... no boot menu, boots xp. there's probably a solution, but i don't know it. someone know how to get around this?

a little help would be great,

toad

---------- Post added at 11:04 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 PM CST ----------

additional info: f12 installed after xp on same drive, dif partitions, no tweaks. i've not had this problem in past installs of earlier versions of fedora.

civilization falls apart a little more each day. why would i pretend fedora's excluded from this O_o

CSchwangler · #2 4th March 2010, 03:40 PM

Where did you install grub, the bootloader of Fedora?

looptoad · #3 4th March 2010, 09:27 PM

umm... i didn't put it anywhere. did i need to? in the past i've never specifically designated a place for it & it's worked fine. has that changed?

thanks for any assistance on this

---------- Post added at 01:27 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 PM CST ----------

btw, i installed from Fedora-12-x86_64-DVD & added the update repo during install, if that useful for sorting this out.

stoat · #4 4th March 2010, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooptoad

i didn't put it anywhere. did i need to? in the past i've never specifically designated a place for it & it's worked fine. has that changed?

Hello looptoad,

No, that has not changed. By default, and if you don't interfere with it, Anaconda (the Fedora installer) will install the GRUB boot loader in the master boot record of the first hard drive. So if you allowed the default option to happen (and it sounds that way), then GRUB should have booted directly from BIOS and presented a boot menu or booted Fedora. Since that did not happen, maybe you have more than one drive and GRUB was installed in the master boot record of another hard drive through some confusion on the part of Anaconda. It's not unheard of anyway. Or maybe something just went wrong with the boot loader part of the installation. It happens almost last during the installation.

Anyway, one thing you can try is a Super Grub Disk. It's a free utility that can do a lot of things. One thing it can do is emergency boot Fedora or Windows. You could try booting Fedora with it to see if it is even capable of booting (!LINUX! in the Quick Menu) . If it boots, then you can also use the Super Grub Disk to re-install GRUB in the master boot record if that is what you want (GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! in the Quick Menu). The Super Grub Disk is easy to find with Google, and everybody should possess one anyway for emergency booting.

looptoad · #5 5th March 2010, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Hello looptoad,

<~~~X~~~>

maybe you have more than one drive and GRUB was installed in the master boot record of another hard drive through some confusion on the part of Anaconda. It's not unheard of anyway. Or maybe something just went wrong with the boot loader part of the installation. It happens almost last during the installation.

i do have several drives & think you're right that anaconda probably mishandled grub's location somehow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Anyway, one thing you can try is a Super Grub Disk. It's a free utility that can do a lot of things. One thing it can do is emergency boot Fedora or Windows. You could try booting Fedora with it to see if it is even capable of booting (!LINUX! in the Quick Menu) . If it boots, then you can also use the Super Grub Disk to re-install GRUB in the master boot record if that is what you want (GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! in the Quick Menu). The Super Grub Disk is easy to find with Google, and everybody should possess one anyway for emergency booting.

i tried both burning the iso to disk & the window's .exe, but neither worked. the cd doesn't load or appear to do anything (optical drive is set to 1st boot device,) & the .exe doesn't shows up as an option on reboot in the boot menu. once i'm in xp i'm asked if i want to remove, that's all. unfortunately, it seems useless.

appreciate your assistance, but so far, to no avail.

stoat · #6 5th March 2010, 04:15 PM

Okay.

GRUB can be re-installed manually with the Fedora DVD or the first CD of the CD set. But I am reluctant to tell you to proceed with that because you don't yet know if the Fedora system is capable of booting now. If you re-install GRUB, and the Fedora system is busted, then nothing may boot because it will displace the Windows boot loader. That is why I recommended the Super Grub Disk to confirm that Fedora can even boot first. I think you should try to get a Super Grub Disk working, or else try re-installing Fedora again.

If your Super Grub Disk is not booting, then a couple of possibilities come to my mind. One is that you burned the ISO to the disk as data instead of burning the image that it contained. People do that all the time. Browsing the CD with Windows Explorer may answer that. If you see the ISO file that you downloaded, then you botched it. If you see a boot folder with more files and folders in it, then maybe you don't have the optical drive set to boot first in BIOS.

looptoad · #7 5th March 2010, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

If your Super Grub Disk is not booting, then a couple of possibilities come to my mind. One is that you burned the ISO to the disk as data instead of burning the image that it contained. People do that all the time. Browsing the CD with Windows Explorer may answer that. If you see the ISO file that you downloaded, then you botched it. If you see a boot folder with more files and folders in it, then maybe you don't have the optical drive set to boot first in BIOS.

BIOS is/was set right & i burnt correctly; however, i'd burnt the disk using another box then the one i'm having problems with. when i checked the disk on the box i'm trying to setup the disk appeaars empty. i thought that's strange, & then, i burnt a new copy on a new disk. well, same thing again. seems the optical drive is going bad, because checking on another machine the data on both disks is correct & works.

now that i have both an optical drive & boot problem - i need a timeout

i at least have an idea what's up now, so, many thanks for your help.

stoat · #8 5th March 2010, 11:37 PM

Okay. Take a break. But FYI, the Super Grub Disk is available in floppy and pendrive versions, too.

looptoad · #9 6th March 2010, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Okay.

GRUB can be re-installed manually with the Fedora DVD or the first CD of the CD set. But I am reluctant to tell you to proceed with that because you don't yet know if the Fedora system is capable of booting now. If you re-install GRUB, and the Fedora system is busted, then nothing may boot because it will displace the Windows boot loader.

oh, & thanks for this bit of info. i wasn't aware of the amount of damage re-installing grub could inflict at this point - definitely something worth remember.

i think i'll avoid that path.

---------- Post added at 04:01 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM CST ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Okay. Take a break. But FYI, the Super Grub Disk is available in floppy and pendrive versions, too.

but i don't have a floppy drive on that box. as for the pendrive, i thought i read you could only go that route with super grub disk if you already had a working linux system. otherwise, that's how i was going to go from the start. am i wrong about that?

stoat · #10 6th March 2010, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by looptoad

i thought i read you could only go that route with super grub disk if you already had a working linux system. otherwise, that's how i was going to go from the start. am i wrong about that?

Probably so. You have to be able to install GRUB in the MBR of the pendrive after you copy the files to it. But if you could do that, you could just as easily re-install GRUB to the hard drive, too. So nevermind.

This has become too much trouble IMO. What about a try at re-installing Fedora? If you have only one hard drive, Anaconda should by default install GRUB in its master boot record. Nothing is invested in the current installation except the time to install it since it has never booted. I don't really know why things went astray with the first installation. I also cannot promise whatever is was will not happen again, but it's normally kind of a slam dunk.

looptoad · #11 6th March 2010, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

This has become too much trouble IMO. What about a try at re-installing Fedora? If you have only one hard drive, Anaconda should by default install GRUB in its master boot record. Nothing is invested in the current installation except the time to install it since it has never booted. I don't really know why things went astray with the first installation. I also cannot promise whatever is was will not happen again, but it's normally kind of a slam dunk.

i agree. i've *never* had this hard a time installing fedora. i guess my reason for wanting to get the install straightened out is that my connection's rather slow & not going through another 14+ hours of updates for the basic system seemed worthwhile. on top of that, there are a bunch of packages i need to install *after* i get my basic setup working. that'll take many more hours. still, this present mess is making less & less sense now, & it's not like i have to balance a boulder on my nose the entire time files are re-downloading.

but either way i need the optical drive to proceed...

a 1000 thank yous for your advice, stoat. i'll return here when i have something to report.