Grub Issue

[MasterKevossavi]

I have 2 hard drives, the primary one has Windows XP on it, and the second one was added to install Fedora. After I installed Fedora to the second hard drive (grub was installed during the installation) I can not boot anything. The only way to boot something is to use the boot disk that I made during the install.

When I start my computer, it goes through it's usual computer checks, and starts Grub. But all that is displayed is "GRUB GRUB" at the bottom of the screen (with all the other usual bios checks at the top). It just hangs there.

So, I tried to reinstall Fedora a few times, repair WinXP, and try to find out how to get the MS bootloader back. I decided to install XP on the 2nd hard drive also, to get the MS bootloader back. I found out later that you can just go into the MS recovery console and type "fixboot c:" or "fixmbr" to get the MS bootloader back

So now I'm running WinXP, but I also want to dual-boot Linux. Is there some way that I can have Grub living happily? Or am I just not waiting long enough for Grub to load (I waited quite some time...)?

Thanks

[jsimmonds]

I got something similar but mine came with Missing Operating System

I got around the problem by

Putting My XP Drive as slave, reinstall XP, get it to write it's boot files to the master drive

Install Fedora on master drive

then change XP drive over to Master and Fedora Drive to slave and it worked

[tbl]

Hum :-/ what kind of drive are you using : ata or sata ?

[yannara]

Is there any good site where I can learn how to configure grub manually? Because my linux lives as long as grub is working, when it crushes, only way is to reinstall the whole linux and all over again.

[mndar]

You can boot using the rescue disc . If you have a seperate /boot partition, mount it to /mnt/sysimage/boot. Then chroot into your system and do
grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hda
if you wanna install GRUB to the MBR else
grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hdaX
to install it to your /boot partition. Change hdaX according to your system.
But for Dual boot, I recommend you give this thread a read http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45910

[MasterKevossavi]

I am using a Western Digital 100gb ultra ata 133 drive for Windows (primary master).
The other hard drive is a Maxtor 40gb ata drive (sorry, don't know the exact specs) to have Fedora on.

I want to dual boot to both Windows XP, and Fedora. I know that I can boot Fedora with the boot disk from installation, but my problem is that Grub just hangs.

Is there a way to use the MS bootloader instead of Grub? Or another way to get Grub to work (for sure)?

Thanks

[nemo_forever]

Originally Posted by MasterKevossavi

I am using a Western Digital 100gb ultra ata 133 drive for Windows (primary master).
The other hard drive is a Maxtor 40gb ata drive (sorry, don't know the exact specs) to have Fedora on.

I want to dual boot to both Windows XP, and Fedora. I know that I can boot Fedora with the boot disk from installation, but my problem is that Grub just hangs.

Is there a way to use the MS bootloader instead of Grub? Or another way to get Grub to work (for sure)?

Thanks

Hi MasterKevossavi!!

I have something to Dual-boot your pc with Windows XP and Fedora Core or any other Linux distr without messing-up the MBR with GRUB. Follow the next steps to get it:

1. If you have already installed Windows XP and Fedora with the GRUB loader installed on the MBR, do the following:
- Insert your WindowsXP installation CD and reboot your computer.
- When the computer boots with the WinXP CD, use the recovery mode to get into the console
- use the commands "fixmbr" and "fixboot" (to restore your MBR, GRUB won't load again the nex time you boot your system)
- reboot your pc

2. Now you would be able to boot Windows xp without the GRUB menu, if it doesn't appear, follow the next:
- Insert your Fedora CD/DVD (it's better if you have the RescueCD of FC), reboot your computer in rescue mode to get into the console mode.

- Install GRUB on the first sector of the /boot partition. DO NOT INSTALL IT ON THE MBR!.
- If you are performing the Fedora Core installation, for the "Boot Loader Installation" screen:
Select "Use GRUB as the boot loader"
- Select Install Boot Loader record on "...First sector of boot partition".
- After finishing the FC installation, reboot into Linux. If you don't have a boot disk, try booting in linux rescue mode


If you already have Linux installed:

- Run the following command (e.g. assuming /boot is /dev/hda2): grub-install /dev/hda2.
- If you don't know which partition contains /boot, run the df command and check the output.
Edit /etc/grub.conf and make sure there is an entry for your version of Windows.

