[SOLVED] Fedora Core 2 booting help.

[Beginner1]

I have just started to learn about Linux Operating System and don't know much about it. I have problem to boot up Fedora Core 2 and need some help to solve the problem.

I erased Window XP and other MS applications from my Desktop and installed Linux Mint 8 Helena, then installed Fedora Core 2 for learning purpose but I lost the Linux Mint and was not able to boot it up. So again just to learn, tryied to make triple boot system and installed Ubuntu 9.10 edition. Very nice got the Mint back as it gave me options to select either Ubuntu or Linux Mint at starting but now I lost my Fedora Core 2 and unable to locate it.

I'll appreciate if someone help me to make it work as triple boot with Fedora Core 2, Ubunto 9.10 and Linux Mint 8.

Thanks.

[glennzo]

How many partitions are on the hard disk? Show the result of the command

/sbin/fdisk -l

Are you sure you've not overwritten Fedora by installing Ubuntu or Mint?

What's the last OS you installed? That one is likely handling the booting of the other OS's.

[Lakshmipathi]

Hi
Run following command as root,

fdisk -l

and also let us know the partitions where ubuntu and mint currently installed.
post /boot/grub/menu.lst file contents

BTW , Fedora core is toooo old . You can try Fedora 12

[devils casper]

Fedora installer doesn't detect other installed Linux distros and you have to add other distros manually in Boot Loader Menu.
Ubuntu installer should have detected Fedora but it looks like something is wrong with Fedora. Post the output of fdisk -l as suggested by other members. You must have root privileges to execute fdisk -l command.
Execute this in Ubuntu or Mint :

sudo fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

As Lakshmipathi already suggested, consider latest version of Fedora. Fedora Core 2 is an obsolete distro and you will face a lot of Hardware/Software support issues.
Latest version is Fedora 12.

[Beginner1]

Thanks for reply.
Here is result of /sbin/fdisk -l

root@nayaz-desktop:~# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x69205244

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 15989 128327220 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 60548 60801 2040255 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 15990 60547 357912135 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 30994 43741 102398278+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 60174 60547 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 43742 60173 131990008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 15990 30620 117523444+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 30621 30993 2996091 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
root@nayaz-desktop:~#

[L4Linux]

All 3 installed distributions could use a single common swap partition, couldn't they?

[Beginner1]

I know Fedora Core 2 is old but as I said I just started to learn about the Linux so I started from there. Also besides other OS have Fedora 12 handy for next step of learning process. Thanks for suggestion though.

I couldn't find menu.lst in Ubuntu, thought may be grub.cfg give some help, so here are the contents o grub.cfg.
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,8 )
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-17-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,8 )
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=UUID=d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-17-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,8 )
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=UUID=d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,8 )
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,8 )
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d3216213-c905-478b-b7ab-a9abf2f8a716 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Linux Mint 8 Helena, linux 2.6.31-14-generic (/dev/sda5) (on /dev/sda5)" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d6a50c97-4f81-42fb-bf72-fd80f59a096f
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d6a50c97-4f81-42fb-bf72-fd80f59a096f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Linux Mint 8 Helena, linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda5)" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set d6a50c97-4f81-42fb-bf72-fd80f59a096f
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d6a50c97-4f81-42fb-bf72-fd80f59a096f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

[Beginner1]

All 3 installed distributions could use a single common swap partition, couldn't they?

So you are suggesting to delete two extra swap?

[jayd512]

So you are suggesting to delete two extra swap?

Yes. Linux installations will all use the same swap partition. There is no need to ever have more than one swap.

[Beginner1]

Cool ... I'll post the result after deleting two extra swaps. Thanks.