Grub cannot boot fedora

Savdnc Systems · #1 15th July 2008, 08:04 AM

I was using both fedora 9 and windows xp, dual boot. Yesterday i reinstalled windows (bad idea). Now i reinstalled grub, it boots windows perfectly but when i choose fedora it gives this error:

root (hd0,2)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type ox82
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.9-76.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=bd8f51ad-0bc9-4e46-a969-7f04ea1bb4c0 rhgb quiet

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

Any help is appreciated.

marcrblevins · #2 15th July 2008, 08:18 AM

Suppose to be type 83 for linux. How did you create those partitions?

marcrblevins · #3 15th July 2008, 08:20 AM

Type 82 is Linux swap.

Savdnc Systems · #4 15th July 2008, 08:27 AM

well, i created these partitions with anaconda, when i was installing fedora, i guess.

OK, it could be that i installed grub into wrong place. Is there a way to restore?

marcrblevins · #5 15th July 2008, 08:38 AM

Slap the DVD in, boot from it, chroot it. Then run:

Code:

fdisk -l

Savdnc Systems · #6 15th July 2008, 01:41 PM

seems like i could not chroot, anyway, fdisk -l gave this

/dev/sda1 * HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 Extend
/dev/sda3 Linux swap/Solaris
/dev/sda4 Linux
/dev/sda5 Linux

ok, fedora is installed in sda4

I am not sure what should i do to make it boot.

JEO · #7 15th July 2008, 01:57 PM

Change the root line in /boot/grub/grub.conf from (hd0,2) to (hd0,3) or (hd0,4).

Those are your linux partitions. (hd0,2) is your swap. You must have added a partition in windows or something and bumped up the partition numbers.

After that you should probably also re-setup grub

grub --device-map=/dev/null

device (hd0) /dev/sda
root (hd0,3)
setup (hd0)

Oh and what he means by chroot is boot the installation media into rescue mode, then chroot /mnt/sysimage

Savdnc Systems · #8 15th July 2008, 04:00 PM

When i boot into rescue mode, it it says it will attempt to find a linux installation and mount it under directory /mnt/sysimage.
I press continue and then it says "You don't have any linux partitions".

chroot /mnt/sysimage also doesn't work, it says it cant find that.

So, now i dont know a way to edit grub.conf

By the way, I didn't add a partition in windows. And reinstalled it in same partition as it was before.

JEO · #9 15th July 2008, 04:44 PM

I have seen a problem with dual booting where the windows and linux partitions overlap, due to the different operating systems seeing the "geometry" of the drives differently or one operating system dealing with the "host protected area" differently than the other. So what basically happens is that if you fix one it overwrites part of the other. Could be something like that happening. What I usually do to fix this problem is install Windows first, let it create all of the partitions that I will need (leaving the linux ones unformatted of course), then use sfdisk command to change the partition type numbers for the ones I want to use for Fedora.

stoat · #10 16th July 2008, 02:02 AM

If you get to the end of your rope, download a Super Grub Disk. If your Fedora is still capable of booting at all, a Super Grub Disk will boot it. If it can boot your Fedora, then you can try the GRUB re-install from a terminal in the running Fedora. It's worth a try before giving up.