Red Hat 8.0 Installation Problem

[edwardsen35]

Before I screwed up my computer I had a dual booting machine {Mandrake 8.2 and Windows 98(My gf was bugging me for months to install Windows before I cracked)}.  I decided to install Red Hat 8.0 because that is what my friend runs.  I downloaded and burned Red Hat 8.0 to a couple of CDs.  I popped the first cd in and I booted my computer.  I believe I got to the third step of the installation and it asked me for the location of the installation media.  I selected the CD-ROM drive and the installation program immediately asked me again for the location of the installation media.  It seems to me like the installation program didn't even check the CD-ROM.  What I believe is happening is that the Red Hat installation is not recognizing my CD-ROM.  I have a Goldstar GCE-8240B.  This is a problem but it isn't the problem that I am having trouble with.  Since I couldn't continue with the installation I rebooted my machine.  When I rebooted my machine this is the error that I got:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I then used my boot disk to start Mandrake.  I ran lilo in hopes that this would solve my problem.  However, lilo didn't solve the problem.  In a last ditch effort, I then used a book disk to start Windows 98.  I ran FDISK /MBR and this didn't solve the problem either.

Since I don't have any important data on my computer I decided to do a fresh install of Mandrake 8.2.  This didn't solve the problem.  I then tried a fresh install of Windows 98 and that didn't work either.

I have two questions:
1.  Anybody know why this happened?
2.  What do I do to fix this or where do I look for information on how to fix this?

If you need any more information just let me know and I will post as soon as I see it.

Thank You,
     edwardsen35

[choasforages]

ouch, ill give my standerd message, look on the motherbaord, and stare very closly at each electroletic capaciter, make sure none are "expirerd".

ok, before messnig with hardware, try the bios, and also give rienstall another shot, also check that all cables are firm and havn't wiggle thier way out and that nothing has died

[Interscope]

Do everything chaos said.

And after that, pull out your cd-rom, open it up and dust it out. Clean it like your your mom cleans your room when she has an attack of the "I MUST CLEAN UP EVERYTHING!!!"

I have alot of problems with my cd-rom lately. A good clean-up got it back to normal. It has yet to negativly affect my cd-rom but you should be carefull that you don't break anything.

[creedon]

Do everything the other guys suggested; they're ALL right.  When you get an up-and-running install D/L and burn a copy of Knoppix 3.1; it's the absolute best rescue disc EVER.  It's actually a full copy of Debian 3.0 that runs directly off the CD; it doesn't install, so you're able to see ALL the partitions on your hard drive.  If you have a problem with your installation, you can locate and correct whatever it is without having to re-install.  Knoppix CAN be installed as a full distro, but that's another story.

[edwardsen35]

Thanks for the help!!!!  I took the cover off my computer and cleaned out the dust.  I also made sure that I had a good connection with my cd-rom and hard drive.  I must have had a bad version of red hat because I downloaded a new copy and the instalation was very different.

However I am still having the same problem.  When I boot my computer I get an error message that says:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

If I instert the boot floppy then Red Hat boots fine.  Any more ideas on what to do?

Thank You

[creedon]

It sounds like a LILO problem; where did you write LILO to, the root partition or the MBR?  I think it's just a configuration issue.

[dishawjp]

Hi Creedon,

Grub is the default bootloader for RH 8 and I believe it's supposed to be installed in the /boot partition.  I'm wondering if there's some sort of a conflict between Lilo (the default Mandrake 8.2 bootloader) and grub, and that happened when he tried to install RH8.

I'm going to try helping him with this problem tonight and if you have any thoughts, le me know. I was palnning on looking at his partitioning with fdisk to make sure that his /boot partition is correctly located and that grub is loaded there and seems to be properly configured.

One question I have is what determines which bootloader is used if there is more than one installed.  In other words, how would I make sure that the boot process looks to grub and not to lilo? It sounds like there may be some sort of a conflict there that is interfering with the boot process.

Jim

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by DOSman:
Hi Creedon,

Grub is the default bootloader for RH 8 and I believe it's supposed to be installed in the /boot partition.  I'm wondering if there's some sort of a conflict between Lilo (the default Mandrake 8.2 bootloader) and grub, and that happened when he tried to install RH8.

I'm going to try helping him with this problem tonight and if you have any thoughts, le me know. I was palnning on looking at his partitioning with fdisk to make sure that his /boot partition is correctly located and that grub is loaded there and seems to be properly configured.

One question I have is what determines which bootloader is used if there is more than one installed.  In other words, how would I make sure that the boot process looks to grub and not to lilo? It sounds like there may be some sort of a conflict there that is interfering with the boot process.

Jim

Yeah, I think i'ts a boot-loader problem; without looking at my documentation, I believe that GRUB resides in the MBR; it chain-loads Windows, and boots Linux natively.  The best way might be to experiment with a GRUB floppy; try some different config's and when you get it right, write it to the MBR.

[Agent007]

Assuming u have a working grub.conf

# grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

u'll get the partition where your grub stages are installed in grub
hd naming convention for e.g.
 (h0,3)

then set this as root partition
grub> root (hd0,3)

then install grub on mbr
grub> setup (hd0)

quit and reboot
grub> quit

# reboot

it should work.

rgds,
007

[beltorak0]

I had the smae problem a while ago.  I scoured the internet for fifteen hours looking for this proceedure; basically you need to re-"sys" drive c:, but save the original "msdos.sys" because of it's boot up stuff.

• boot with win98 startup disk (you do have one, right?  any dos will do unless the following commands aren't supported...)
• path=c:\windows\command
• fdisk /mbr
• c:
• attrib -h -s -r msdos.sys
• copy msdos.sys msdos.xxx
• a:
• sys c:
• c:
• attrib -s -h -r msdos.sys
• copy msdos.xxx msdos.sys
• y ; If needed because of silly warnings...
• attrib +h +s +r msdos.sys
• reboot

you will have to reinstall the boot loader after "fdisk /mbr" of course; but i think it is necessary since the partial install of RH 8 zotst the master boot record and the windows partition boot record as well.

hope that helps.
-t.

[ December 30, 2002: Message edited by: beltorak0 ]

[dishawjp]

Hi All,

After lots of brewskies and a lot of false starts and using the suggestions and information posted here... we got it up and running.

It turned out to be a BIOS issue, and if Edwardsen chooses to post more, he may.

Thanks to all for your pointers and assistance!

Jim

[edwardsen35]

Like Dosman said I would like to say thank you to everyone who helped me out.  The problem was that the bios was booting hdd-1 .  My hard drive is called hdd-0.  I fell really stupid that this was the problem.  I also would like to apologize because this turned out to be easy to fix and in retrospect a simple problem.

-edwardsen35

[beltorak0]

don't feel too bad.  I did the same thing at another time... HDD-0 isn't near HDD-1,2, &3 on the bios boot order selection menu.  I feelt realy realy stupid after ten or so hours of frustration...

glad to hear you're up and running again.

[ December 31, 2002: Message edited by: beltorak ]

[creedon]

Hell, I got my dick caught in my zipper once; THAT'S bad!!