krispenmetsa

Hello, everyone! I need help with the following. 1) I want to install Linux FC4 on my 100GB Seagate USB hard drive using my IBM T42 laptop. I don't want to use the logical volumes that come with the default partitioning scheme. I want to use physical volumes only because I had problems booting Linux using logical volumes on USB hard drive. Can you suggest how I should partition this drive? I also would like to have a 10GB VFAT partition so that I can share it with Windows. 2) I have a question about installing GRUB to configure dual boot. FC4 installation gives me 2 options to install GRUB Install Boot Loader on: /dev/hda Master Boot Record (MBR) /dev/sda1 First sector of boot partition /dev/hda is the laptop's hard drive which has my Windows XP installation. Is it safe to install GRUB on the Windows hard drive MBR? I heard that it might cause problems with booting windows after the Linux installation as it overwrites MBR.

Thanks for all your efforts at finding a solution to my problem. Yes, during installation I chose the default partition scheme which has these logical volumes. If you think logical volumes are a problem with USB hard drives, I can try and reinstall with only physical volumes using Disk Druid. Also I will set GRUB to MBR this time. I know LV have certain advantages over PV but I may not need them. Please tell me if you would like me to go ahead with the installation (if you think it is too much to troubleshoot the current installation). But it's perfectly Ok if you want me to wait till you find a solution. My USB hard drive is Seagate 100GB. By the way, how do you specify the boot order during installation? I never once got to see the GRUB menu so far.

I added the entry to device.map it and got the same result - Error Loading OS

I changed the boot order before the Linux installation.

Thank you very much for the quick response. #cat /boot/grub/device.map outputs the following (fd0) /dev/fd0 (hd0) /dev/hda The original grub.conf file is - default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz hiddenmenu title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4) root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img title Win XP rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 The changed file now is (changes in red)- default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz #hiddenmenu title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet #initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img initrd /usbinitrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img title Win XP rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 Even with these changes I still don't see any grub menu while booting and I get the same Error Loading OS message. Do you think I have to change (hd1,0) to (hd1,1) in the splashimage entry also? I see why you want me to change the (hd1,0) to (hd1,1). You think (hd1,0) refers to the swap patrition and (hd1,1) refers to the root partition. I think you are right. I also think the root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb entry is correct. This is referring to the logical (root) volume. When I checked this entry, I found that LogVol00 is a link to the actual device file /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00. Do you think I should try entering the actual device file? Thank you very much for all your help. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate it. Finally I was able to boot linux in rescue mode using the expert rescue nofb options you suggested. The image was mounted on /mnt/sysimage. Now, this is what I did. #cd /mnt/sysimage #chroot /mnt/sysimage #cat etc/fstab I found the following entries in the output (there are other entries which I am not listing here) /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap I know that the device for my boot partition is /dev/sda1 though its not listed and can only see its label in the etc/fstab file. Now, I mounted the boot partition. #mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /boot #cd boot I found the original image initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img file here. Now I created the new image. #mkinitrd --preload=ehci-hcd --preload=usb-storage --preload=scsi_mod --preload=sd_mod ./usbinitrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r` This command executed successfully and created the new USB image - usbinitrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img Now I modified the grub.conf file in /boot/grub folder. I commented the initrd entry and added a new one. # initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img initrd /usbinitrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img I restarted the system and even now I cannot boot!! It gives me the same message - Error Loading OS. I am totally lost. Just when I thought I got it finally going...what did I do wrong? I verified the grub.conf entry and the usb image file by booting in rescue mode again and they are indeed there. Please help me.

Thanks for the response. I have several installation disks with me but the one I used for the installation on USB hard disk was the DVD (which also has knoppix) that came with the book. (The book also comes with 2 installation CDs). I burned another installation disk from the ISO image on the fedora site. I used the same laptop and its internal DVD/CD-RW drive to burn this image at 8X speed (on a CD-R disk). But the problem now is even with the original DVD that I used to install FC4, I cannot boot with linux expert rescue options. I can get to the installation program with linux expert command at boot prompt but I get a blank screen if I use both expert and rescue options. What you said regarding knoppix was correct. It does have an mkinitrd command but this version doesn't seem to have all the options. I cannot use it to specify the modules with --preload option. Looks like I have reached a dead end because if I cannot boot in rescue mode, there is no way I can create a new boot image and change GRUB.conf to point there. Do you think it is a problem with the installation DVD or the USB hard disk? Should I try reinstallig the whole thing using that DVD again? I don't want to use that DVD again but the problem is I cannot get the installation program to load from the other installation CDs I have.

