Trying to install Windows XP on D drive.

[vbmark]

Attempt 1 failed.

I changed the empty D drive to be the master and put the Fedora C drive to be slave--however, disconnected during the Windows XP install.

Got Windows installed . I reconnected the Fedora drive as slave after the install and ran the Fedora boot disk. I entered "Linux Rescue" and it just came back with a message Kernel Panic. I tried to 'su -' but it said command not found.

I put in the Grub disk I made per the above link and ran

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

and it just said file not found.

I went into Windows and ran disk manager and D is connected with "unkown" partition types.

Don't know what to do next other than I'm presently downloading Knoppix but I'm not sure how that is going to help me.

[Opnosforatou]

Okies you got your XP working..
Now the other part. If you linux install is still empty;
Do a full new install on you new linux disk.

When using the grub boot disk
( if you have a linux swap partition first then use root (hd1,1)
>root (hd1,0)
>kernel /boot/vmlinux- (use tab to auto complete the line)
>initrd /boot/initrd- (use tab to auto complete the line)
> boot

This will start your linux...

[vbmark]

Okies you got your XP working..
Now the other part. If you linux install is still empty;
Do a full new install on you new linux disk.

I've spent days downloading and setting up stuff so I don't want to loose anything.

When using the grub boot disk
( if you have a linux swap partition first then use root (hd1,1)
>root (hd1,0)
>kernel /boot/vmlinux- (use tab to auto complete the line)
>initrd /boot/initrd- (use tab to auto complete the line)
> boot

This will start your linux...

When I run root (hd1,0) I get the following message:

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Same thing if I do root (hd1,1)

Then I'm stuck again.

[Opnosforatou]

At what point do you get stuck ?
The message about the filesystem is oke.

[vbmark]

Oh, I thought that that was an error message.

When I do the next command

kernel /boot/vmlinux- and then use tab I get

"Error 15: file not found."

I now have a Knoppix CD. Can that help me in any way?

[Opnosforatou]

Oh, I thought that that was an error message.

When I do the next command

kernel /boot/vmlinux- and then use tab I get

"Error 15: file not found."

I now have a Knoppix CD. Can that help me in any way?

On which of the partitions did you use as root partition ?

Typing kernel /bo and then use the tab key to complete the last 2 letters : ot u know you have the right partition
The error 15:file not found states that either it can't find the dir boot or the file itself.
Either you are accessing the wrong partition , its because I gave the wrong name and it's : vmlinuz- like: vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
Dooh.

[vbmark]

Doing Kernel /bo (tab) gives file not found.

Doing Kernel /vmlinuz (tab) gives me vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2188.nptl

Running that gives me:
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x12d2d1]

Doing initrd /initrd (tab) gives initrd-2.4.22-1.2188.nptl.img (or something like that) and this returns:

[Linux-initrd @ 0x1ffc400, 0x27aes bytes]

Then I type boot and a buch of stuff goes by and stops on

Kernel panic: No init found

[Opnosforatou]

Yikes. I've seen that before. Anything continues without the initrd ?
If not. Try reinstalling Fedora. You got a working XP now.
And since you haven't played with fedore yet, due to unable to boot. I would suggest to reinstall it in the existing linux partitions. Don't forget to format the partitions again. doing a 'upgrade' or ' reinstall' will not reinstall grub on the MBR.
Due to some strange unexplained reason. Tried it couple of times myself and it didn't work.
Sorry for the troubles so far.

[vbmark]

Okay, I'm in. I told Fedora to install but not to format the hard drive. This is both a good and bad thing. My data is saved BUT the Red Hat Network says that I have a bunch of stuff to install. So I try to install the stuff and it says that everything is already installed. Now the update icon is always flashing red but I can't do anything about it.

I seem to be caught in a catch 22 here. How do I tell the updater to either reinstall everything or to forget about the stuff that's already installed?

Should I start a new thread for this question?

Thanks!

(It's good to be in Linux again)

[Opnosforatou]

Reinstalling without formatting comes in quite handy if there is data on the disk that needs to be saved.
I reinstalled a pc yesterday and had the same problem. I didn't know what was previously installed.
To install the missing apps, you will need to find the rpm files in the RPM directory on one of the 3 fedora disks.
I myself tried to use the Add/Remove application button under System Settings, but It screams that the apps are not installed and I need to install them first.
After browsing the CD's I found the RPM's and reinstalled them using: rpm -Uvh *.rpm
Another way to fix this is to use Synaptic.
It can search for broken installs and reinstall them.
To use Synaptic, first download apt and use apt to install Synaptic.
Click here to download apt.
After installing the rpm, as root, run the command [b] apt-get update[b]
Then you run: [b]apt-get install synaptic[b]
This will download and install synaptic.
Since we downloaded it from the Freshmeat rpms, only the freshmeat repositories are included.
Some of the repositories you want to include are:
Livna.org
dries.studentenweb.org/
download.fedora.us/fedora/

How do I add repositories:
Start up Synaptic.
At the top you see -> Preferences -> Repositories.
Click to open a new window and make it full screen.
Now to add the above mentioned repositories.

Click on New
Select from the dropdown: RPM
Add: http://www.livena.org to URI
Add: fedora/1/i386 to Distribution
Add: stable to Section(s)
(note: Clicking on OK will close the repository screen.)
Do the same again only this time select rpm-src instead of rpm
(U want to have the sources sometimes.... )


Click on New
Select from the dropdown: RPM
Add: http://dries.studentenweb.org/ to URI
Add: apt/fedora/fc1/i386 to Distribution
Add: dries to Section(s)
Do the same again only this time select rpm-src instead of rpm

Click on New
Select from the dropdown: RPM
Add: http://download.fedora.us/fedora/ to URI
Add: fedora/1/i386 to Distribution
Add: os updates stable to Section(s)
Do the same again only this time select rpm-src instead of rpm
Now press OK when all are done.

Now we have some nice repositories to get software and updates from.
It's time to check and upgade and/or fix broken installs.
CLick on Refresh to download the software, fix, etc, etc, lists from all repositores.
After all is downloaded, click on the dropdown Show and select:
Broken - To fix broken installations
Upgrade - For all upradable and installed applications
New in Repos. - All new apps in the repositories

The rest shows it's self.
Selcect what to instal or remove and click the apply button to download/upgrade/remove the selected features.

Okies.... Hope this helps a bit.