Can't start RH9 after configuring bootloader

[evenflow]

I'm a virgin newb (newer than new) and I am not even sure I'll be using the right "terminology", but please help me...

I have WinXP Pro and I just installed RH9 on a separate partition on the same hdd.
When configuring the bootloader, I made RH my default OS when booting, made GRUB be my bootloader and placed the bootloader in the /boot partition instead of the MBR.
I did this because it suggested that I if I'm installing RH as another OS in a different partition on the same disk as NT/XP, I should place the bootloader there, instead of the MBR.
The installation of the kernel, packages, etc. was successful.

**However, when I rebooted my system, it did not start in the bootloader, GRUB. It just goes straight to my XP partition and boots XP like it normally does without giving me the choice of whether I wanted to start RH or XP.
Now RH is just sitting there on my other partition. I do not know how to get my system to start RH, much less give me the choice of which OS to start when I boot.
:confused:
Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

[psi42]

hmm...if the bootloader is not on the MBR, it won't load when you start your computer. I don't have win NT/XP but I've heard it can be "picky" with other OSes.

Try booting from your RH install disk and see if it will let you write GRUB to a floppy disk. Once you have that floppy working, test to see if it will boot xp and linux.

If the disc doesn't let you do that, grab the grub.ext2fs image from the GRUB website and write it to a floppy disk. Generally, to write a floppy image, you use the command

dd if=imagefilename of=/dev/fd0

Then boot from the disk and you will be brought to a grub boot prompt. Take a look at the grub docs to see how to boot your OSes.
Generally, for linux, you will use:
root (hdX,X) Replace X with correct numbers. Grub starts with 0 instead of one.
kernel <insert kernel path, and any options here>
boot

Here is what I use for loading linux on one of my boxes:
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb7
boot


Whatever you do, don't install the bootloader to the MBR until you can boot both linux and xp from your floppy.



hope this helps...
~psi42

[homey]

You did make the linux boot disk, right? :)

If so, boot up to Redhat and repair the grub as follows....

First off type:rdev to find out what partition the / is on.

Then type: grub to start the grub tool
Then type: root (hd0,2) Note: change that to match what you got from the rdev command.
Then type: setup (hd0) Note: that is going to use the MBR instead of the /boot partition.

Type: quit to exit the grub utility.

If you didn't make a boot floppy, use CDROM1 and type: rescue when booting to get to the linux prompt. You do need to do the part about chroot.

[palinux]

It would have been best to have put GRUB into your MBR rather than /boot, and used GRUB as your bootloader. Now you will have to figure out a way to have the Windows bootloader boot up your linux partition. Possibly modifying c:\boot.ini will do the trick, but, I'm not a windows hacker so can't say for sure.

Plan B: Load GRUB onto your MBR. The easiest way is to simply reinstall RH9 from the ground up, this time specifying MBR. The setup should also detect your Windows partition and give you an option to boot it from GRUB. I am running this laptop with GRUB as the bootloader and 3 Linux partitions plus a Win2K partition.

Plan C: Boot from your install CD #1, specify "linux rescue" at the initial prompt. Go through the various prompts to get into rescue mode. Once at the shell prompt, type "chroot /mnt/sysimage" to get to your filesystems at "/". Then enter "/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda" to put GRUB onto the MBR. Next, edit file "/boot/grub/grub.conf" to add a section such as this:

title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

where (hd0,0) would be for hda1 if that's where your Win partition is (most likely if WinXP was already there).

Then type "exit" to return to rescue mode, followed by "reboot". Then you should see both Linux and Windows on your GRUB menus.