Fedora 14 install problem. . . maybe

[biigniick]

hi everyone,
i'm new to linux, have used other flavors before, but this is my first fedora install. i made it through the first steps of the install with the DVD and got to the point where it says time to reboot and spits the disc out. when it reboots i get a grub prompt. i've researched a little and understand its the bootloader and i need to load a kernel and boot. thing is, i don't think it sees the HDD where the install went. . .

i try the "root (hd0,0)" command and says there is no disk. i used tab to see my possibilities and it only shows "fd0, fd1, . . . fd7" as options. i've tried the command on each of them to no avail. i'm not sure what to do next.

is the grub not detecting the HDD?
am i doing the commands right?
what else should i try?

thanks in advance for any help,
- nick

ps. sorry for my noobness at the moment, but i'm learning

[atreyu]

Do you remember how you answered the questions about how/where to install the bootloader (grub) during the installation?

In any event, reboot off of the Fedora DVD and boot into rescue mode. I don't remember if there is a menu item to do that (probably is) or if you have to hit the "Tab" key then type: linux rescue at the boot: prompt. Once you get booted up into rescue mode, it should try to automount any Fedora installations it finds. If it does, it typically mounts them to /mnt/sysimage. At any rate, you should then be dropped to a shell prompt, where you can do lots of stuff to interrogate your system (find hard drives, reinstall grub, look at your grub.conf file, etc.).

[biigniick]

i've tried some of that, and have different problems depending on what i do.

originally, i just come to a black screen with grub. the command root (hd0,0) says disk not found. . .

i did the default install (formatting the whole HDD) with just default options on everything. i don't think it asked where to install grub. . .

i rebooted with the DVD into rescue mode. mounted the image, and setup grub. . . i think.
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
exit

after these steps i get "error 21" and won't even get a grub prompt. won't get out of bios.

nothing seems to work. might it be an issue with a SATA HDD?

[biigniick]

So, I think i know what's happening. I just don't know how to fix it. . . When I install from the DVD and when I boot from the DVD in 'rescue mode' it sees the SATA drive. It show up as (hd0)

When I try to boot without the install DVD, I get the grub>_ When I type root, the [tab] it says the only available drives are fd1 - fd7. . .

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's stage1 that can't see the SATA drives. Maybe a driver issue? I just updated the MB bios (NFORCE3-A) to the newest version.

I'm not sure what to do next. . . help. . . suggestions. . . please

thanks in advance,
- nick

[MikeTbob]

Boot up any LiveCd and post the output of

fdisk -l

It's a lowercase L and not a 1, you may need to use sudo or issue the command as root if needed.
Tell us where you installed to and what's currently on the partitions please.
If you can mount the partition, we also need to see some files.

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg

cat /etc/fstab

[biigniick]

first off, thanks for responding. i appreciate your help. this drive is the IDE drive that i went through the F14 install DVD and got to the point where it spit the disk out and said time to reboot. if i don't have a live disk in or rescue disk in, all i get is "grub>_" and i don't think it can find the hard drive (but at the same time get the grub prompt from the hard drive) confusing. . .

here are the commands you asked for.

[liveuser@localhost ~]$ fdisk -l
[liveuser@localhost ~]$ sudo fdisk -l

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

liveuser is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

// oops, good to see programers have a sense of humour

[liveuser@localhost ~]$ su root
[root@localhost liveuser]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders, total 156250000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00019073

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1026048 156248063 77611008 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-2: 51.0 GB, 51036291072 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6204 cylinders, total 99680256 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-3: 27.4 GB, 27413970944 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3332 cylinders, total 53542912 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-3 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-4: 1006 MB, 1006632960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 122 cylinders, total 1966080 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-4 doesn't contain a valid partition table


[root@localhost liveuser]# cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
cat: /boot/grub/grub.cfg: No such file or directory


[root@localhost liveuser]# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/root / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
[root@localhost liveuser]#

[yancek]

[root@localhost liveuser]# cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If you have not resolved this issue, change the above to: cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

The grub.cfg is only used in Grub2 and I believe Fedora still uses Grub Legacy.

[biigniick]

If you have not resolved this issue, change the above to: cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

The grub.cfg is only used in Grub2 and I believe Fedora still uses Grub Legacy.

sorry, same result for the other file too. . .

[root@localhost liveuser]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
cat: /boot/grub/grub.cfg: No such file or directory

[MikeTbob]

sorry, same result for the other file too. . .

[root@localhost liveuser]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
cat: /boot/grub/grub.cfg: No such file or directory

That's because you are giving us the info of the LiveCD and not the info on the partition. After you mount the partition, then you can browse to the files listed above and copy them. I do not use LVM so I can't really tell you how to mount the partition.

[biigniick]

i found etc/fstab

/dev/root / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0


nothing in /boot/grub except a splash.xpm.gz

still not sure that's what you're looking for
thanks again for the help,
- nick