Fedorac3/RH9 boot problem

[GRobinT]

Hello all, I have tried googling, read forums, etc- (for the last four days) however I can't seem to find this problem. I have Fedora Core 3 on hda and Red Hat 9 on hdb- they both show upon boot- FC goes to the system- RH does not. This is the last grub file I have editied- please anyone assist me in the proper configuration. I receive the error #15- file not found kernel (hdx,0)/boot/1,0. This is where I have tried several configurations to try and correct the error to no avail

default=0
timeout=30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.27_FC3)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.27_FC3 ro root=dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.27_FC3.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
title Red Hat 9.0
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/1,0
root=/dev/hdb3
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

I have tried several ways to get RH to boot up- and on my fdisk file this is what is shown :
/dev/hdb1 *
/dev/hdb2
/dev/hdb3 linux swap

my fstab file contains these lines:
Label=/boot1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0

I left out the middile items for brevity . Any assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated

[DrChuck]

The Red Hat 9 section is completely wrong. I/ve noticed that Fedora install does not correctly handle a second linux installation when it configures grub - the chainloader line is only used for a windows dual boot.

I dual boot RH9 and FC2 and here is what my grub.conf looks like, for RH9 on /dev/hdb1:

splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.10-1.770_FC2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.770_FC2 ro root=LABEL=/ vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.10-1.770_FC2.img
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat 9
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-27.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-27.9.img

Just change the vmlinuz and initrd references to the exact paths in your boot directory.

Hope this helps,
drChuck

[GRobinT]

Thank you so much for the reply. I didn't want to reinstall red hat 9. However as a noobie- how do I retrieve the exact boot directory:confused: - again. Thank you for the reply- in the meantime- I google around for the directions to locate the boot dir.

[DrChuck]

I'm assuming you didn't create a separate boot partition when you installed RH9, but instead have a boot directory on /dev/hdb1. You should look there first. Boot into Fedora, then mount your Redhat root partition so you can view the contents, as follows:
open a shell, and su - , providing the root password
mkdir /mnt/RH9_root
mount -t auto /dev/hdb1 /mnt/RH9_root
ls /mnt/RH9_root/boot

Now you should see the exact names of your vmlinuz and initrd files, which you can reference in /boot/grub/grub.conf. If not, please report back with the contents of /mnt/RH9_root/boot so we can figure out the next step.

drChuck

[GRobinT]

DrChuck....again I thank you for the quick reply-- it tells me no such file or directory- I am assuming- it has been corrupted some ho- I will reinstall rh9- and with any success still be able to boot fc3- then try again:confused: - makes no sense to me since I am able to fstab it and 'see' rh9 is there because I can tell it used boot- operating system and swap file partions <sp>...I will try the commands again- in case I missed spelled something:eek: :confused:

Also- when I installed RH9- it was the first one - at that point I didn't have anything to add to the grub- when I installed FC3- I 'thought' I added RH9 to the grub- since this was the third try at the entire thing on two different drives

[GRobinT]

I tried this command vi boot/rh9_root/grub/grub.conf and received an empty file...I am thinking somehow rh9 is gone- I'll reinstall (and hope like the devil I don't lose my FC3 like I did the first two-three times):(

using the command mount -t dev/hdb1
mount -l

revealed the following (using brevity)
/dev/hda1 on boot type ext3 (rw) [/boot1]
/dev/hdb1 on mnt/RH9_root type ext3 (rw) [/boot]

Seeing the different 'boot' and 'boot1' would that make a difference in RH being booted?

[DrChuck]

Ok, I don't think your RH9 is gone, rather I'm thinking that /dev/hdb1 is your RH9 boot partition. Mount /dev/hdb1 like I said before, and then list the contents of /mnt/RH9_root. I'll bet your boot stuff is there.
From your first post it looks like your root partition for RH9 is /dev/hdb3, so your grub.conf RH9 section should look like:
title Red Hat 9
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.XXXX ro root=/dev/hdb3
initrd /initrd-2.4.XXXX.img
Reinstalling won't help. If you want to dual boot 2 linux distributions, you will need to hand edit the grub.conf file.
drChuck

[GRobinT]

Thank you again- I am off to go try it---the more I think about it I beleive boot is on the hdb3- swap file -I have to look again. I have been trying various mnt commands and the like. I'll post to let you know how it turned out

[GRobinT]

I edited the grub- RH 9 starts to go- then kernel panic: no init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
Also noticed there is a line:
VFS: can't find ext3 filesystem on dev ide0(3,67)
It's as if it is trying to read the first hard disk
And one more error- mount error 22 mounting ext3.

But as you said- I don't have to reinstall RH9- it's there just getting the right combo to the grub file- I will play with this again after work- Thanks again for all your input....

[GRobinT]

Finally able to find the grub.conf on RH9- it read :
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img

At the beggining of the file however there was this line:
kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=dev/hdb2

So my new (FC3) grub was configured:
root (hdb1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img

again, I received the kernel panic error ---off to try another config.- this time inputting dev/hdb2 instead of label:confused:

[DrChuck]

You've still got a typo:
change root (hdb1,0) to root (hd1,0)

Now if you can just nail the RH9 root partition, I think you'll have it. Id it hdb2 or hdb3? You can do fdisk -l to see which ones are type 83.

drChuck

[GRobinT]

I apologize for that ran to look at the config. this morning I actually have the root (hd1,0) typed there...I did do a fdisk and my ID 83 is /dev/hdb1 and dev/hdb2 the star is next to /dev/hdb1 (start 1- end 13)
hdb2 (start 14- 492 end)
/dev/hdb3- linux swap

[GRobinT]

I am almost resigning to the fact that I will have to start all over again with both distro. I have tried adding init=3 after ro root...changing to hdb3 taking out and leaving in the initrd line...no go:o :(

[GRobinT]

OK...reinstalled both here is the grub:
title fedora core (2.6.9-1.667) (have not done the updates yet)
root(hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9.1-667 ro root=/dev/Volgroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9.1-667.img
title Red Hat 9 (2.4.20-8)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

error returns (after reinsatting FC3- since it would not take after just reinstalling RH-9) was trying to access RH9- Invalid or unsupported executable format.
So from there I am going to # chainloader+1

However- here is what the installed showed:
LVM Volume Groups
Volgroup00
LogVol01 5984
LogVol01 swap 256
LogVol00 / ext3 5728
Harddrives
/dev/hda
/dev/hda1 / boot ext3 102 1 13
/dev/hda2 VolGroup LVMP 6048 14 784

on rh9 when it was time to 'add' another os this is what showed:
/dev/hda=MBR
/dev/hdb1= first sector of boot partition

as I repeat the error showing now is: Invalid or unsupported executable format.
Any thoughts :confused: