Re: Grub Read Error on 1st boot after install

From: Nobody Here (nobby_at_invalid.invalid)
Date: 11/09/05

  • Next message: Ray: "FC4 and new initrd" 
    Date: 09 Nov 2005 12:32:30 GMT

    On 8 Nov 2005 14:46:15 -0800, fireball wrote:
    > I'm new to Linux. Been considering getting started for years. Now
    > that I have gotten started, I've crashed my Win98 system or at least it
    > won't boot now.
    >
    > The system is a Dell Pentium 233 with Win98 on Drive C which also has
    > or had two logical partitions E: and F:. I installed a 20gb hd to
    > install Linux on. The Linux distro. I used came with Christopher
    > Negus' book "Red Hat Fedora 4.0 Bible". I followed the install chapter
    > to the letter I think, to set up a dual boot system, with the complete
    > Linux install. The setup routine formatted the drive and installed
    > seemingly without a hitch.
    >
    > When it came time to reboot, I got a "Grub Read Error". I shut off
    > the power a number of times, but "Grub Read Error" is the only response
    > that I get. I don't find anything in the "Red Hat Fedora Bible" book
    > that covers this problem.
    >
    > Thanks in advance for any help in recovering from this. I'd be really
    > dissapointed if I can't get this working, I mean I've waited for so
    > long. I was really looking forward to getting away from Windows.

    A couple of brief observations, sorry if they assume too little about
    your knowledge:

    It sounds like you've broken the master boot record on the hard
    disk. That's probably because it's slightly more complicated to
    use a second hard disk rather than just different partitions on
    the first.

    Presumably you installed Linux on the second hard disk not the first?
    You should have been using /hdev/hdb probably, if the Windows disk
    is the first (master) disk on the primary controller and the new disk
    is the slave. In other words, are you sure you've not overwritten
    your Windows install?

    Secondly, at what point does Grub give the read error? Is it after
    it displays the selection/countdown page or right at the beginning
    before anything else is displayed? If you get the countdown/selection
    page then there are things you can type at grub to help resolve the
    problem. If nothing at all appears, you're a little more stuffed.

    If you're using Fedora Core 4, you can boot the install CD in
    rescue mode. If you do that, it'll eventually get to a point
    where it tells you it's searching for installations, and with
    any luck it'll find your newly installed second hard disk. If
    it does that, that opens up a whole range of possibilities to fix
    things. After the CD boots, there will be a bunch of "help" options
    displayed, but you can type "linux rescue" without the ""s to boot
    in rescue mode. One of the first things you can do is to use
    fdisk at the command prompt to see all your disk partitions. That's
    "fdisk /dev/hda" for the first disk and "fdisk /dev/hdb" for the
    second. Type "m" for help in fdisk - don't ask me why? Type "q"
    to exit without changing anything. Don't type "w" unless you know
    what you're doing.

    Does the W98 CD self boot like the XP one? The XP one seems to
    look at the hard disk and give you the opportunity to boot either
    the CD or the contents of a windows partition. If the '98 one
    will do that, you might be able to boot windows, and repair the
    disk's master boot record to at least boot Windows using something
    like "fdisk /mbr" (RTFM!!) in a command prompt. Then you can
    start again, at least, and also use Windows' disk manager thing
    to at least see if there are some partitions on the second disk.

    Hope this helps a bit. Almost certianly your system can be recovered
    by booting into rescue mode - probably by mounting your installed
    system , chrooting to the root of the mounted install, fixing your
    grub configuration file in /etc/grub.conf and possibly reinstalling
    grub. Sounds easy, and it is when you know what you're doing, but
    I remember well enough that it's a bit daunting at first :-) 

    -- 
Nobby
  • Next message: Ray: "FC4 and new initrd"

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