Grub how to boot F8/F9 -

[bobgoodwin]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> bobgoodwin wrote:
>   
>> I recently installed F-9 using the Gnome LiveCD on a new hard drive. 
>> When I opened the computer case there were only two SATA connectors on
>> the motherboard so I removed dev/sda and put the new drive in it's
>> place.  The drive removed contained only the original XP which I don't
>> use and the /boot file.  I chose the live cd to save bandwidth since I
>> am limited as to how much I can use via my satellite connection.  I then
>> obtained what I want via yum.
>>
>> After the installation finished I found that grub did not offer the F-8
>> Linux on the dev/sdb as an option.  It just wasn't there.  I had assumed
>> the installation would pick it up but didn't.  Now a new /boot is on the
>> new drive.
>>
>> I the bought an SATA card and installed it with the original drive
>> [/dev/sdc Windows XP and /boot] to it.  I thought I might be able to
>> maniputlate the bios settings to control the boot situation at least
>> experimentally as a first step but no, when I go to bios-setup it only
>> shows two SATA drives with the third drive, the one on the added card,
>> as just being there with some identifying information but there's no way
>> I have found to boot from it short of swapping cables between the drives.
>>
>> I can manipulate things from the command line well enough to copy files.
>> [mount  /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt] makes the files available
>> under /mnt but ideally I would like to be able to boot from one or the
>> other, /dev/sda or /dev/sdc as it stands now.  I've looked for
>> information on grub configuration but none of it is very clear to me. 
>> What would help would be a how to with a few examples of typical grub
>> configuration files for a multi-boot system.
>>
>> I guess I'm in over my head.  Any suggestions pointing me in the right
>> direction will be appreciated.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>>     
> You may run into problems trying to boot Windows as /dev/sdc - it
> sounds like your BIOS does not provide access to it. Because both
> Grub and Windows use the BIOS to access the drive, (Windows only
> during boot to load the drivers and in safe mode.) if you can not
> use the BIOS to access the drive, you are out of luck. You stand a
> better chance by making the Windows drive second drive (/dev/hdb),
> and F8 as third drive (/dev/hdc), with /boot for it on first drive
> (/dev/hda) or second drive (/dev/hdb). 

I can swap two cables, restore the Windows drive as dev/sda and then the 
new F-9 drive becomes dev/sdc and the computer will boot F-8.  And this 
is the grub.conf that will then boot F-8.  I don't know where the 
entries for Windows went?  Perhaps they were lost when I upgraded from 
F-7 to F-8 not many weeks ago?  I rarely look fro Windows and might not 
have noticed the loss.  As it is I will be happy if I can simply boot 
F-8 and F-9 selectively.  So from what you are saying I would probably 
be better off modifying this grub to deal with the F-9 boot.  In which 
case do I need a boot file on the F-9 disk?  Fdisk will toggle that I 
believe.

    #boot=/dev/sda
    default=0
    timeout=5
    splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
    hiddenmenu
    title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
            root (hd1,0)
            kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
            initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img



This is what the F-9 grub.conf file is, presently it shows as /dev/sda 
but with the cables swapped it becomes /dev/sdc.  I guess what I need is 
to combine the two files and hope I don't get into a condition where I 
can't boot any o/s!  Wish I was knew what i was doing ...

    #boot=/dev/sda
    default=0
    timeout=15
    splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
    hiddenmenu
    title Fedora (2.6.25.14-108.fc9.i686)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.14-108.fc9.i686 ro
    root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.25.14-108.fc9.i686.img
    title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.i686)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro
    root=UUID=23b42fa8-24bb-4d8f-9be6-928cd2e0825b rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.img


> It sounds like you had Grub
> installed in the Windows drive. The fastest way to make it work
> would be to use the map and chainloader commands of Grub to change
> to the second drive, or use the BIOS to boot off of the Windows drive.
>
> Label Other
>     map (hd0) (hd1)
>     map (hd1) (hd0)
>     chainloader (hd0)
>
> You can find out more by running "pinfo grub".
>   

Ok, I will look into info grub and see what I can glean from that.

> Depending on your fstab, you may have to edit it to change /dev/sdb?
> to /dev/sdc? You may also have to build a new initrd for f8.
>
> Mikkel
>   

Thanks.

Bob