Grub bootloader problem...

Sorry for the new thread, but I feel this problem wouldn't get the attention it deserves at the end of the previous topic. Please forgive me.

Anyway I installed linux redhat 8.0 to dual boot with xp. I completed the installation without a hitch and double checked everything. Upon reboot at the end of the installation, the grub bootloader did not start. Instead windows xp started as normal. I wondering how I can get my pc to recognize the Grub bootloader on the mbr (where i believe redhat installed it by default). I don't have a linux boot disk (didn't see option for creating one during installation), but is there anyway i can create I bootdisk now? Even though installation is over? Anyone experience a similar situation and solved this problem? Or anyone suggest any possible fixes? Thanks.

You probably failed to install GRUB into the MBR, or it got overwritten
after installation. This can happen when you install windows after
installing LINUX. Windows always installs its own bootloader by default
without prompting.

But since you didn't install windows afterward, I'd guess that it put GRUB
somewhere other than the MBR.

You may be able to get in to the system using the install CD. While in the install
program, press ALT F1 (or F2) to get a prompt. I don't know how much
capability this gives you.

Also, you may search the web for someone who makes generic rescue
disks. Otherwise, just reinstall.
:cool:

Thanks for the reply, I like the first to options because if I reinstall that means I lose the 8 gigs I partioned for linux on the failed install, right?

I personally run lilo on my dual boot systems. Did you create a boot up disk when you installed redhat 8.0 on your system? I can't remember with redhat but with linux mandrake you can do an "upgrade" install and it will automatically rewrite the MBR. It will do this even if you don't upgrade anything. Good luck.

Quote:

---

if I reinstall that means I lose the 8 gigs I partioned for linux on the failed install, right?

---

No, just reinstall on the same partition(s) again and everything should be rosey. When you get to the bootloader screen during the install, you should just take all teh defaults that Red hat offers you. That will install grub to the MBR, autodetect your Windows XP installation, and configure everything accordingly.

Or, if you can get your hands on a rescue disk (like a Slackware or Gentoo installation disk), you can fix your grub by hand. I posted the instructions here.

I think I'm going to write a tutorial on Linux bootloaders, since this questions seems to be coming up quite a bit lately.

Problemchild, the thing is, I chose the bootloader defaults the first time around, so it should have installed on the mbr. I guess it is possible that xp overwrote the mbr, but why? It was already installed prior to the linux installation. However, I do recall redhat giving me a warning message apon entering disk druid, which said something along the lines of, "there was an inconsistenty with the /hda1..." followed by the same warning for the hda2. I'm not sure if my problem and these warnings are related, it's doubtful though.

About the rescue disk, why wouldn't the redhat installation disk work in booting me into linux to fix grub?

Let me give quick briefing,

I have a...
c drive (primary) ntfs for xp...hda1
d drive (logical) ntfs for xp.....hda2
h drive (extended partion from d drive) ext 3 \root dir.....hda6 (not sure why linux recognized it as 6 and not 3)
i drive (extended partion from d) swap....hda7

-grub bootloader installed supposively on mbr (chose defaults)
-told linux to boot dos by default in bootloader settings.
-No Boot partion (perhaps I need one?)

Thanks for the replies, further insight is welcome.

Quote:

---

c drive (primary) ntfs for xp...hda1
d drive (logical) ntfs for xp.....hda2
h drive (extended partion from d drive) ext 3 \root dir.....hda6 (not sure why linux recognized it as 6 and not 3)
i drive (extended partion from d) swap....hda7

---

OK, something is screwey here. hda1 looks good. If your second partition is logical, it should be hda5, not hda2. If it's showing up as hda2, then it's primary which may cause problems with Windows, but Linux should be OK with it. Extended partitions are primary partitions that contain logical partitions, but they themselves do not contain filesystems - just other partitions. An extended partition should show up as a primary designation (hda1-hda4).

If your description of your scheme is accurate, your partitions should look something like this in Linux fdisk:

hda1 primary NTFS Windows
hda2 extended
hda5 logical NTFS
hda6 logical ext3 /
hda7 logical swap

But I think this is all moot, because I don't think any of this would affect your grub setup.

Quote:

---

-told linux to boot dos by default in bootloader settings.

---

Have you checked the delay setting before booting Windows? If it's set to 0, you wouldn't see grub and just go straight to Windows.

Quote:

---

-No Boot partion (perhaps I need one?)

---

No, you don't normally need that.

Nice reply problemchild, I just checked the windows delay settings (in Conrtrol Panel>> Performance and Maintenance>>System>>Advanced>>Startup and Recovery). The delay until the operating system was listed was 30 secs, so I suppose the delay setting isn't the problem.

One thing I wanted to ask, why can I not use the linux redhat installation disk to boot into linux if the slackware and gentoo install disks are able to boot into it? (referring to your first reply). Thanks.

The reason I mentioned those other distros is because their installers boot you straight to a root command prompt. I've never used a Red Hat disc for this purpose, so I'm not precisely sure how you would go about getting to a plain command prompt. If you can get there, it will work fine.

Once you get there, just mount your Linux partition and follow the steps I outlined in the link above.

Above, RCGreen mentioned how I could get to a prompt from teh redhat installation disk. After reading your post on repairing grub, I'm still unsure about how to mount my root partion from the prompt.

I use dual boot with win xp and redhat 8.0
i installed lilo as bootloader and i configured it and it works fine

If u cna't boot in redhat with floppy than check those amibios features and tell the amibios where to boot first

Quote:

---

After reading your post on repairing grub, I'm still unsure about how to mount my root partion from the prompt.

