Fedora/Mint dual boot issues: edit grub.cfg?

[nickmild]

Hello everyone,

I believe I have a unique variation of a fairly common problem. I've installed Fedora 12 on a system that was previously running Linux Mint 9 (ubuntu based), and discovered to my chagrin that my grub loader only sees Fedora as a boot option. I can still mount my mint partition, etc., but can't boot into it. I know there are methods of fixing this problem by using a live CD or similar way to get into ubuntu and changing grub from that side, but are there any changes I can make to my grub.cfg on the Fedora side of things, which would be much easier?

I know my Mint partition's mount point and if you can steer me in the right direction I can get whatever other information you need, as well as the text of my current grub.cfg.

Thanks in advance!

---------- Post added at 08:50 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 08:03 AM CDT ----------

my current grub.cfg file doesn't contain anything BUT fedora currently. "update-grub" and similar commands that i've used as an ubuntu user are no good in fedora.

I've got the first two lines of the four-line stanza I want to add to my fedora grub.cfg figured out:

title Mint
root (hd0,1)

The above is correct; (hdo,1) corresponds to my Mint partition's mount point, which I checked.

Poking around on other threads it appears that I need two additional lines, "kernel" and "initrd". Any help?

Hello and Welcome to Fedoraforum.org,

If you mint install's grub is in sda2 then your "root (hd0,1)" is correct and all you need to do is add a chainloader on the next line. Something like:

title Mint
root (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

You will probably want to also change the timeout setting in menu.lst to something like:

timeout=10

Hope this Helps,

Ky

EDIT: You really don't need the "root (hd0,1)". I just use the title and chainloader for my multiboot grub entries. My mint grub lines would look like:

title Mint on sda2
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

[nickmild]

Thank you for the suggestions. I added the lines you suggested and "Linux Mint" now appears as a boot option, but choosing it leaves me at a black screen with an eternally blinking cursor, so clearly i screwed up somwhere. any idea why?

---------- Post added at 09:13 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM CDT ----------

...my mint install is at sda1, not 2. does counting in grub start at zero? :/

Hello,

If your mint's grub is on sda1 then:

title Mint on sda1
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

That should get you going.

Ky

[AlexDudko]

It looks like you have grub2 installed.
Grub.cfg is not meant to be edited manually! It is automatically generated when 'update-grub' command is executed. To change your boot options edit /etc/default/grub and then run update-grub as root.

[xuniltoor]

What version of mint? If it is 8 (helena) you are using grub2. Fedora uses legacy grub. Use your mint cd to recover http://gadgetmix.com/index/how-to-restr ... ook-remix/ When you can boot to mint download a program from synaptic called startup-manager. It will find fedora install add to grub2 and give you the option of which one to boot first.

Originally Posted by nickmild;1359991
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...my mint install is at sda1, not 2. does counting in grub start at zero? :/

Yes grub counts from zero, so if sda1 then (hd0,0)+1

ky

---------- Post added at 09:26 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 AM CDT ----------

Hold on guys,
He is trying to use Fedora's grub to boot Mint's grub via chainloader. Let's try to keep things simple.

Ky

[xuniltoor]

I wonder if anyone is booting a grub2 distro with a legacy grub distro?

Originally Posted by xuniltoor

I wonder if anyone is booting a grub2 distro with a legacy grub distro?

I have used Fedora's grub to boot Mint like this without issue.

Ky

[xuniltoor]

Ok great that gives me a new project. Thanks Ky.

[nickmild]

Thanks for all the help, guys....I wanted to use a chainloader, like Kyle was saying, but even after making another round of changes I was getting errors, so I decided to bite the bullet and spend the time burning a Mint live cd and using it to get what I needed. I'm now booting into Mint, and just reset my grub (which with grub2 is a lot easier haha). I'm going to reboot and make sure that I still have Fedora available as a boot option.

---------- Post added at 09:47 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 AM CDT ----------

It's good to know that this is doable though Ky, something to poke around and try one day...unfortunately I don't have a ton of time to play around right now, hence the haste to get from Fedora to Mint

A great first experience on these boards, as well. Thanks again everyone.

Hello,
I am glad you were able to get things working.

For muilti boot installs I install grub in the the first part of the new installations partition and use a chainloader to point my original grub to the new install's grub. This has worked flawlessly for me with all the OS's I have tried in the last couple of years. Once I got used to this method changing/adding OS's became simple.

Ky