Please help...can't seem to load FC6 after install.

d0n_3d · #1 9th December 2006, 04:55 AM

Well I somehow got the .iso images for FC6 to burn properly and I thought I was home-free when the cds checked out OK. So I went to install FC6 and everything went smooth. I installed the first 2 discs. After I was done loading the disc and rebooted, it then goes to a black screen with a grub command line. Is this normal? I can't seem to load the operating system. I also have Windows XP on another partition in which I had installed first. But there is no list of operating systems at startup. What am I doing wrong here?

rappermas · #2 9th December 2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d0n_3d

Well I somehow got the .iso images for FC6 to burn properly and I thought I was home-free when the cds checked out OK. So I went to install FC6 and everything went smooth. I installed the first 2 discs. After I was done loading the disc and rebooted, it then goes to a black screen with a grub command line. Is this normal? I can't seem to load the operating system. I also have Windows XP on another partition in which I had installed first. But there is no list of operating systems at startup. What am I doing wrong here?

Are you sure that you configured and installed GRUB (Grand Universal Boot-Loader) correctly? I can help you do two things, reinstall it, and restore it.

To reinstall GRUB, which sometimes can fix the problem, boot up with the disc that you used to start the Fedora installation and at the boot prompt, type

Code:

linux rescue

. After scrolling text and driver initialization, you will be prompted to select a language and keyboard type, which should be English, unless it isn't, in which case you can select the appropriate one. Then, you'll be prompted to activate network interfaces--answer yes. Leave the defaults for all of the network stuff and click OK. Then, Anaconda will tell you what's going to happen when you mount the system image--just hit Continue. You installed system image will be mounted and you'll be dropped down into the Bourne Shell at init 1. From here, you can type:

Code:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/hda1
exit
exit

What that does is make the mounted system image editable, uses it to install GRUB to the MBR (Master Boot Record) so that it can be used to boot, and the two exits are needed for a complete reboot. If you have one of the new SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) Drives, the commands will be a little different, like so:

Code:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/sda1
exit
exit

As you can see, for SATA drives, the only different lies between /dev/hda and /dev/sda. Yet this is an important difference that could mean the difference between talking to a hard drive and a USB port.

If re-installation of GRUB doesn't do the trick, you might try restoring GRUB, assuming you had XP installed beforehand.

If you want to restore the original NTLDR (New Technology Loader) that Windows XP uses to start up to the MBR, all you have to do is insert the Windows XP installation CD, boot up from it, wait while it loads the drivers, and then press R to into the Recovery Console. You'll be asked for your administrator password, something that you set when you installed Windows. After providing this information, type in:

Code:

fixmbr

This will write NTLDR back to the MBR, restoring it to its original condition.

Hope this helps, in some way, shape, or form!

d0n_3d · #3 9th December 2006, 02:52 PM

Thank you I will try all this right now!

d0n_3d · #4 9th December 2006, 04:09 PM

OK I tried reloading GRUB and I got the same message at startup (see below). I then re-installed the MBR for windows XP and got that to boot up fine but it doesn't give me a list of operating systems, it just goes straight into windows.

Here is exactly what comes up when I install FC6 with GRUB and try to reboot and load the FC6 OS.

GNU GRUB Version 0.97 (639K lower / 523180K upper memory)

[Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completion. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename.]

grub>_

SO yeah I have no idea what to do here. I figured this would be simple and it would give me a list of booting from either Windows XP (C

or Fedora Core 6. I really want to play with FC6!

BLiZZaRD · #5 10th December 2006, 08:52 AM

Are you sure the option isn't there? Not saying your a liar or the like, but I thought the same thing until I rebooted for the 3rd time and saw the very quick "Press 'ESC' to enter grub" or whatever exactly it says.

In FC5 and lower it used to be "any key" now it is "ESC" and the default is set to like 2 or 3 seconds, so if you blink it will load the default.

After I got into Zod I changed the timer to 15 seconds and it is a lot better now

Also, I had/have the same problem with the log in black screen thingy... when I went to grub I saw 2 FC6 entries, one had "-up" at the end. If you choose this one it will load the GUI, the other option didn't. At least in my case.

I have a thread around here asking why

d0n_3d · #6 26th December 2006, 03:10 AM

I'm still having this same problem. I've tried everything and I still get a command prompt for Grub at startup instead of FC6 going into the GUI. Can anyone shed some light on this? How is everyone else running Windows XP and FC6 without problems???

d0n_3d · #7 26th December 2006, 07:04 PM

anyone? I'm surely not the only one with this problem

***bob*** · #8 26th December 2006, 07:21 PM

I'd try a reinstall of FC-6. Since you've only got the one drive, I'd follow the instructions here: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=92701 and see if that gets you past the problem. To me it seems as if you somehow rebooted before grub was properly installed.

d0n_3d · #9 26th December 2006, 08:10 PM

I've tried re-installing 3 times and I get the same thing everytime. I have followed the directions down to a tee. I'm letting Fedora use free space on the hard drive (I have a 150 GB hard drive). I'm not sure what to do. Why does this Grub prompt always come up after installing FC6? It gives you a list of command lines when you press TAB but nothing seems to work. I can't even boot back into Windows unless I load the Windows cd and choose to boot from that. Very weird.

***bob*** · #10 26th December 2006, 08:30 PM

That's normally a case where grub can't find the FC partition, which can happen on multiple drives. Does your drive have anything unusual, maybe a hidden partition (restore XP?) or is there anything else that you can think of that could affect the normal drive mapping?

***bob*** · #11 26th December 2006, 08:36 PM

This tutorial may help too: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...hlight=grub%3E

d0n_3d · #12 27th December 2006, 05:54 AM

thanks for the reply...I actually have a single 150 GB hard drive in which I have first installed Windows XP. I divided the drive in half so that half is reserved for Windows and half is reserved for FC6. When I go to install FC6 from the disc, it gives me an option to install it using free space available on the 150 GB drive. I can't see how GRUB would be not detecting this installation. Should I actually installed FC6 first on the drive THEN Windows???

***bob*** · #13 27th December 2006, 01:22 PM

No, Windows is going to want to be first on the drive. You should install it first. There's probably some VERY easy explanation here but I'm not seeing it either. Your BIOS is seeing all of the 150 gigs ,right? Some older motherboards had limits that might affect it. If so, I'd try using gparted Live CD from here: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php to first manually partition the hard drive and create the swap space (double your ram, but not more than 1 gig) and your FC space. 70 gig is way more than you'll need unless you've got a lot of graphics, video, movies that you intend to stick in there. Perhaps you might want to consider a smaller partition for FC - 15-20 gig? Then the rest of the 70 gig you could format as Fat32 which both linux and Windows can access. That way both OS's can share data easily.

So anyway, once you've partitioned the drive the way you want, begin the install AGAIN and select 'custom' on the partitioning and point to the partition you want to install FC on, and making that root "/" . Everything will be installed there. Allow grub, the bootloader to be installed on the master boot record (mbr) of the drive and have a well-deserved breakfast beer while it does it's thing. You should end up with a reboot to a countdown to boot into FC. If you wanted to select Windows, stop the count by hitting any key (except 'enter') and try the 'other' entry to see that Windows boots normally.