missing operating system problem -solved
Mark A. Beaumont
m.a.beaumont at reading.ac.uk
Wed May 18 13:13:13 UTC 2005
Jim Cornettes advice worked. I reinstalled the system, but when I got to
the partioning, I set it to do it automatically as before, but set it to
review it, and then edited the boot partition (/dev/sda1) and ticked the
box to force it to be primary.
(I now have a problem with eth0, but will work on it for the moment...)
Thanks
> Mark A. Beaumont wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I cannot get the system to boot up after installing fedora core 3. I
>> just get the message "missing operating system"
>>
>> I have tried to install fedora core 3 (specifically FC3-x86_64) onto a
>> Dell PowerEdge SC1420 SATA (Dual 64-bit Intel Xeon processor 3.2GHz
>> with 1MB L2 cache) 160GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive.
>>
>> The machine is new. The disk was initially clean (no other OS
>> installed) and in the installation procedure I chose to wipe all
>> partitions. I followed all the defaults during formatting and
>> installation. I don't want a dual boot system. Everything seemed to
>> install smoothly with no warning messages. But it will not boot.
>>
>> Any ideas gratefully received.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Mark
>>
>
>
> Timothy Murphy wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Did you try the Fedora Rescue CD?
>> Or you could try Knoppix.
>> In either case you could look at /etc/grub.conf
>> and see if this is correct.
>> If it is you could try re-installing with "grub-install
>> --recheck/dev/hda"
>> (or whatever your hard disk is called).
>>
>>
>
>
>
> Matt Morgan wrote:
>
>>
>> Is your system trying to boot off the correct drive? For example, do
>> you have a floppy in the drive, or a CD in the tray? Is your BIOS set
>> to boot first off the drive that you installed the OS on?
>>
>> My apologies if you've already considered these things, but I forget
>> all the time :-).
>>
>
>
>
>
> Rick Stevens wrote:
>
>> Mark A. Beaumont wrote:
>>
>>> Many thanks for people's suggestions so far...
>>>
>>> Yes - I have checked that there are no other disks causing a problem.
>>> I have played with the ordering of boot drives; I have run the fedora
>>> installation cd in rescue mode. I played with all possible
>>> permutations of how to set up the boot configuration, but everything
>>> gave the same result. The trouble is I don't really know what I'm
>>> looking for. The grub.conf looks like others I've seen while trawling
>>> through Google, so I assume it is OK.
>>
>>
>>
>> The forum prefers bottom-posting, so if you could comply, we'd
>> appreciate it.
>>
>> We'd like to see the contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf so we can see what
>> it is. Also include your system layout (type of disks, how they're set
>> up and such).
>>
>> Oh, and one additional thing...do NOT rely on the dread "cable select"
>> option on IDE drives. Jumper them as Master or Slave. NEVER trust
>> cable select. Never, never, never!
>>
>
>
Mark A. Beaumont wrote:
> When I go into rescue mode I get, e.g.:
>
> Your system is mounted under the /mnt/sysimage directory
>
> Sh-3.00# df -l
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> rootfs 7163 4937 1817 74% /
> /dev/root.old 7163 4937 1817 74% /
> /tmp/loop0 179924 179924 0 100% /mnt/runtime
> /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> 151560372 3469504 140392028 3% /mnt/sysimage
> /dev/sda1 101086 13972 81895 15% /mnt/sysimage/
> boot
> /dev/root.old 7163 4937 1817 74% /mnt/sysimage/
> dev
>
> My grub.conf (in /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub) is
>
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to
this file
> # NOTICE: you have a /boot partition. This means that
> # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/ , eg.
> # root (hd0,0)
> # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> # initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/sda
> default=0
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667smp)
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667smp ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> rhgb quiet
> initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667smp.img
> title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> rhgb quiet
> initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
>
>
>
> Concerning disks - there is just one: a 160GB SATA hard drive. The BIOS
> is currently set to boot floppy, CD, hard-drive; I've fiddled with
> ordering etc, but makes now difference.
>
Jim Cornette wrote:
>
> I had troubles before using drives that were used fro the first time
> before. I set the /boot partition as active and things worked alright.
> Do you have a partition set as active on the primary disk?
>
> This seemed to be a BIOS expectation and not one of the operating system
> being installed.
>
> Jim
>
--
Mark A. Beaumont,
School of Animal and Microbial Sciences,
University of Reading,
Whiteknights,
P.O. Box 228,
Reading RG6 6AJ,
UK
Tel 0118 378 7707
Fax 0118 931 0180
Email: m.a.beaumont at reading.ac.uk
WWW: http://www.rubic.rdg.ac.uk/~mab/
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