Re: Newbie: Fedora Core 4 Dual hard drive boot problems


Sandgroper wrote:
"SBeik" <SimonBeik@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1154820509.746683.276880@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sandgroper wrote:

[...]

It if is at all possible , you should reconfigure your drives on the
IDE
channels like so :

hda ------> Primary - Master ( existing )
hdb -------> Primary - Slave

CD/DVD ---------> Secondary - Master

If you can't change any of your system around , then it shouldn't worry
you
too much , it will still work and you won't notice that much
difference.
___
Hi,

I have just reconfigured my system as above, reloaded Fedora 4, with
standard options: remove all partitions on hdb, automatic partitioning
of hdb and grub install on hda's mbr. The system boots into windows,
without any sign of grub. When I change my bios to boot from hd1=hdb, I
again get GRUB displayed in a continious loop.

Changing my drives as you suggested seems to have made no difference.

I will now try and rescue boot and see what the grub.conf looks like
and will report accordingly.

Change the boot sequence in the Bios back to boot from the CD/DVD first and
then hda , because the FC4 installation is there and you will need to boot
up using the CD/DVD to boot into rescue mode.
You will have to edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to comment out ( use
the # ) the hiddenmen command so that the Grub menu screen shows on boot
up.
ie use :
# hiddenmen
I don't know why Fedora does this , every time people create a dual boot
system with Fedora , it puts the hiddenmen command it the grub.conf file to
hide the Grub menu on boot up and it boots to the default OS set during
installation , this hiddenmen command causes a bit of a headache for the
people who are not used to linux.
I think that could have been one of your main problems , the hiddenmenu
command has hidden the Grub menu from you and Grub times out and boots
straight into your Win2000 system.

During the installation , you should really have done the partitioning by
using the Custom option instead of the automatic option so that you can have
a greater control over the partitioning of hdb.

BINGO!;-)

At long last, I have managed to get my configuration to work. The main
problem, or more accurately the bug with installing Fedora Core 4 is
the automatic partitioning. This option simply does not work, when one
has two drives, one with any operating system (it seems) on hda and the
second being either hdb, hdc or i suspect hdd.

The main problem is that initrd causes an abort with Error 16 :
Inconsistent filesystem structure. Asif the system gets confused about
it own auto configured partitioning.

So after manually partitioning my second hard drive and this time
configuring Grub to modify my MBR on hda; the working grub.conf looks
like this:

grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this
file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu **
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title Windows 2000
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
** I have of course deleted this option, since as you have pointed out,
it gets put in irrespective of install options for this particular type
of two drive configuartion.

Now I get the grub menu at boot up, giving me the option of loading
Fedora or windows and both work fine.

Thanks for all the help.

Now just one last question?

How do I enable this configuration to allow me to access my Windows
data?

I have found that Knoppix automatically allows me not only to have
access to my windows data, it also allows me to access windows media
formats.

When I have tried to mount my windows partitions in the past, I have
got error "ntfs" is invalid format or some similar error.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regrads,

SBeik
PS: I am posting this reply thru Linux;-)



And from what you have written so far , you could have also re-partitioned
and re-formatted your other partitions of hda3 and hda4 during the
installation to clean these partitions up and remove the leftover stale FC4
installations.

Can you post the contents of your grub.conf file so people can see what
exactly FC4 has put in there and a listing of the partitions on hda and hdb.



--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
True Multitasking is having three computers and a chair with wheels.


Sandgroper
------------------------------------
Remove KNICKERS to Email
steveray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

.

Relevant Pages