Help Configure GRUB

[NESnerd]

Uh, I'm stupid...help me.

I installed Redhat 7.3, and I need to install GRUB as my bootloader (which I think I know how to do, just need to do it), but I want to dual boot between that and ::cough::Windows::cough::. Anyway, both operating systems are on a seperate hard drive, (linux on my second one) and I wanted to make sure I did it right, as I tend to f^ck things up easily. So uhm, yeah. What do I do.

[Master of Reality]

man grub
man grub-install
the man pages are always a must look.
to install grub on the first HD you would need to do 'grub-install /dev/hda' i think.

Before you do that you need to add the appropriate OSes to the grub.conf.

I think the entry for redhat should look like:

title redhat /*the title that will be in the menu*/
root (hd1,0) /*root of the boot parition which is second harddrive first partition, grub starts counting at zero*/
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root=/dev/hdb1 hdd=ide-scsi /*where your kernel image is.. this is just what mine looks like*/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.7-10.img

this is what the windows entry should be:

title windoze
root (hd0,0)
makeactive /*makes the partition active*/
chainloader +1 */grub hands off the rest of loading to the partition*/

I am almost positive about the windows entry and not so sure about the redhat entry.

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[voidmain]

http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub/html_mono/grub.html

[NESnerd]

Windows doesn't seem to want to boot. GRUB is all configured and i have Linux and Windows popping up, but when I try to boot into Windows nothing happens, it goes to a blackscreen and then back to the GRUB interface...

[Master of Reality]

you probably have set it to the wrong partition or have a typo in grub.conf ?

[NESnerd]

I think it's the 'chainloader +1' part. When I check the thing for errors (or I think that's what I'm doing), the only thing I get a bad response on is that...

Uh, wait, I'm just dumb. With the root (hd0,0) it says about how the filesystem is FAT, partition type 0xc...

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: NESnerd ]

[Master of Reality]

you might have to add 'root noverify' for the windows parition.
if you dont have chainloader +1, grub wont use a chainloader and will try to load windows all by itself by looking for the kernel to load... since windows isnt linux it wont work.

[voidmain]

Yes, the Windows portion of your grub.conf should look like this:

Code: [Select]

assuming that your C: drive is the first partition on your first IDE drive.

[NESnerd]

I actually thought I might need the noverify once I was looking around, but the F key on that keyboard doesn't work. I suppose I can go in thru the GUI and find one to copy and paste or something. ::roars at old keyboard::

[voidmain]

You don't have an extra keyboard lying around?  How the hell do you get to Forum.Fuckmicrosoft.com without the 'F'? Hell, a new one is like 10 bucks.

[NESnerd]

Because I'm on a different computer right now!

Yeah, well I hadn't been on that computer in a while, so I hadn't really noticed the bad f key anyway.

But yeah, so I did that, and now, when I go to Windows...it reboots my machine. :-/ I must be stupid or something.

[voidmain]

Can you copy/paste your grub.conf file into a message on this forum.  And can you also copy/paste the output from this command:

/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda

The above command should be run as root and the "-l" is a lower case "L".

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[NESnerd]

I'm sorry, but as of now I cannot. It's on a seperate computer that doesn't have access to the internet on, and I tried to use a floppy to put something on there, and I don't know what happened. But I went in from a boot disk into DOS, and I can't see any of my files on my C drive now, and I don't know what that's from. I sure hope I didn't lose all my work though. That would freak me out.

[voidmain]

What version of Windows is on your drive, and what file system are you running it on? i.e. FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS?  If it's FAT32 or NTFS you will not be able to see anything on your C: drive from a "DOS" boot floppy, you'll need to boot from a floppy with FAT32 or NTFS support. If it's FAT32 you can always mount the Windows partition from your Linux side and view your files.

You can copy/paste the info I asked for into a file and copy it to a DOS formatted floppy, then move to your other machine and paste it into a message.  Or if the machines are near each other just type in the info, it's not that much.

[NESnerd]

It's a Win98 boot disk, I had been able to see my files there before.

I tried using a floppy, but I was dumb and frustrated.

My current concern is getting back into Windows, for now...

I think I mounted my other hard drive on accident, except it's talking about like a 'hdf', which I had seen earlier, like it didn't refer to it as hda like I would have thought. Anyway, I don't know if it did or not, but if it did and I didn't unmount it, I suppose that could be bad?

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: NESnerd ]