fedora linux question about booting.

eric m. · Post by **eric m.** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:45 am

hi guys. i recently installed fedora linux on a spare hard drive i had lying around and everything went fine except now i can't seem to boot into it. i probably did something wrong with setting up the boot loader but i can't seem to figure out what i did. is there any advice you can give for setting up the dual boot mode for linux and xp.

i looked up all the info on the redhat and fedora sites and i thought i did everything right. maybe someone else has gone through this and can help out. thanks!

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:52 am

i need more info, ie are you using GRUB or LILO to boot, do you see either boot manager when you start your computer or does it just go strate to windows?

eric m. · Post by **eric m.** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:01 pm

oops. i should have mentioned that. i installed the grub boot loader on my main windows HD. but yeah, it goes right to windows. doesn't give me the option to dual boot when i turn the computer on.

also, when i have the comp boot right from the linux drive, nothing happens. but that's probably because the boot loader is on the other drive.

is there a way to go in and repair my installation or change anything, or do i need to redo the install over again?

Post by **Illuminati** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:01 pm

Did you install linux first, then windows? or did you install Windows then Linux...

Windows likes to be installed first.... that way when you install Linux, the bootloader (I think Fedora comes with GRUB) will recognize XP and automatically have that as an option. The default windows XP bootloader won't recognize Linux.

Post by **Illuminati** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:05 pm

You can try putting the Fedora CD's back and running through the install again to "repair" the bootloader... but I don't know if that will work...

You may have to run through the install all over again... If you do... I always let the bootloader install to whatever the default location is... the only thing I may change is the label for the WindowsXP OS (Default is probably DOS) and then whether you want windows or linux to be the default OS to boot from.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:09 pm

sounds like you never wrote the the boot loader to the drive. you should have the option of booting off the cdrom and rather than installing you can boot to a terminal.