[NTLUG:Discuss] FW: Problem installing FC 6 (continued) - round 2

[John K. Taber]

<<<me
Anyhow, I did run grub from the rescue disk, and executed the grub
commands you gave me. There was a Linux partition on hd1, but no grub
files. Here are the results literally (except for line wrap):

grub> geometry (hd0,0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 9726/255/63, The number of sectors = 156250000,
/dev/sda
   Partition num 0: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xde
   Partition num 1: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
   Partition num 2: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xdb

grub> geometry (hd1,0)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 9964/255/63, The number of sectors = 160086528,
/dev/sdb
   Partition num 0: Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
   Partition num 1: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x8e

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
	... File not found
grub> find /boot/grub/grub.conf
	... File not found

I experimented with grub find trying to specify the drive, but no grub
file was found.

My interpretation is that Install formatted sdb, but nothing was
installed. I suppose that Partition 1 is type unknown because it is a
LVM. Or, perhaps the LVM never got formatted.

Nobody asked because it's so obvious, but I did the SHA1SUM checks on
the iso's. And I performed the media tests on all CDs. They checked out
fine.

I'm trying to install on a Dell Dimension 4700, with two SATA drives,
Maxtor 80 GB. Windows XP is installed on the first drive.

>>>

<<< Leroy's comments  
Hmmm...

/dev/sda

Partition num 0: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xde   Dell
utility - no surprise since it's a Dell
Partition num 1: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7     
HPFS/NTFS - no surprise due to Windows
Partition num 2: Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xdb    CP/M /
CTOS / . - big surprise

Either:
1. Partition num 2 is trashed or
2. Some OS has used that ID in addition to CP/M ...
The second option isn't as far fetched as it might seem.  See
http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiwtab.htm and it's link to Andreas Brouwer's
page for a dismal commentary (no partition table standards, games OSes
play, kludges).  Just out of curiosity, does your Windows installation
have a data partition?  If so Microsoft may have continued the mess by 
picking this as their ID just like they and IBM both used 0x7 (but no
promises that this is the case).  The other option is that FC6 pulled
this stunt.
>>>

Me again:
========================
Well, I had FC3 installed successfully, and I soon after ran fdisk -l. 
Its results were the same, showing partition 2 on sda as Id db. 

My guess is that Dell is using this partition. On my second machine, I
have FC3 installed on hd1, and Windows XP on hd0. fdisk -l shows only
two partitions on hda, no db. 

So, it's not MS, apparently, but perhaps Dell.
===========================

<<<
No surprises on /dev/sdb either.

Ideas:
• Using grub try
find /etc/fstab
>>>

=================
I don't think this will work. /etc should be hanging off of / (root),
which would be in the 8e partition, an LVM. Someplace in the
Installation Guide it implies that grub can't read LVMs. Linux has to be
booted to read it.
====================

<<<<
and, if one is found, note what it says.
• See if Windows identifies the 0xdb partition in it's Disk
Administrator.
• Pull the second drive, re-run the FC6 install and see if it can find a
previous installation.  I'm not saying "re-install" just start the
process to see if it can find the partition.  If it can't then that may
be an indication that partition num 2 is trashed (unless it's a Windows
data partition of some kind).

• Did you say you told GRUB to install on the MBR of the second drive?  
>>>>

===============
No. I tried to install GRUB on the MBR of the first drive.
===========

<<<<
If so, while you have everything apart, try using it as the only hard
drive and see if it boots.
• Use TestDisk to see if it can find another partition on the first hard
drive.  The reason I say this is that you indicated that you used the
fixmbr command.  What I read indicates that it rewrites the first
sector.  This sector contains not only bootstrap code but the partition
table.  What I couldn't figure out from the few articles I read was
whether fixmbr just wrote the bootstrap or the whole sector.  If it's
the latter the question becomes "how does it decide what partitions to
list in the partition table?"  If someone has a definitive answer please
enlighten us!  If it did rewrite the partition table I wouldn't put it
past Microsoft to have such a "Windows only" orientation that it
wouldn't include the partitions of competing OSes.  If this is the case
then you have a partition on the hard disk that isn't listed in the
partition table, hopefully TestDisk will find it.
Now let me ask a very basic question, do you have a backup of the
Windows partition (or is there anything important on it)?  {Wait a
minute - it's Windows so obviously the answer is 'No' :-)  :-)  :-) }.
>>>

=============
I do have backups of most data. But if I had to reinstall XP, it would
be a lot of work updating it.

I have a couple more things to try, specifically using the Install Disk
Druid to delete and redefine the Linux partitions on sdb, since I have
the dimensions from the old fdisk -l. If that doesn't work, I will
abandon FC6 as hopeless, and try FC5.

The Installation Guides for either FC6 or FC3, are confusing at critical
points, so I'll be back with more questions. The Guides are too general
when they should be specific. 
==================

John