How to Triple Boot, XP, Mandrake, Redhat/Fedora

[kongit]

Looks like kongit is out (maybe it is night time where he is located)...

Let's try this. We are going to issue GRUB commands directly. That means when GRUB comes up and allows you to select your OS, instead of picking one, you will type in c. That will put you into "command" mode.

Now, basic booting from GRUB is pretty simple (it just seems scarier that it is).

First thing I would like to do is to boot your existing Fedora manually (so you can go through the commands on an OS we KNOW is there and working). This will give you immediate feedback that you are doing this right (cause you will boot like normal) :D

Now that we have GRUB's attention, and it is giving us a GRUB> prompt, let's do the following:

root (hd1,9)

kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb10 (now, this may or may not work, as it seems like what your grub.conf file says isn't what kongit was expecting (Fedora seems to be installed where he is expecting Mandrake).

Since we are stuck here, let's at least try this to see what is going on. If the kernel command fails (maybe even with a kernel panic), reboot, and try again with a different /hdb number (maybe 11, possibly 9)?

yeah I finally had to go to sleep at 6am. I think them 2 are the wrong partitions :( . would you happen to know offhand what partitions mandrake is on? and I think that following mark's suggestion to using the command prompt of grub is a great idea. However knowing the partitions will help a lot....but with the command prompt you can try and try again.

[Powerless]

Looks like kongit is out (maybe it is night time where he is located)...

Let's try this.?  We are going to issue GRUB commands directly.? That means when GRUB comes up and allows you to select your OS, instead of picking one, you will type in c.? That will put you into "command" mode.

Now, basic booting from GRUB is pretty simple (it just seems scarier that it is).

First thing I would like to do is to boot your existing Fedora manually (so you can go through the commands on an OS we KNOW is there and working).? This will give you immediate feedback that you are doing this right (cause you will boot like norma:D? :D

Now that we have GRUB's attention, and it is giving GRUB>; prompt, let's do the following:

root (hd1,9)

kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb10 (now, this may or may not work, as it seems like what your grub.conf file says isn't what kongit was expecting (Fedora seems to be installed where he is expecting Mandrake).

Since we are stuck here, let's at least try this to see what is going on.?  If the kernel command fails (maybe even with a kernel panic), reboot, and try again with a different /hdb number (maybe 11, possibly 9)?

Forgive me, just a little confused here.

I have the GRUB>

So i then type: root (hd1,9)

I then type: kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb10 *

Each time changing the number * to see if it wants to boot?

[markjensen]

Yes.

The

root (hd1,9)

Says to use your slave drive on your primary IDE, and use the 10th partition (man, you have a lot!). GRUB counts as 0, 1, 2... , like a good computer should. It is confusing for us humans, because Linux cleans it up for us, and starts with hda1, hda2, etc.

The

kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb10 starts the currnet (vmlinuz) kernel, read-only, and starts your filesystem at the 10th partition on your slave drive on your secondary IDE.

If 10 isn't right, try a different number, like /dev/hda11 or /dev/hda9...

Also, GRUB supports basic tab completion. If you type kernel /v and then hit [TAB], it will display your options below the line you are typing. This can help see if we are even pointing in the right place with our root (hd1,9) command.

Sorry if this is too much information to digest at once. :|

Give it a try and see!

[Powerless]

When I type: kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb10

I get: [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x12d50d]

This is the same for 8,9,10,11,12

If 10 isn't right, try a different number, like /dev/hda11 or /dev/hda9...

If I try =/dev/hda10 would that not be the Master?

If you type kernel /v and then hit [TAB], it will display your options below the line you are typing. This can help see if we are even pointing in the right place with our root (hd1,9) command.

When i type: kernel /v i get the following:

Possible files are: vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl

[markjensen]

When i type: kernel /v i get the following:

Possible files are: vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl

Ok.

Typically, in your /boot you will have a vmlinuz file that is a symbolic link to one of your longer-named kernel images. That way you can have (for example, a 2.4.22 kernel, a 2.4.23 kernel and others) all available for you to select from. The vmlinuz link is is just a shortcut to your most current image (usually).

So, when you hit the [TAB], and it showed only the longer names, it means that you will just have to type out the longer name of the kernel. It looked like you typed the same name twice. Probably a typo. Just follow my earlier instructions, but use the full kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl ro root=/dev/hdb10 instruction.

[Powerless]

I'm geting nothing here...

Well all i get is:

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x12d50d]

[kongit]

try this from the grub command prompt

kernel (hd1,12)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb11

[markjensen]

I am thinking that it would be nice if I could pop in a Knoppix LiveCD and browse all those partitions...

Not sure how much you can poke around in Grub...

But, one way or another, we need to find out what partitions are holding what bits of information.

