Xfce Forum

xtian

Member

Registered: 2011-07-28

Posts: 12

live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

I used the custom option in Anaconda to set mount points and preserve my original Luks and LVM pre-installer set-up. After selecting the mount points in Anacoda, The next screen selects the boot partition. By custom for dual boot, I selected the second partition sda2 (hd0,1) 500mb as boot.

When the system rebooted, I got blinking cursor. With some more looking from the installer cd, I see there is no grub.conf in grub/ directory.

This is essentially the same thing that happened the first time I installed, only then the system booted to the grub.conf. Luks was not intalled and the mistake with Luks masked the problem. now that I sorted Luks, the grub problem is still the same.

Last edited by xtian (2012-06-17 21:08:20)

secipolla

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 393

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

Hi xtian, this ain't really an Xfce issue, but a Fedora (Anaconda) issue.
Have you posted at http://forums.fedoraforum.org/ ?

xtian

Member

Registered: 2011-07-28

Posts: 12

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

I appreciate any suggestion which helps me to have a successful install. If the Installation section of the XFCE forum is not the place for questions regarding installation from XFCE LIVE disk I'm sorry. Only, Is there a FAQ of on-topic/off-topic I missed?

secipolla

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 393

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

This is a forum for the Xfce desktop environment.
You installed Fedora with Xfce but your issue has nothing to do with Xfce itself but with the installer, Anaconda.
There is a mailing list for Xfce in Fedora's lists but still your issue is with the installer (which all fedora CDs/DVDs use).
You may want to check bugzilla.redhat.com and search for bugs with grub.conf, for instance (but notice that many may be old from when Fedora used GRUB-legacy).
Also if there's some mailing list specific for Anaconda, you could try that.
Fedora lists are at https://lists.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo
For your case it's better to ask in the 'users' list than in the 'Xfce' one.

xtian

Member

Registered: 2011-07-28

Posts: 12

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

This is a forum for the Xfce desktop environment.
You installed Fedora with Xfce but your issue has nothing to do with Xfce itself but with the installer, Anaconda.

But who makes the choices about what goes into the XFCE Spin? Let me be more specific. In the Fedora forums, I've learned that Grub2 is now the default boot loader appliction for Fedora 17. However, as I experience this problem with the XFCE spin, my system boots up to the Grub prompt which is Grub-legacy (v0.97)! Thats confusing.

Just as I've made the choice to use XFCE to avoid Gnome3's incompatibility with my older laptop, I also question if the peeps responsible for what goes into the XFCE spin have made a choice to stick with Grub-legacy, which is what the installer is putting on my system.

Where else would I make the inquiry about what has changed in XFCE Live installer since F15? Specifically Grub and any gotchas for multi-boot installations of Fedora 17 and Windows.

Currently a user at Fedora forums is advising me to install F17 not on the the first sector of the boot partition sda2 (hd0,1) but rather the MBR /dev/sda. Yet I understand this is where Windows boot needs to be installed. Their new advise conflicts with what worked "last time". That's the "problem". If XFCE peeps have decided to make changes which do not support the dual boot configuration I used successfully in the past, that, too, would be a question I think is relevant to XFCE and not Anaconda or Fedora, specifically.

Last edited by xtian (2012-06-20 20:00:21)

secipolla

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 393

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

The dude has the same username as me? ;-)
Fedora 15 used GRUB legacy. You installed it to the MBR and Windows and Fedora booted from it.
When you installed F17 you installed GRUB (GRUB2) to the /boot partition but then you ended up with a non-working GRUB in the MBR as it was the older Fedora who took care of it.
Now you have to install GRUB (GRUB2) to the MBR again and it should pick Windows automatically.

As I told you, I think that Anaconda (from the live-CD) has an option for you to just install GRUB again in the troubleshooting section but I'm not sure. I'm saying this only from hearing about it and because live-CDs have this option.
Anyway, if you feel more secure with it you can just reinstall from scratch, but this time install GRUB to the MBR (as it's probably the default option).
You only install it to another partition if you have other working OS that has its own bootloader installed to the MBR. But right now you don't have that (it was Fedora's - 15 - that took care of that for you previously).

xtian

Member

Registered: 2011-07-28

Posts: 12

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

You installed it to the MBR and Windows and Fedora booted from it..

I don't know how many times I need to say this. My install of Fedora 15 did not use the MBR. It was installed to /dev/sda2 (hd0,1).

You may be correct that solving my current install problem with Fedora 17 requires me  to do extra work--that Anaconda before handled without incident--with a seperate install of Grub2 for multi boot.

However, the details of this post are continually misinterpreted. %-) It's strangely peverse.

Sideburns

Member

From: Trinidad, CO

Registered: 2011-03-30

Posts: 467

Website

Re: live install cd on dual boot installation fails to install grub.conf

You asked, Xtian, who decides what goes into the Xfce spin of Fedora.  Fedora does, not Xfce.  Xfce is a Desktop Environment, and has nothing to do with how your computer boots because it doesn't start until after you've logged in.  You can tell us as many times as you want about the differences between your Fedora 15 and Fedora 17 installations but it won't make the slightest difference because you're barking up the wrong tree by asking here.

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