GRUB refusing to load, bout to lose sanity....

[Demonfire]

Edit: this is fedora core 5 im trying to get to work


First off, i am a complete and total *nix noob and this is my second time trying to install a linux distro on my system (1st time was mandrake few months ago but couldnt get it to work and got fed up).

Here's the problem:

Im running a system with Windows XP as the default os and i have 2 hard drives, the master is a 120gig WD and the slave is a 160gig WD. Since Windows is on the 120gig master drive and i dont wanna mess with NTFS and that crap I just decide to install onto the slave.

So i do a regular install, telling it to install GRUB on the master's MBR and complete the installation. Restart computer, and its like i didnt even do anything, it just goes straight into windows. Second time i try using the second option, install grub to first sector of slave drive, yet it doesnt work either.


a few stats about my pc:

P4 2.6gig HT

ATI 9800 pro

1024 gig 3200 ram

Gigabyte m-atx motherboard (forgot exact name)

120gig Western digitial caviar HD master

160gig Western digitial caviar HD slave

(the master slave settings were set using the pins, so there's no ambiguity with that)


1 dvd-rom drive and 1 cd-rw drive

Windows XP professional as default OS.



So, where the hell am i messing up in a seemingly easy as hell process??

 

[tom61]

Not sure why putting the loader on the MBR of the master wouldn't work, unless you have the IDE cable on backwards (I hate ATA133 for that). As for the first sector of the slave, IIRC, you have to boot from that drive, by setting the boot order to that drive in the BIOS, or hitting the right key during bootup and selecting that drive.

 

[Demonfire]

well ok, then scratch the second idea then.

And the IDE cables are definatly done properly. Master end is in the master drive and slave is in the slave drive.

 

[eeyrjmr]

I have a similar setup

2 HD (80gig each)
MASTER has windows + windows-partitions
SLAVE has Gentoo+Linux-partitions

I can assure you that you can have GRUB on the 1st HD (only real place to have it) and it boots not only windows, but linux


first things first it booting straight into Windows could be one of two things (well could be 3,4,5,... but can only think of two atm)

1) you have BIOS protect MBR so IF you try to write to yr MBR the BIOS stops it (protect from MBR viruses). Since I have GRUB already written to the MBR I leave this ON, so every time I re-install Windows-XP is actually doesn't overwrite my MBR and everything boots fine (no booting of a LIVECD to rebuild GRUB-MBR)

I have a sneeky feeling this is the case, you have it enabled and trying to write to the MBR just fails


2) you have grub.conf setup with a VERY low timer and default to windows so GRUB is infact WORKING you just never see it


This is my /boot/grub/grub.conf

Fluid jrb # cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
timeout 3
default 1
fallback 0
splashimage (hd1,0)/grub/lila.xpm.gz

#################
# Windows entry #
#################
title Windows2k
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1

####################
# Gentoo #
####################
title Gentoo 2.6.15-r5
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.15-r1 root=/dev/hdb3 video=vesafb:1024x768-32@72 splash=verbose,fadein,theme:livecd-2005.1 CONSOLE:/dev/tty1
        initrd (hd1,0)/fbsplash-livecd-1024x768



title Gentoo
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.13-r2 root=/dev/hdb3 video=vesafb:1024x768-32@72 splash=verbose,fadein,theme:livecd-2005.1 CONSOLE:/dev/tty1
        initrd (hd1,0)/fbsplash-livecd-1024x768

title Gentoo InitNG
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.13-r2 root=/dev/hdb3 init=/sbin/initng video=vesafb:1024x768-32@72 splash=verbose,fadein,theme:livecd-2005.1 CONSOLE:/dev/tty1
        initrd (hd1,0)/fbsplash-livecd-1024x768

so as you can see I have a timeout of 3 seconds and I default to a GENTOO-kernel