[alphaethan]

Hello my geek buddies:

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I just installed Fedora 6 on an IDE HD, and I also have another SATA HD with XP on it. I guess most of you know what I'm trying to do here, yeah, a multi-boot system. The problem is that GRUB does not recognize the XP install, and I have no choice but to boot into Fedora. The only way for me to boot into windows is to change the boot sequence at the BIOS menu, every time! There's gotta be a better way to do this? Some how GRUB can be modified to recognize my XP OS?

I guess the reason may be that Fedora is on an IDE interface and XP is on a SATA interface?

I hope there are geeks here who are Linux wizards:) BTW, I am totally new at Linux, so command lines and shells is like a foreign language to me. I am in the learning process however.

Aside from the boot issue, I also want ask if anyone knows a good guide or website for me to get some education on Linux. It has to be for beginners who knows nothing about Linux systems, which is kinda rare according to my recent research. Everything seems to be a bit too complicated.

Last but not least, how do you install all the drivers for graphics and mobo's chipset?

Thank you for any information that may help me!!!

Alpha

P.S. please feel free to laugh if you find this amusing:)

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You can try manually adding the entry to /boot/grub/menu.list:

title Windoze
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

You can change the name, but you need to change the disk and partition. I don't have a sata drive, so I am not sure of what is would com up as. It may be listed as a hd disk or a sd.

Check to see if the filesystem is mounted, which can be used to determine the name. Also, there is a script called "hinv", which is useful for determining the disk, as well as other devices.

You can do a web search or check out some of these links. There are multiple versions out there.

http://lhinv.sourceforge.net/
http://www.redhat.co...e/msg02933.html
http://bvn.linux.tuc...eview/8837.html

[Kemasa]

You can try manually adding the entry to /boot/grub/menu.list:

title Windoze
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

You can change the name, but you need to change the disk and partition. I don't have a sata drive, so I am not sure of what is would com up as. It may be listed as a hd disk or a sd.

Check to see if the filesystem is mounted, which can be used to determine the name. Also, there is a script called "hinv", which is useful for determining the disk, as well as other devices.

You can do a web search or check out some of these links. There are multiple versions out there.

http://lhinv.sourceforge.net/
http://www.redhat.co...e/msg02933.html
http://bvn.linux.tuc...eview/8837.html

[alphaethan]

Thanks Kemasa for replying! Like I said, I'm totally new at this, so bare with me. I just reverted back to FC4, because FC6 is fairly new and not much online information is out there for me to find. Anyways, the problem now is somewhat different, instead of GRUB not recognize the XP install at all, it's just not loading it. The boot-loader sees the XP install, but when I select it to boot, it just get stuck on a screen and not going anywhere. It looks quite like what you posted ealier:

rootnoverify (hd 0,1)
chainloader +1

and nothing else happens after this screen appears. It's not a big deal, I guess I can always use a 3rd party boot loader. I also have other issues like how to install a driver for my graphics card? It's a ATI 9500 Pro card, and I couldn't find a driver for linux, only Windows and Mac drivers are availabe. Do I even need one?

Thanks!

Alpha

[alphaethan]

whew, it took me a while to understand the whole grub.config thing, but it worked. I went online and did some research of this rootnoverify thing and finally got some idea where I should go to edit it. This is what I did:

-Login as root at the login screen (NOT at a terminal)
-open up computer/system/boot/grub/grub.conf
-at the end of this script document you will see what kemasa typed (maybe different content but same format)

title <whatever you named your XP system during install of FC4>
hide (hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

-make sure the script below the XP title line is exactly the same as above, if it's not already, edit it
-save the file then exit
-reboot to the grub menu then choose XP (It should now load easily)

Note: The grub.conf script change was made to suit my situation, which is FC 4 on an IDE HD, and XP on a SATA HD, two different interfaces. When grub loads during initial boot it sees any SATA drives as IDE interface, which is why it's called hd1.

I know this reply maybe a bit too specific to the point that it's laughable, but for someone like me, a total newb at Linux systems, it would've been a tremendous help. I wish someone would've posted specific instructions such as this for me to follow. Therefore I'm putting it in this thread to help others like me:)

In other words, I didn't even know how to get to the grub.conf file, and I had no idea where I can put the script in until I scrolled down to the end of the grub.conf file, that's when all this title, hide, and chainloader stuff started to make sense. I just added the lines below the XP title line.

[warriorscot]

Hmm seems a little complicated last time i configured my grub file i only need half those lines but if it works cant complain. Actually there must be hundreds of step by step walkthroughs for grub i know when i started using it i got totally overwhelmed by what was available there was a little too much info.

[alphaethan]

I totally agree warriorscot. I think all you had to do was add the makeactive line in most cases for 2 sequentially connected HD's to work in sync. However, in my case I am trying to dual boot 2 different systems on 2 different interfaces (IDE and SATA), which I think made the more complicated changes necessary.

With all that said, again, I am new at this. All that change I made was "German" to me, I just followed some instructions, nothing more. So if you understand the script line changes, then you definitely know an easier way to mod grub.conf. I'll be grateful if someone can educate me what those lines meant:)

thank you for your time:)

Alpha

[alphaethan]

Now the grub issue is solved, I would love to fix the driver issues. I updated yum by using command line "yum update" in a terminal, and then downloaded ATI Linux driver from ATI site, and installed it. I did the same thing for Realplayer10GOLD.rpm file, but which ever program or driver I install, I can't tell whether it worked or not.

To complicate the matter more, I cannot load either ATI control panel or RealPlayer after install. When I launch either program, nothing happens. No window pops up, no error message, nothing.

Puzzled, please help?

Thanks!

Alpha

[warriorscot]

As far as i know it doesn't have a control panel at least nothing like windows does, ive only ever used it in console or an applet that was already part of the OS, real player ive never tried and wouldn't recommend you generally want to stick with the open source things with linux where ever possible, VLC for vids and one of the popular linux players tonnes to pick from for music.

One thing to remember though linux is not windows, its wimp based interface is very much secondary to the command line which you should use whenever you can.