How to help? was Re: Serious reservations about FC2 release on 5/18

[Steve Fink]

I'm sorry if this has been covered before but I haven't been following any
of the threads discussing this problem with XP.

Could someone with this problem try these steps to fix the issue?

---------------------------------------------

Preparation:

Please get the following items before beginning:

1. Fedora Core 2 boot disk - if you don't know how to make one refer to
Appendix A
2. MS Boot disk including fdisk - if you don't know how to make one refer
to Appendix B
3. Knoppix CD - If you don't have one get one at http://www.knoppix.org
4. Bucket load of patience - If you don't have one get one.


Execution:

1. Boot into Fedora and verify your /boot/grub/menu.lst exists and should
look like this:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.327)
	root (hd0,2)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.327 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb selinux=0 quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.327.img
title WinXP
	rootnoverify (hd0,1)
	chainloader +1

***NOTE***
This menu.lst assumes that XP is on the 1st partition and Fedora /boot is
on the second.

2. Reboot using MS Boot disk
3. Run fdisk /mbr - This will restore the MS bootloader to the Master Boot
Record
4. Reboot into XP and make sure it works
5. Reboot using the Knoppix CD
6. Open a shell
7. su
8. root at knoppix:/# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

GNU GRUB version 0.94 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)
[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> 

Now run these three commands:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit 

9. Reboot, and you will be greeted by the GRUB command shell. Note that
the root value is variable, depending on where GRUB is installed on your
system. setup (hd0) installs GRUB to the MBR (master boot record), and
quit exits GRUB

If your /boot/grub/menu.lst is setup properly this should give you a
working GRUB configuration.

---------------

Best of Luck,

Steve


---------------




Appendix A:

Making a Linux boot disk

Most folks ignore that operating system installation procedure where it is
asked if a boot disk (emergency disk) should be made.

While this boot disk is important in Windows operating systems, it is even
more important in Linux, especially in a dual-boot system, where Windows
and Linux exist together. Even if you boot using a bootloader existing on
a system hard-drive, you should keep an up to date boot disk handy. If the
standard boot process goes awry, toss the boot disk in, reboot, and then
you can get in to repair the problem.

So during an installation/upgrade of an OS, when asked to make a boot
disk....Definitely do so!

But, what happens if you didn't make a boot disk during the Linux install?
Don't fear, mkbootdisk is there for you...

Typical command line....

/sbin/mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.6.5-1.327

This command instructs the mkbootdisk executable to use the floppy disk
drive (/dev/fd0) to write the boot disk info to, and to send it all the
appropriate information to load the kernel numbered 2.6.5-1.327

A man page of mkbootdisk provides more on the command, but here are a few
quickies:

-mkbootdisk might reside in different places on different distros
-if --device is not specified, it will by default use /dev/fd0....so you
can shorten the length of the command line entry by not using it if your
floppy exists at that default location.
-remember that if you have multiple kernels installed, one boot disk may
not properly boot the other kernels, so you would be best off making one
for each kernel.



Appendix B:

Making a MS boot disk


Double Click on My Computer
Insert Floppy diskette into Floppy Drive
Right Click on Floppy Drive choose Format
Click on Checkbox next to Add System Files
Allow disk to format and copy system files
Search for fdisk and copy it to the floppy