[FredLUG] grub problem

[Paul W. Frields]

Hi Robert,

On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 18:00 -0400, Robert Lay (W9DMK) wrote:
> Dear Paul,
> 
> After the meeting Thursday evening, I got brave (since we had fixed the 
> screen resolution problem) and went ahead and did an install from the Fedora 
> 9.0 Live CD. I got a good installation and did the fix for screen resolution 
> problem, but then I found that I could not boot into Windows.
> 
> In this instance I do see the grub giving me a choice (for about half of a 
> second) between "Fedora" and "Other".
> 
> When I choose "Other" it boots into a partition that contains the recovery 
> system as drive D:\
> 
> Another partition containing the C:\ drive is also present on the disk, but 
> grup cannot get to it because for some reason the installer set it up to 
> boot from the D:\ drive.

Yes, this sounds like your computer has one of those OEM system recovery
partition configurations that uses a wacky boot flag setup.

> I should be able to modify the grub to use (hd0,3) instead of (hd0,1)
> 
> I'm assuming that there are 3 partitions on hd0, numbered 1, 2 and 3 (I have 
> to check that again using a bootable CD with Ghost 9.0).

I am betting that you now have more partitions than that, but the first
2 partitions should be the ones that the manufacturer used.  What I
would try is (hd0,0) first, which would be the first partition on the
hard disk -- I'm guessing that is your bootable Windows partition.  The
GRUB boot loader counts disks and partitions starting with 0.

> Years ago I remember modifying grub or lilo relatively easily, but I am not 
> at all sure how to do it now.

OK, when you see the menu with the choices, here's how to edit.  You'll
need to quickly hit a key to interrupt the countdown.  Once you can see
the two listings (Fedora and Other), use your arrow keys to move to the
"Other" line.  Then hit "e" to edit that line.

Now look for the line that lists "rootnoverify (hd0,1)" -- and hit "e"
to edit that line.  Change it to read "rootnoverify (hd0,0)" instead,
and hit "Enter" when done.  Then you should be able to hit "b" to boot
the stanza.  There is a short help menu at the bottom of the screen if
you get stuck.

Let us know how that works!

-- 
Paul W. Frields
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://paul.frields.org/   -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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