---

Just create a directory to use for a mount point and mount your root partition there like so:

mkdir /mnt/redhat
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda6 /mnt/redhat

Then you can cd into /mnt/redhat/boot/grub and edit your menu.lst.

I just reinstalled redhat and made sure grub was installed on the mbr.

The final loading bar (the total progress bar had already hit 100%, I'm not sure what this last small, fast moving bar was for) was about half way loaded and it went to a black screen, just like the last time.

After the 'installation' I got the same message I did last time, only this time I took note of it. Here is the jist of it:
(note that anaconda is the name of the redhat gui installation interface)


"(anaconda:95) : Gnome Canvas-CRITICAL **: file gnome-canvas-psth-def.c:line 1142
(gnome-canvas-path-def-any-closed) : assertion 'path !NULL' failed
install exited abnormally
recovery thread got woken up.
recovery thread finished.
disabling swap...
unmounting fiesystems....

it is now safe to reboot."


I reboot and grub never loads, just xp, same as last install.

I noticed however, that the redhat install disk had a rescue mode option, that I assume from the description lets you boot into linux (like windows safe mode) and fix problems. Would it be easier to edit the grub file from here then the command prompt?

Also for anyone that has installed redhat 8.0 how to do you exit out of the gui installation screen? Thanks

There's your problem.... the install is aborting with an error and not finishing. Grub isn't getting installed.

Check the condition of your installation media and check the MD5 checksums of the ISO images you downloaded.

Problemchild, I still have all disks on my harddrive with the mdsum, however I ran the disk check before installing on all 5 disks and all were ok. How do I use the mdsum files to check the disks in xp? I googled this with no luck.

Pez, FYI Gnome is one of the GUI`s for Linux, a failed install of this shouldnt stop you booting. couple of things to check

1. that you didnt run out of space during your install - sounds crazy but depending on how you allocated your disk space while installing and what packages you installed you could fill up your partition

2. from the redhat site http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...ARTITIONS-LILO

Quote:

---

All the data GRUB and LILO need to access at boot time (including the Linux kernel) is located in the /boot directory. If you follow the partition layout recommended above or are performing a workstation or server install, the /boot directory will be in a small, separate partition. Otherwise, it may reside in the root partition (/). In either case, the partition in which /boot resides must conform to the following guidelines if you are going to use GRUB or LILO to boot your Red Hat Linux system:

---

3. I know Ive said this before but :rolleyes: make sure youve got an XP bootdisc and that you make a REDHAT bootdisc during install that way when things like grub and lilo probs happen you can boot to either op system and fix the problem.

sorry my quote got cropped :mad:

Quote:

---

GRUB and LILO are subject to some limitations imposed by the BIOS in most x86-based computers. Specifically, most BIOSes cannot access more than two hard drives, and they cannot access any data stored beyond cylinder 1023 of any drive. Note that some recent BIOSes do not have these limitations, but this is by no means universal.

---

Quote:

---

On First Two IDE Drives
If you have 2 IDE (or EIDE) drives, /boot must be located on one of them. Note that this two-drive limit also includes any IDE CD-ROM drives on your primary IDE controller. So, if you have one IDE hard drive, and one IDE CD-ROM on your primary controller, /boot must be located on the first hard drive only, even if you have other hard drives on your secondary IDE controller.

---

Two different opinions from two different credible people.

Let me is if I get this, I should create boot partion and install it on first hd. It could be that grub has been getting installed below the 1024 cylinder and that is my problem. I should create my boot partion from space on my fist hd?(I use partion magic)


Maybe the gnome error is causing the installation to abort prematurely and the bootloader is never even installed, as problemchild suggests. I still need to find out how to use the mdsum in xp, as it isn't a recognized extension.

To fix this, boot from the first deadrat 8.0 CD, then type linux rescue and press enter. You will get a prompt. Then type chroot /mnt/sysimage/ and press enter. Then type grub-install /dev/hda and press enter. All sorted :)

HTH

Quote:

---

It could be that grub has been getting installed below the 1024 cylinder and that is my problem. I should create my boot partion from space on my fist hd?(I use partion magic)

---

You can, but there's no reason to. The main reason people have historically created a /boot partition is to be sure the kernel stays below the first 1024 cylinders on the hard drive. The 1024 cylinder limit was overcome a couple of years ago by both grub and lilo, so there's no need for a /boot partition unless you just want one.

Quote:

---

Maybe the gnome error is causing the installation to abort prematurely and the bootloader is never even installed

---

That's exactly what's happening. The question is why. If you don't see the screen that says "Congratulations, installation has completed. Click OK to reboot" or something like that, the installation hasn't finished.

This link will help you with the MD5sums.
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html

I checked all the iso images with the md5sum, and all were ok. I even reburned all of the disks at the slowest burn speed and tried installing, same problem.

I tried installing the KDE interface instead of the Gnome, still got the gnomecanvas error.

Maybe I should do as Bery suggested, and install grub from the rescue mode, although I'm not sure redhat installed everything.

Switch Distro's?

It's starting to sound like the RH8.0 installer will never work proplerly with your hardware. It didn't install properly on mine either, but I fixed it by keeping copies of my modules.conf and XF86Config files. If this is the case, download redhat 7.3 and set that up. Then set up redhat 8.0 and do an upgrade. This should work first time.

HTH

Thanks Bery, I'm going to try and go mandrake. :)