[sulekha]

Hi folks,

I am basically a windows user keen to enter the world of Linux. I was using which was dual boot, which contained red hat Linux 9.0 and win 98.
Last week I had a virus attack and had to re install windows again. As a result
every time the computer boots grub is not coming. Now I tried to install red hat Linux 9.0 on the existing Linux partitions. But while it is installing it is showing the
message: -
unable to align partition correctly. This probably means another
partitioning tool generated an incorrect partitioning table, because it did not have correct BIOS geometry. it is safe to ignore but ignoring may cause warning (fishable) problems with some boot loaders.

Even though the Linux distribution is installing, grub boot loader is not loading.

So what to do?

As a matter of fat i had used partition magic 8.0 to create a new fat32 partition and later merged it with another existing fat 32 partition. After this only the problem is coming.

Now whenever I try to open partition magic it is showing the message

Init failed error 117
partitions drive letter cannot be identified.

In fact when I take partition info tool
it is giving the message partition contains errors.

When I check the E: drive it is giving the message

error #114 logical starting at 40965813 is not one head away from EPBR

please note that i am just a beginner in these matters. So any help would be appreciated.

[Whiteskin]

It looks to me as if windows farked your partitions when it was installing. I'm not sure how to go about fixing those, but grub will be fairly easy.

get a linux boot disk, any boot disk that will let you get to the console (not sure if RH setup disk will). This one's nice: http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-r...looplinux/rip/

Boot it, and get into the system. Mount your linux root, most likely hda2 with the following command 'mount /dev/hda2 /mnt'

then, cd to /mnt/
type in chroot

You are now running inside your old linux environment really. Now, install grub: 'grub'
Follow the following instructions here :http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...RUB%20natively

And reboot. You should boot to your old grub screen.

[sulekha]

Hi whiteskin,

the url u gave me is not clear
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/ma...GRUB%20natively


ma...GRUB%20natively can u specify what is this

i hope that boot disk u specified in
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-.../looplinux/rip/
is
Floppy version (RIP-3.1-1440.bin)

[Whiteskin]

Strange. It farked my urls.

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...RUB%20natively

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-r...looplinux/rip/

[sulekha]

Hi whiteskin,
out of my desperation i tried to be adventurous, as per advice of my colleagues i just deleted the linux partition using fdisk(windows) and installed linux in that partition itself using disk druid. i installed a fedora edition of red hat linux ( a publisher edition infact by nick petrely) . now the grub is loading everything is okay.
but i am still not satisfied..

while i was about to install i got the warning message your partitioning may not meet boot loader configuration any way it was some message similar to it.

now i this is my partitioning scheme this report was generated using
PC wizard 2004

Partition 1

Position Primary Partition
Partition Type FAT-32 Partition Using INT13 Services
Volume Label NO NAME
Volume ID 0831-1C05
Starting CHS 0 / 1 / 1
Ending CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Starting Sector 63
Number Of Sector 20,482,812 Sectors
Size 9.77 GB
Bootable Yes

Partition 2

Position Logical Drive In Extended Partition
Partition Type Windows FAT-32 Partition
Volume Label NO NAME
Volume ID 13E1-092F
Starting CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Ending CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Starting Sector 20,482,938
Number Of Sector 20,482,812 Sectors
Size 9.77 GB
Bootable No

Partition 3

Position Logical Drive In Extended Partition
Partition Type Windows FAT-32 Partition
Volume Label NO NAME
Volume ID 08F6-391D
Starting CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Ending CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Starting Sector 40,965,813
Number Of Sector 20,482,812 Sectors
Size 9.77 GB
Bootable No

Partition 4

Position Primary Partition
Partition Type Linux Native File System (ext2/ext3/xiafs)
Starting CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Ending CHS 1023 / 254 / 63
Starting Sector 62,653,500
Number Of Sector 15,583,050 Sectors

Size 7.43 GB
Bootable No


note swap partition is of size 588 mb only. no other partitions are there.

now what i want

1)
is a good understandable red hat linux installation guide

2) i have heard about XOSL i want to know if it is helpful or not

3) i cannot connect to Internet using linux . it is saying it cannot recognize my modem. from where can i download a good linux driver .
the modem is:-
softk56 data fax voice speakerphone carp
manufacturer conextant

[physician]

Something you might try is to download a LiveCD. These are .iso images of distros that boot from the CD, run in RAM and don't touch your hard drive. They come in many flavors. I have the following SuseLive, MandrakeLive, Knoppix, Mepis and Ubuntu. You download the .iso image, burn an .iso image CD, reboot with it in the CdROM and voila it will run but wont install to your hard drive. I am here surfing the net running the Mepis version. My computer is dual boot Win2K pro and Suse 8.2. I have had the best luck with Knoppix, Mepis and SuseLive in that order from best to not. Mandrake would not surf the net on install and ubuntu would not boot all the way up. Whats nice about these versions is that you can run them and decide if you like them before you install them. Mepis might be the best one I've run, but knoppix is right there with it. You might try them both. Then when you decide which one you like, install it to the hard drive and the grub will automatically write to the MBR after you configure it. That is a pretty standard feature of most linux distros...doc