|
Home > Archive > Red Hat Installation > December 2005 > GRUB fails to load OS
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
GRUB fails to load OS
|
|
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-09, 5:58 pm |
| Seems to me it should be an easy task to create a bootloader...
I have Fedore Core co-residing on a machine with Windows XP.
Drive 0 -> Windows only
Drive 1 -> Windows only
Drive 2 -> Linux only (250 GB Maxtor Drive)
I can set my bios to boot from any drive I choose. After installing
Fedore Core and having GRUB loaded onto the boot sector of Drive 2, I
set the bios to boot from Drive2.
I only get the msg GRUB and it hangs there.
Windows is loadable when I return to bios and change to Drive0,
everything ok there.
What's up with this cheesy boot loader ?
| |
| Lenard 2005-12-09, 5:58 pm |
| roger@rogndeb.us wrote:
> Seems to me it should be an easy task to create a bootloader...
>
> I have Fedore Core co-residing on a machine with Windows XP.
>
> Drive 0 -> Windows only
> Drive 1 -> Windows only
> Drive 2 -> Linux only (250 GB Maxtor Drive)
>
> I can set my bios to boot from any drive I choose. After installing
> Fedore Core and having GRUB loaded onto the boot sector of Drive 2, I
> set the bios to boot from Drive2.
> I only get the msg GRUB and it hangs there.
Here's your problem, it's not the bootloader............
> Windows is loadable when I return to bios and change to Drive0,
> everything ok there.
>
> What's up with this cheesy boot loader ?
Nothing it's your cheesy method of installation and then using the BIOS to
select booting from 'Drive 2', this is fixable.
Set your BIOS to boot the exact same way it was when you installed Fedora
Core and have the Installation CD/DVD already inserted in the drive. When
the Fedora installation screen is displayed type 'linux rescue' without the
quotes. Read the on-screen messages and answer a few questions, pay
attention to the on-screen message abiut using 'chroot' and '/mnt/sysimage'
and follow the instructions. When ready type;
grub-install --recheck /dev/hda
You can also set the BIOS to boot to 'Drive 2' and do the same steps as
above, but you need to change the grub-install line to match what your
'Drive 2' really is in Linux terms (maybe /dev/hdc or /dev/hda ?????) with
this BIOS configuration.
--
"A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours,
Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over."
Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005
| |
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-10, 2:50 am |
| Ok, tried that. I received the msg:
/sbin/grub: not found
| |
| Lenard 2005-12-10, 7:57 am |
| roger@rogndeb.us wrote:
> Ok, tried that. I received the msg:
>
> /sbin/grub: not found
Hmmm.....
Check and see if grub is installed; rpm -qa 'grub'
If not then try something like (you may have to change the media until you
find the correct one containing the rpm);
rpm -Uvh /media/cdrecorder/Fedora/RPMS/grub*.rpm
If your ethernet is active and configured for access to the Internet;
rpm -Uvh
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/p.../RPMS/grub*.rpm
The command above is one long line with a space after the -Uvh portion and
before the rest (the second line).
Failing the above, again set the BIOS configuration to boot exactly the same
way as when you installed Fedora Core and use the Smart Boot Manager floppy
from; http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm and attempt booting into Fedora Core
after starting from the floppy.
--
"A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours,
Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over."
Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005
| |
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-12, 6:02 pm |
| Instead of chasing the grub file, what about just reinstalling the
whole OS ?
I have a machine with 3 drives, (which Linux names hda, hdb, hdd), the
hdd drive
being the target for Linux. There is an empty-unused 30GB partition
residing at the
beginning of the drive.
How do I install if I want to avoid having my MBR touched?
| |
| Lenard 2005-12-12, 6:02 pm |
| roger@rogndeb.us wrote:
> Instead of chasing the grub file, what about just reinstalling the
> whole OS ?
Always a possibility.....