Sorry, a small correction to my previous post. I am not 100% sure I installed GRUB on my internal hard drive MBR. Now I tried using knoppix to get into the USB hard drive. I was able to mount its boot partition and could see the grub.conf file in /mnt/uba1/grub folder. This is what I did - 1) open a knoppix session 2) change to root user from knoppix user 3) fdisk - l lists the following. I can also find these entries in /etc/fstab file. Device Boot /dev/uba1 * /dev/uba2 4) #mount -t ext3 /dev/uba1 /mnt/uba1 5) #cd /mnt/uba1/grub 6) Now I see the grub.conf file (which has no write permissions) and its link menu.lst (which has all the permissions). The contents of menu.lst are default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.spm.gz hiddenmenu title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4) root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 quiet title Win XP rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 From the above listing, it looks like I installed GRUB on the linux root partition. Please tell me if I have to make any changes to this menu.lst file to boot linux. Also I read on another linux posting that I have to make a new initrd file (the one including the USB module). In this knoppix session I could not execute the command that was given in this posting to create the new initrd file. mkinitrd --with-usb --preload=ehci-hcd --preload=usb-storage --preload=scsi_mod --preload=sd_mod ./usbinitrd-`uname -r` `uname -r` The link to that posting is http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=380973 Please help me with this.

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply. Just to give you more information: 1) The BIOS startup options on my laptop are 1: ATAPI CDO:UJDA7554 DVD/CDRW-(SM) 2: +USB HDD 3: IDE HDDO:HTS726060M9A00-(PM) 4: USB FDD: 5: Legacy Floppy drives 6: USB CD: 7: PCI LAN: IBA GE Slot 0208v1217 8: IDE HDD1: 2) The hard drive partitions (on internal and USB hard drives) are: For /dev/hda (Windows XP internal hard drive) /dev/hda1 NTFS 52839MB /dev/hda2 VFAT 4393MB For /dev/sda (Seagate 100GB USB hard drive) /dev/sda1 (/boot) ext3 102MB /dev/sda2 volgroup00 LVM PV 95292MB For volgroup00 logvol01 swap 1984MB logvol00 ext3 92248MB 3) During Linux installation, I think I chose to install GRUB on /dev/hda MBR which is my laptops internal hard drive. When I tried to boot linux (of course, with USB HD connected), I used the Installation disk1 (which I got from Redhat Fedora and Enterprise Linux 4 Bible book). I tried with the disk which I burned from the ISO image on fedora site (I burned this correctly using Nero). With both these disks I could see the boot prompt but not able to go any further. Just blank screen with a lot of spindle activity on the CD-ROM which becomes silent after some time. 4) However I was able to bring up the installation program (only in Linux expert mode) using the DVD that comes with the book. Now do you want me to do an upgrade install to install GRUB on /dev/sda1? When I chose the upgrade install, I have 2 options to install GRUB - /dev/hda MBR (I chose this one during my previous install) /dev/sda1 First Sector of boot partition Do you want me to choose the second one now and proceed with the upgrade install?

I tried to install Fedore Core 4 on my seagate external USB hard drive. I used my IBM Thinkpad T42 laptop with Win XP Professional to attempt this. Initially I ran into problems because my USB hard drive was not recognized and not listed as an option to install Linux. Then I ran Linux in expert mode which solved this problem. This time I was able to see the USB hard drive and successfully install Linux. I chose Grub as boot loader with Linux as default option if none was selected. When I restarted after installation, Linux just doesn't boot. The menu for choosing the OS wasn't even displayed and I got an OS not found message on the screen. Now I tried to boot linux with the Linux boot CD. Everything is fine and I get the boot prompt. Now if I press Enter, Linux should boot from the CD in graphics mode. But all I got was a blank screen. It just doesn't boot even from the boot disk. I tried the linux text, linux expert, linux rescue options at the boot prompt but all to no avail. I just get the blank screen all the time. So now I cannot boot Linux from the USB hard drive and also from boot CD. Please, some one guide me and help me with this. I just cannot figure out what must have happened after the Linux installation on the USB hard drive. Of course I was able to boot Win XP after I disconnected USB hard drive and restarted. But now even with USB hard drive disconnected I just couldn't boot Linux. Please help me!!!!