I give up on x86-64, its too busted.

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006, Gene Heskett wrote:

> On Sunday 16 April 2006 14:52, Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Sunday 16 April 2006 13:47, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
>>> On Sun, 16 Apr 2006, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>> Humm, I now have installed the 386 version of FC5, but I told it to
>>>> put grub in the 1st sector of /dev/hda2, the partition named /boot.
>>>>
>>>> But there's no choice of booting anything but XP.  I guess this
>>>> means I have to install it in the mbr of /dev/hda?
>>>>
>>>> In which case how do I install it, and whats the magic spell to put
>>>> into grub.conf so I have a choice of what to boot?
>>>>
>>>> Running the rescue cd, and cd'd to /mnt/sysimage, with a shell, a
>>>> "usr/local/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda"  gets me a message that it
>>>> can't find grub in sbin.  Of course its not there, if booted
>>>> normally it would be in /usr/sbin.

Actually, it would be in /sbin/.  So it would be in /mnt/sysimage/sbin/ if 
it's not part of the rescue image.  Or instead of cd, use "chroot 
/mnt/sysimage".  That will make your environment look just like your 
normal system.

>>>>
>>>> Obviously there's something I'm doing wrong in trying to protect
>>>> the XP install, but how can I fix it and boot the just installed
>>>> i386 version of FC5?  I'd druther not have to go all the way thru
>>>> another install just to move the grub stuff into the MBR.
>>>
>>> You are fine with GRUB in /dev/hda2.  Now boot with a rescue disk and
>>> run 'fdisk /dev/hda'  Then enter 'a' to toggle the boot flag and
>>> then '2' to make /dev/hda2 bootable, then 'w' to write the partition
>>> table, then reboot.
>>>
>>> Do *NOT* use the Windows disk manager to toggle the bootable flag!
>>> Every time I tried that with Win2K, it would blow away my entire
>>> partition table.
>>>
>>> I always thought it would be nice if when you selected /boot's
>>> partition for GRUB, the installer would make it bootable, but when I
>>> bugzilla'd the request it was shot down.
>>
>> I just did that, checked it with a p, then w rote it.  Got this
>> message: Warning: re-reading the partition table failed with error
>> 16: Device or resource busy.  Then I ctl-d'd the shell and let it
>> reboot.  It booted to windows, I rebooted, hit esc, that screen
>> looked like the normal bios screen for selection, with neither hda1
>> nor hda2, just hda being the choices.  I rebooted to the rescue cd,
>> and re-ran fdisk & found that flag was off again.  I've set it again,
>> but when I w the changes, the above error is output.

I don't think the fdisk error is a problem, as it occurs on reading.
The BIOS selection screen won't show partitions, just devices.  The boot 
process should find the active partition on the disk or boot the MBR if 
there is none.

>>
>> Do I need to skip the search?  Ahh, that time no error when I wrote
>> it, but the * survived adjacent to /dev/hda2.  But no boot choice
>> either on the reboot.
>>
>> So I power cycled it, and booted back to the rescue cd.  And no boot
>> flag for /dev/hda2 when I rerun fdisk /dev/hda after the power cycle.
>>
>> Next suggestion reinstall/what?  If I reinstall, and let it put grub
>> in the mbr this time, whats the magic spell for grub.conf to make XP
>> Home edition usable again?
>>
>> Thats based on if I'm to hate winderz as bad as I have over the years,
>> never having owned a winderz machine before, I'd at least like to get
>> to know my enemy.
>
> And I just found GAG on the gparted disk, maybe this will work, or
> should I figure on reinstalling and letting it put grub in the mbr this
> time?

I don't know GAG, but gparted should be another way to handle toggling 
boot flags.

I always configure my dual-boot machines with GRUB in the /boot partition 
(which has to be a primary partition).  Then I make that partition active, 
as I described.  It's always worked just as I described.  When you boot, 
you should see the GRUB spash screen.

Wait...  In the BIOS, do you have a boot virus checker?  If so, try 
turning it off before you run fdisk.

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs