[SOLVED] Dual Boot, can't find linux kernel

[mnms]

Hi, I'm having some problems with my dual boot on my computer which I hope to find some help here.

This is the story:

I have a dual boot system on my computer. Windows XP and Fedora Core with grub boot loader.

Recently, I reformatted my Windows partition, to install a new copy of Windows XP. Because of this, grub was removed(or so I think). I booted my fedora cd to try to install grub, but there was no such option, so I installed a new copy of fedora on my third partition(an empty FAT16 partition) hoping that with this grub will be installed as well so I can boot into my old Fedora, and I can delete the new Linux.

But when grub was loaded, there was only 2 options, my windows partition, and the new Linux. I can't seem to find a way to boot into my old fedora, which contains my stuff. It is in (hd0,4), but grub requires me to put in the kernel name of the partition, which I do not remember, and have no idea how to look for it. So I was hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. Below are some of the information of my system right now.

• /dev/sda1 NTFS Windows
• /dev/sda2
  • /dev/sda3 ext3 Fedora Linux(My old linux)
  • /dev/sda4 ext3(was FAT16) Fedora Linux(the new linux)

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

A fresh install of Windows will always overwrite the bootloader.

You should be able to use the SuperGRUB LiveCD to easily reinstall GRUB to the master boot record so that you have the option of Windows or Linux at boot time.

[glennzo]

And the Fedora install DVD has an option called Rescue Mode. This will easily re-install the boot loader also. Works like a charm.

[mnms]

Hi, I already have the boot loader installed. But i can't find my old linux to boot.

To glennzo:
I tried using the fedora rescue mode, and selected sda5(where my old linux is, i just found out using fdisk), but the error message they gave was no kernel package was found. Maybe I selected the wrong sda, but if thats the case, then I do not know where can i find my previous installation.

Note to add:
I don't know if i had deleted my previous installation when i installed the new fedora. But what i remembered was i installed it in a blank partition that was FAT16 formatted, so I really do not believe I have overwritten my previous installation. How can I find my previous fedora installation?

[oz]

If you overwrote your old linux install, reinstalling Linux should give you the option to correctly use GRUB as your bootloader again.

Otherwise, the supergrub livecd, as mentioned above should be able to correct any errors with your current bootloader as long as you have all the necessary files in place for it to work. Did SuperGRUB give any errors?

You can check your current partition structure with the fdisk -l command.

[mnms]

hi, SuperGrub did find my linux installation, which is in hda/sda5 (hd0,4). But when I tried to boot it, it gave me this error:

find fstab
fstabroot(hd0,4)/etc/fstab
no root string was found on selected fstab file
dropping error 15

[Jonathan183]

Check where you have grub config files installed ... at the grub prompt type

find /boot/grub/grub.conf

I think your problem by the way may be related to partition labels ... I think these are used in /etc/fstab. Assuming you can run a version of Linux see what is reported by

ls /dev/disk/by-label -l

Ed: check contents of /etc/fstab using

cat /etc/fstab

it may also help if you post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

so we can see partition structure.

[mnms]

Hi, thanks for all your replies. My problem has been resolved.

Turns out I have been using FC5 cd to enter rescue mode, which doesn't recognize my FC9 partition, and wouldn't allow me to add FC9 to the bootloader. I still have no idea why SuperGrub would not let me boot to FC9 though. Anyway, I found my FC9 cd and installed the grub bootloader which solved my problem. Thank you once again for all the replies. I really appreciated all your help.