> I have a machine with 3 drives, (which Linux names hda, hdb, hdd), the
> hdd drive
> being the target for Linux. There is an empty-unused 30GB partition
> residing at the
> beginning of the drive.
OK.......
> How do I install if I want to avoid having my MBR touched?
Install the bootloader (Grub is the default) to the first Linux partition;
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedor...r-advanced.html
It might be a good idea to review the on-line Installation guide while you
visiting the site.
You still need a way to boot into Linux then, correct??? This can be done a
number of ways, one of the easiest ways is to use the Microsoft Windows XP
bootloader to boot Linux with. Just follow the directions here;
http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html
--
"A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours,
Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over."
Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005
| |
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-12, 6:02 pm |
| I'll try that this evening. One more query.
I do not have a floppy disk drive on my system. Is there a way of
creating a bootable CD once my Linux installation is completed?
Booting into Linux via CD is ok with me....
| |
| Lenard 2005-12-12, 6:02 pm |
| roger@rogndeb.us wrote:
> I'll try that this evening. One more query.
>
> I do not have a floppy disk drive on my system. Is there a way of
> creating a bootable CD once my Linux installation is completed?
> Booting into Linux via CD is ok with me....
Yes, as a matter of fact in this newsgroup the thread started by lucab761 is
a discussion of this very same query. See 'booting fedora from cd' for the
replies.
--
"A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours,
Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over."
Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005
| |
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-14, 2:49 am |
| OK, I got it all to work.
I re-ordered the drives so that the MBR of the hdd drive received the
boot loader. I just change the settings via bios then reboot into each
OS. Doing this at the 'hardware' level is better than messing with the
various software-only solutions. Also this way my wife/kids won't be
able to mess around with my Linux install since it will be invisible to
them.
The trick was to get the reordering done, to have 2 MBRs going on
different drives.
| |
| velocity 2005-12-15, 7:49 am |
| see I could not understand ur last message please tell what u did
| |
| velocity 2005-12-15, 7:49 am |
| See after reading all ur posts I came to a conclusion that there is no
fault in ur system or grub
actually when u did try to install grub from resuce CD of Linux
then the grub screen hanged many a times it hapens that grub assumes
ur Computer to be a set of Some standard configurations sp some times
the commands that work for 90% of the people dont help
So when u get a prompt
grub >
like this then u have to do a bit of exercise
manually locate where is ur root disk
I mean where ur root partition is
grub treats the file numbers in a way different from device files if u
are having Running Linux now just read the entries of
/boot/grub/grub.conf
and pass the same parameters to
grub
by the commands
grub > kernel /vmlinuz- etc etc what ever ur grub points to
grub > initrd /initrd etc etc read the entries in grub.conf
and then finally for 90% of the people it works when they type
grub > boot
but for ur case if this does not works then
just type
grub > setup
for the above command I am not sure to work with ur system and then
grub will work fine in ur system
grub > boot
for further details read the official documentation of grub I hope u
will not need to format ur system again
| |
| velocity 2005-12-15, 7:49 am |
| I for got to tell in above post that while using
grub > setup u need to mention /dev/hda
or hda
I did it a long time back so I forgot now but in case u get this
problem again then try it
| |
| roger@rogndeb.us 2005-12-15, 6:04 pm |
| When loading BIOS settings, it shows 3 IDE drives. The last drive being
the target for Linux.
Windows XP was already loaded and running for quite sometime.
To get Linux working:
1) Changed boot drive via bios settings to boot from Drive 2 (was
Drive 0)
First boot device is CD-DVD Drive.
2) Place Fedora install DVD into drive, restart machine.
3) Start usual installer, but when asked about boot loader, go to the
option of
changing the drive order. Make the target drive appear first on the
list. Select
to install MBR onto that drive.
4) Continue installation to the end, reboot... you get Linux
To boot Windows, change bios to boot from Drive 0
| |
| Jonathan Jupp 2005-12-15, 8:50 pm |
| I did the same... works great.
|
|
|
|
|