[SLL] install/grub problem

[Paul Franz]

I could really use some help.

OK, I have a dual boot working system that has Windows XP on /dev/sda1 and the
remaining half of the disk has Fedora Core 2 on it. I then added another 160 GB drive
filled with a Windows XP system that was bootable but only used about 20 GB of space.
I added that drive and it showed up as the F: drive when booting Windows. I ran defrag
on that drive which took about 30 hours knowing that I'd have enough space available
to install Fedora 10. I was a bit miffed because I had planned on installing on my own
network from the mounted .iso on a server but the network install never provided me
that option. It after I entered the IP, netmask and gateway. it went into the install
and resized the windows partition on the second drive. When the intallation finished
and asked for the first boot, I did that and got the black screen. I then booted from
CD in rescue mode and was given two choices for which Linux system and I chose the new
one (refused to let me use the old one, claiming too many /boot partitions) and then
did

chroot /mnt/sysimage.

What I think happened is that during the install grub overwrote the mbr on /dev/hda.
Notice the last comment line in grub.conf on /dev/hdb2 (/boot/grub.conf) which is

#boot=/dev/sda

That tells me it overwrote the mbr on the first drive leaving the system no longer
bootable.

I think what has to be done is restore the windows xp Master boot record then fix up
grub but I need direction now. However, it may be possible to write a grub record into
the mbr (/dev/sda) that will work. But I don't know how to get the newest installation
of Fedora to boot since it starts past cyl 1024 and is not LBA mode. Maybe that
doesn't matter.

Thanks, help will certainly be appreciated.


>From fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x35ba35b9

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        5099    40957686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            5100        5109       80325   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            5110        5237     1028160   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4            5238        9729    36081990    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            5238        9729    36081958+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe18ce18c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        2805    22528000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2            2806        2817       96390   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3            2818        2883      530145   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4            2884       19457   133130655    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            2884       19457   133130623+  8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdc: 31 MB, 31457280 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 120 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         120       30704    6  FAT16
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(118, 15, 32) logical=(119, 15, 32)

what's mounted - from df: (after booting from rescue and chroot
/mnt/sysimage)

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
                      30655872   3511428  27144444  12% /
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
                     102350000      4256 102345744   1% /home
/dev/sdb2                93327     13670     74838  16% /boot
/dev/sda5             35515412  20826664  12884652  62% /mnt/rowlf
/dev/sda2                77772     11241     62515  16% /mnt/rowlf/boot

grub.conf in /dev/sda2

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,1)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda2
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.521 ro root=LABEL=/
        initrd /initrd-2.6.8-1.521.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.7-1.494.2.2)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.494.2.2 ro root=LABEL=/
        initrd /initrd-2.6.7-1.494.2.2.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.435.2.3)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435.2.3 ro root=LABEL=/
        initrd /initrd-2.6.6-1.435.2.3.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
        root (hd0,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/
        initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title Windows XP
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

grub.conf in /dev/sdb2

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd1,1)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686)
        root (hd1,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686 ro
root=UUID=ae36e173-2e60-42d3-bef9-b1ac0de67fae rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686.img
title Windows XP
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1
title Fedora 2 - Rowlf
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
        chainloader +1