[NTLUG:Discuss] Problem installing FC 6

[Leroy Tennison]

John K. Taber wrote:
> I tried to do a clean install of FC 6, but got unexpected results that I
> don't know how to recover from.
>
> I'm trying to get a dual boot system, with Windows XP on the first SATA
> drive, and FC 6 on the second.
>
> FC 6 seemed to install ok, replacing Windows MBR with GRUB. But on
> booting I got a grub command line instead of a grub screen that would
> let me select which system I wanted.
>
> It's text mode only, showing
> grub >
>
> I entered help, which showed the allowed commands but I don't know how
> to use them.
>
> I had to rescue Windows again with fixmbr.
>
> How on earth do I install FC 6 with grub dual boot? I think FC 6 *is*
> installed, just somehow grub got messed up.
>
> John
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>   
This is anything but a quick fix but you can work with grub to get FC6 
to boot if it is bootable at all.  First you need a GRUB boot diskette 
(since you used fixmbr and got rid of the GRUB boot).  If you have 
another Linux
machine this is easy.  Otherwise see 
http://www.uruk.org/orig-grub/install.html#raw and download a grub image 
(grub.img) as well as rawrite.exe from the URL below (search for 
grub.img on the page, it's version 0.92) 
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/comments-feedback-suggestions/5985-grub-diskette-download.html.

Once you have booted to grub do:

geometry (hd0,0)

    See if you even show the Linux partition, fixmbr may have obscured
    it.  If it's not showing up then you might try testdisk
    (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) or DiskInternals
    (http://www.programurl.com/software-diskinternals-linux-recovery-downloadnow.html). 
    I've never used these so ask around before you do any
    modifications...  Maybe someone else has experience with one.

(Assuming you find the Linux partition with grub or recover and then 
find it...)

find /boot/grub/menu.lst

If that doesn't find anything then try

find /boot/grub/grub.conf

(Assuming you found it)

cat <partition>/boot/grub/grub.conf

where <partition> comes from the find command.  For example, if find 
returned '(hd0,6)' then do

cat (hd0,6)/boot/grub/grub.conf

Carefully write down the 'root ...', 'kernel ...' and 'initrd ...' lines 
and press enter if necessary to get out of the listing.

At the prompt carefully type in the lines you wrote down

root ...
kernel ...
initrd ...

The response to the first should be brief partition information and file 
information for the last two.  Now, hold your breath and type

boot

Hopefully the system will come up.  If not, tell us what happened...