GRUB won't boot

[synthetic]

I have windows xp installed on hda (master) and I just added a new drive (hdb) that I installed a fresh copy of Fedora core 2 on. My motherboard lets me choose the drive to boot from, so when I start my computer I can either pick hd-0 or hd-1. hd-0 starts windows xp fine. If I pick hd-1, it displays the grub command line, but I can't type anything and nothing happens. I'm assuming it is a config problem (I installed grub to /boot or hdb1), but all the config files look fine, and I've tried reinstalling a few times with no success. Any suggestions?

[kevinalm]

When selecting boot drives that way in bios, hdb become hda and hda becomes hdb. So when you change drives in the bios, grub is pretty well messed up. I avoid bios boot selection.

[saikee]

OK Lets try this way

When you boot up the FC2 again at Grub prompt, type

configfile (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst

The FC2 should boot up from there.

If this doesn't work try (hd1,0) instead of (hd0,0)

I have FC2, Suse , Mandrake and Knoppix in the same HDD and I can jump from each distro menu to menu to boot any distro, so you don't have a problem. At the moment I assume your FC2 has been installed in the first partition. hd0=1st HDD and hd1=2nd HDD to Grub. The 0 in (hd1,0) means 1st partition.

Grub counts from 0 and Linux counts from 1. Grub needs access to the menu.lst which is stored as I suggested. Configfile is a Grub command.

Good luck

[synthetic]

OK, I decided it would be easier to just boot from a floppy. I installed grub to a floppy and when grub loads I type:

root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet
boot

(I renamed the kernel to eliminate keystrokes)
Fedora loaded with no problems.

[saikee]

My suggestion is to type one line in Grub

configfile (hd1,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst

But you prefer three lines

root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet
boot

OK that is your preference.

However if you want to do away with the floppy altogether all you need to do next time when you are the root user of FC2 is to type

grub-install /dev/hda

FC2 will plant the Grub bootloader into the MBR of the first hard disk where your Windows resides. If that is successful but Windows isn't available as a choice when booting up then you can add the following 3 lines to the menu.lst strored in /boot/grub directory.

titile This is my Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

The /boot/grub/menu.lst is a text file based on which Grub boots and can be edited to suit.

Should you make any mistake and want Windows back again as it is now just boot the system up with the Windows XP installation CD , go to the Recovery Console command prompt and type "fixmbr".

You can use the method described above to chainload any number of Linux distro too.

[kedman]

HI All
I have just upgraded my Kernel and grub seems to default to the older one.

Here is my conf:

*************************************************
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=4
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2197.nptl_51.rhfc1.at)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2197.nptl_51.rhfc1.at ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2197.nptl_51.rhfc1.at.img
title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2194.nptl)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2194.nptl ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2194.nptl.img
title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2188.nptl)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2188.nptl ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2188.nptl.img

*************************************************

Default is 1 yet it boots the older kernel.

I changed repositories for my YUM and have broken my up2date, yum seems to work a lot better though.

Also the new kernel works fine so far,
so why is grub loading the default (2)
and not the new one?

Cheers
All
Kedman


:)

[saikee]

If you are happy with it then there is nothing to stop you from altering the menu to default=0 to boot from the first choice..

[kedman]

HI saikee
Thanks for that, I couldnt remember if it was 0.
Seems to all be running fine!
even got java and flash working on moz and firefox!
Thanks for the help
Kedman