Grub doesn't kick in after installing linux (Dual Boot)

[Lotus 0]

Quick run down.

 

Built a new system. Started by adding two 10,000rpm raptors in a RAID 0 config. Installed XP Pro. Everything went good. Bought a 3rd raptor and installed it in Primary SATA 0 on my ASUS A8N-SLI mobo. XP see's this drive with no problem under disk management. I then went and installed FC4 on this 3rd HD. The install went great, no issues at all. When the system restarted, grub never started, the system just loaded XP Pro as it normally does.

 

Now, I'm guessing the the bootloader didn't instal on the RAID drive(s) and thats why it's not starting. Not sure how to handle this. I'll do whatever it takes as long as I don't mess up my XP install. That can get messy with RAID at times. Do I need to change something when installing FC4? I'm not to good with Linux yet, so I thought I'd ask you folks. Any thoughts on getting GRUB to work?

[VooDooVonz 0]

Had same problem here. I take it you installed the RAID drivers. What happened is when you pointed to the 3rd hard drive it made a new MBR on that hdd. It didn't install the grub in the MBR on the primary drive. I am no guru eigther and I can't remember how I pointed it to that hdd. If you want to check and see if it installed just go to RAID bios and change the boot order to the 3rd hdd. Linux should now boot. As far as fixing it I am sure someone here can help you. Or maybe now you might understand the dilemma.

 

Sorry if I wasn't much help as far as helping you fix it. At least someone can can see the problem and suggest a way to fix it without having to reinstall.

[danleff 0]

I don't use raid arrays, but the concepts are not hard to figure out. Where did you tell FC4 to install grub? The MBR?

 

When you did the install of FC4, what partition/drive did you install it to. what was the designation, hda, sda...?

 

You can pop in the 1st FC4 disk and boot from it. Type in Linux rescue at the install screen and you should be able to get into Fedora, if changing the bios boot order does not work.

 

Can you post the contents of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file?

 

Also, type in terminal window (as root user), the command fdisk -l and post the results, if possible. That is the letter l in -l, not the number 1.

[Lotus 0]

I'll play with it a little later tonight, been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Anyway, I did setup a RAID 0 which under linux is sda & sdb and the drive I installed FC4 on was sdc. Now where sda & sdb are in a raid 0 config and working as one drive, I think grub installed on sda only. Now I'm still new to raid, but it seems like this may be my issue. Where the two drives act as one, I'm not sure where the MBR actually is. Is it on sda AND sdb? Or maybe just on sdb? I'll dig a little deeper this weekend and post what I find.

 

Just to double clarify, sda & sdb are in RAID 0 (Windows XP ONLY)

 

sdc is on sata controller 1 and is where linux is installed.

 

MBR is on the RAID 0, but not sure where physically. Can I edit my boot.ini on my C drive in windows to boot to linux or at least start grub?

 

 

[jonibm 0]

hi, did you try anything to make this work?

 

I have a ASUS SLI DELUXE w/ AMD 64 3000+

2x WD SATA 80gb drives in RAID 0 setup (formatted NTFS w/ XP).

1x WD IDE 20gb drive (formatted fat32 nothing on it).

 

I basically want to install linux on my "WD IDE 20gb drive" without messing up my XP installation. Is this possible? (or do I need to re-intall XP with FAT32).

 

I have read many forums and see that many people have this problem. Mostly gamers who install XP on a RAID 0 setup to get speed/performance boost.

 

If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it. Let's keep this thread alive.

[m4gg0 0]

you can install linux with this setup, to dual boot with win you have to use the grub boot manager. after linux is successfully installed you manually add these lines to grubs menu.lst:

 

title Windows XP

root (hd1)

map (hd0) (hd1)

map (hd1) (hd0)

chainloader +1

savedefault

boot

 

this will boot win from your sata raid. the ide with linux must be the first in your boot priority. if you want to be sure that linux doesn't mess up the xp installation you can just disconnect the harddisks during installation.

 

ps: don't forget the spaces between (hd0) (hd1) and (hd1) (hd0). without it didn't work on my system