[Powerless]

I get:

Error 22: No Such Paritition

[kongit]

try this:

kernel (hd1,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb11

[Powerless]

Ok this time i get:

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

[Powerless]

kongit

markjensen

:(

[markjensen]

kongit

markjensen

:(

Sorry, but at this point, I am so unsure what information is in which partition, I think I would need to see what is in all of them in order to start making possible connections. :wacko:

If you could provide some ls / dumps of each partition (and you have SOOO MANY of them!), we can help organize them....

The ones with the vmlinuz images are your /boot partitions (although I think mandrake puts /boot in the root / filesystem, and they separate /home by default. I might be able to use these differences to help sort your data out.

Once we sort out which ones go where, we can work on getting the grub commands to make them work.

[Powerless]

Someone else is on my PC [on the lappy now] but in Mandrake I know you can view partitions, graphaically...I can't find this option in Fedora. Is there one and would that help? Or would a screenshot of diskmgmt.msc in XP do?

If not i'll do a ls / dumps, which come with a question...

What is it and how do I do it?

You've probably figured I'm new to this...and I am but i'm willing to learn if I be taught. :)

[daru]

u can try this. try to install fedore again. Dont complete te installation but just go to the part where u get the option of partion selection there u can see which hard disk,wat type ( boot or swap ). may be this may help u out

[markjensen]

Someone else is on my PC [on the lappy now] but in Mandrake I know you can view partitions, graphaically...I can't find this option in Fedora. Is there one and would that help? Or would a screenshot of diskmgmt.msc in XP do?

If not i'll do a ls / dumps, which come with a question...

What is it and how do I do it?

You've probably figured I'm new to this...and I am but i'm willing to learn if I be taught. :)

The ls dumps I was talking about were the same thing that kongit (I believe) was asking you to do when you did an ls / >> filename, where you change the filename to create based on the partition you are getting the listing of. (btw, the >> does the same thing in Linux and DOS; it takes the output of the command to the left, and creates a new file, named what you specify on the right side)

XP will not be useful. It cannot look inside a Linux partition to see the contents. :no:

If you can start Mandrake (or any Linux on your PC with the problem), you can browse all of the mountable fileystems, and that may help...

Mark

(P.S. As long as you are still willing to try things, I am still willing to help. Many people would have given up by now! :laugh: You have a lot of determination!)

[Powerless]

Firgive me but what exactly do I type?

[markjensen]

Firgive me but what exactly do I type?

Well, the partitions of interest are:

/dev/hdb7        10454    11217  6136798+  83  Linux

/dev/hdb9        11281    14589  26579511  83  Linux

/dev/hdb10        7012      7024    104391  83  Linux

/dev/hdb11        7025    10323  26499186  83  Linux

And, unless things have changed, we already have the info from hdb10 & hdb11.

So, let's do this...

Open a shell, then su to root and do the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/temp

mount /dev/hdb9 /mnt/temp

ls /mnt/temp > hdb9files.txt

umount /mnt/temp

After that, you can close the terminal, and come here and upload the hdb9files.txt file into Newin here (Neowin requires the .txt extension to upload, I think, otherwise it isn't necessary to specify an extension).

[Powerless]

markjensen

OK well here we go...

It's not much to look at if I did correctly...

[markjensen]

markjensen

OK well here we go...

It's not much to look at if I did correctly...

You are correct. It isn't much at all!

But it also tells me a lot! :woot:

You found the /home of your Mandrake. :yes: Mandrake puts /home on a separate partition. And, if you created one user with the name of "chris", then we are seeing exactly what we need to see. :yes:

It *appears* that you have a RedHat/Fedora /boot at hdb10.

and some Linux root (with most everything) at hdb11

and your Mandrake /home at hdb9

But... I forgot to have you take a peek inside hdb7 (my fault, as I didn't include it on what to have you check... sorry)

My guess is that hdb7 is going to look a lot like hdb11. In which case, we will know your Fedora boot, and can determine the Linux root missing kernel images must be your Fedora and the one including boot images is your Mandrake. Then the only missing piece is the Mandrake /home, which we already identified.

We will just have to put the pieces together in a workable GRUB, and you will have triple-boot.

Could you perform the hdb9 check again, but use hdb7 as your device? My apologies for all of the extra back-and-forth... :pinch:

[Powerless]

I get a blank text file.

Properties show it's size to be 0 Bytes

:(

[kongit]

kernel (hd1,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb7

[Powerless]

kernel (hd1,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb7

Error 15: File not Found

:(

[kongit]

Alright mount hdb7 to /mnt/mandrake.

what is in /mnt/mandrake/boot ?

[markjensen]

I get a blank text file.

Properties show it's size to be 0 Bytes

:(

hdb7 is empty??

That bothers me.

It could very well be lost... :no:

Are you sure that you did the hdb7 listing properly? Because I would hate to say "it is gone - start over" if there really is a populated filesystem there...