Determine which partition contains the /boot partition by running the df command. You'll see output like this:

Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3 8665372 1639580 6585612 20% /
/dev/hda2 46636 5959 38269 14% /boot
/dev/hda6 513776 189504 324272 37% /osshare
none 256624 0 256624 0% /dev/shm

From this output, we see that /boot is on /dev/hda2.

- Make a copy of the Linux boot sector onto a floppy or onto a FAT32 partition. We'll name this copy linux.bin.

To make a copy onto a floppy:

- Mount the floppy drive if it's not mounted (assumes /mnt/floppy exists): mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
- Run the following command: dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.bin bs=512 count=1
- Substitute the path for the if= parameter (the input file) with the appropriate partition from the previous step. E.g., set if= to /dev/hda2.

To make a copy onto a FAT32 (vfat) partition:

- Mount the FAT32 partition if it's not mounted yet. If it isn't listed in the df output, it hasn't been mounted yet. Check out steps 3a-3c for mounting a FAT32 partition on the "Share Partitions HOWTO".
- Run the following command: dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/osshare/linux.bin bs=512 count=1
- Substitute the path for the if= parameter (the input file) with the appropriate partition from the previous step. E.g., set if= to /dev/hda2. Substitute the path for the of= parameter (the output file) with whatever is appropriate for your system. The example here (of=/osshare/linux.bin) is for copying onto a FAT32 partition called osshare.

Reboot into Windows

Copy the linux.bin file to C:\
Run notepad and edit C:\boot.ini. Note that C:\boot.ini is a hidden system file, so it probably won't show up in Windows Explorer. To edit the file, try: Start->Run and enter: notepad C:\boot.ini. Add the following line at the end: c:\linux.bin="Fedora Core"

- If your C: filesystem is NTFS (not FAT32), you must edit C:\boot.ini as a user with administrator-level privileges.
To make C:\boot.ini writable, you can either :

Use Explorer:
-Go to Tools->Folder Options->View and select Show hidden files and folders and deselect Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
- Right-click on the file, view the Properties and uncheck Read-only. You can now edit the file.
- After editing the file, restore the settings to their original state.

Use the command-line:
Make the file writable: attrib -R -S -H C:\boot.ini.
After you've finished editing the file, put the settings back: attrib +R +S +H C:\boot.ini

Reboot your computer and you will see the MS Boot Loader and you will be able to choose either Windows XP or Fedora Core!!

that's all

[tbl]

Hi MasterKevossavi,
Just follow the instructions above. If it doesn't work, we'll try another way to perform what you want.
(i think the simpliest way is to install xp on one hd as master, then unplug it and plug the other one as master and install linux on it. After this, you plug the linux hd as master and the win one as slave. Last step is to configure grub to boot win on the second hd. There is advantage : if linux doesn't work, you always can plug your win hd as master.)
cu

[MasterKevossavi]

Thanks a lot everyone, this should work perfectly. I am going to try it as soon as I have a chance.

Just wondering, what would happen if I then removed the hard drive with Linux on it? My computer could still start up correctly into Windows right?

Once again, thanks for all that help, especially nemo_forever.

[mndar]

If you follow the method above, it will. For some other dual boot methods refer http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45910

[nemo_forever]

If you follow the instructions that I posted, you can boot your Windows XP without problem, but, if you unplug your Linux HD and choose to boot with linux, you will recieve an error.. but it won't affect your WinXP installation.

[MasterKevossavi]

Ok, so I finished following all the steps from nemo_forever. Now when I start my computer, I can boot into windows perfectly fine, but when I select "Fedora Core", the only thing on screen is the word "GRUB" and a flashing "_" at the top of the screen. It would seem that perhaps my linux.bin fill was not configured properly to begin with.

So now I can boot windows through the MS bootloader, Fedora through the boot disk, but not Fedora through the MS bootloader...Grub is still hanging.

[mndar]

I don't think the method described above works on a setup where Linux and Windows are installed on seperate hard drives. It works perfectly well when both are installed on the same hard drive.

[mndar]

If you want to keep your Linux installation on another hard drive and still wanna use the above method, you just have to keep your /boot partition on the same hard drive as Windows. Of course you will have to change grub.conf accordingly.

[MasterKevossavi]

Oh, the /boot needs to be on the Window's hard disk? Is there another way to maybe config the grub file (the linux.bin file) so that the above procedure works?

If not, is there a way to create the /boot partition on the master hard drive without loosing any of the data on it?