I’m totally new to Linux. I managed to install Fedora v10 and it set up a dual boot with Windows XP. That worked fine. Then I managed to install openSUSE v11 in another partition and it set up a new dual boot as well, but it destroyed the Fedora dual boot, Now I can’t boot Fedora. Can someone please tell me how to add Fedora to the openSUSE/WinXP dual boot menu? I managed to add Fedora to the openSUSE boot menu but I don’t know what I’m doing and it doesn’t work.
Thanks… Gary
> I’m totally new to Linux. I managed to install Fedora v10 and it set up
> a dual boot with Windows XP. That worked fine. Then I managed to install
> openSUSE v11 in another partition and it set up a new dual boot as well,
> but it destroyed the Fedora dual boot, Now I can’t boot Fedora. Can
> someone please tell me how to add Fedora to the openSUSE/WinXP dual boot
> menu? I managed to add Fedora to the openSUSE boot menu but I don’t know
> what I’m doing and it doesn’t work.
Why not download VMware server for free and install as many OS’s as you can
handle.
Try this first: Make a backup copy of /boot/grub/menu.lst. Then run YaST Boot Loader and click Other, click Propose & Merge with Existing Grub Menus. That may take a few minutes. Then click Other, Edit Configuration Files: There is a new screen with an editing window below and a pull-down at top. Select menu.lst and check the Fedora stanza; compare to the original (just open the backup copy in kwrite or gedit, as root). If it is different, and after making sure the openSUSE stanza did not change, click OK, click Finish. Now reboot and try booting Fedora.
If Fedora still does not boot, post back and we’ll provide alternative instructions. We will need you to provide some data from Fedora; do you know which partition is the Fedora root and how to mount that partition in openSUSE?
There was no Fedora on the menu list other than the one I tried to set up, which was obviously wrong.
Any other suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Gary
This is actually fairly simple to do. I don’t know what you know, so I’ll just give you these instructions and then from what you post back here, I can give you the fix to menu.lst.
First, you need to determine which disk/partition Fedora is on. In openSUSE open a terminal window, switch to root, and do:
fdisk -lu
mount
Post that back here. The first will give you your disk and partitioning layout; you can see the linux partitions clearly. The mount command will tell you which partition openSUSE’s root (i.e., ‘/’) is on. Once you figured out where Fedora’s root is (be careful not to choose Fedora’s /home, if it is on a separate partition), do:
mount -t ext3 /dev/sd<x><y> /mnt
where is the disk name and is the partition number. For example, sda1. Now do this and post it back here:
cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
That will give us the Fedora and openSUSE menu.lst to compare.
Note: The above re Fedora assume that /boot is on the same partition as the root, and not on its own partition. If it is separate, then we need to know both partitions and use an additional mount command. Let me know if this is the case.
I would be happy to post it back to you… How do I do that? How do I make a copy of the terminal screen? I’ve always been a Windows user. I know how in Win but not xterm!
Gary
I figured out that you meant a “Terminal”… not an “xterm”. Here are the results of the first commands:
linux-le5h:~/Desktop # cd /root
linux-le5h:~ # fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders, total 312500000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe686f016
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 112454 56196 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 112455 261795239 130841392+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 261795240 302760989 20482875 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda4 302760990 312496379 4867695 db CP/M / CTOS / …
/dev/sda5 261795303 264895784 1550241 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 264895848 280655549 7879851 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 280655613 302760989 11052688+ 83 Linux
linux-le5h:~ # mount
/dev/sda6 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sda7 on /home type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/dev/sda2 on /windows/C type fuseblk (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /root/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev)
linux-le5h:~ #
I’m quite sure Fedora is on sda7 but it seems to be on the /home directory which you said was a no-no!
Gary
BTW… I’m in Atlanta also.
umm… are you sure you didn’t install over fedora when you installed opensuse?
you only have two linux ext3 partitions. One of which is your opensuse /home and one is your opensuse /.
post the output of
ls /home
doss
Is the following correct?
linux-le5h:~ # ls /home
gedumer linux lost+found
well…its what i would expect (its a normal /home partition).
but it looks like fedora is gone…
sorry mate
doss
Well you simply can check if the fedora partition still exists with cfdisk.
type
>su
your password
#cfdisk /dev/sda
and now just copy and paste what you see there. That’s a list of all partitions on your sda disk. Now make sure that you don’t delete or write anything, just move the cursor to the right to Quit and hit Enter to get out of the application…
I’m afraid it looks like @jossjh is right. If the sda7 is mounted on openSUSE /home and what is there are your home directories, then you installed openSUSE on top of Fedora.
Sorry abou that 
I am having a similar problem.
I had a system with a single SATA HDD with Windows XP on and a load of unpartitioned space.
I installed 64 bit Fedora, grub on the MBR, happily booting Windows.
I then installed 32 bit openSUSE, grub on the MBR, which happily integrated the Fedora boot menu. All three OSes booted.
I then reinstalled openSUSE, using the 11.1 RC1 DVD, for the extra packages. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice during install that it hadn’t seen Fedora. I decided this would be a sensible moment to upgrade Fedora to the DVD version, so did so, this time trying to put grub on Fedora’s partition, so as to leave two functional grubs on the system, for redundancy, and to avoid upgrade confusion.
Now my system won’t boot at all;
Error No operating system
Error No operating system
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
As far as I’m aware, I have:
SDA1: Win XP
SDA2: Fedora
SDA3: Swap
SDA4: placeholder
SDA5: openSUSE /
SDA6: openSUSE home
I don’t have data to speak of on Fedora or openSUSE, but there’s a fair bit of junk on Windows, so my priority in all things is to not lose that (although it wouldn’t be a disaster if I did).
I have the DVD’s for all three OSes.
What should I do? :\
That error is
download Super Grub
you will want the cdrom version. Next I would try to boot windows, because thats easiest (Supergrub can do it automaticly) after that play with it a little and see if you can get it to boot one of the linux OSes…
if so someone can walk you through repairing the grub instilation.
if not…you can save windows(SuperGrub can do this automagicly) and reinstall the linux OSes…since thats where you data is
doss
The errors:
Error loading operating system <or>
Missing operating system
are thrown by the Windows MBR, usually if the partition boot sector is bad.
The errors you saw, if that is exactly what you saw, are usually thrown by the bios when it cannot find executable code in the MBR.
First, double-check your bios configuration and make sure you do not have anything in the floppy drive. If you only have 1 SATA drive, then it’s just a matter of verifying its configured to boot. If no floppy, then obviously that doesn’t apply. Also check for loose cables, as the 3rd message you saw can be thrown when the disk itself is not seen.
If all that checks out, since you have all 3 OS installation media I would boot the XP CD, enter the Recovery Console, and use the fixmbr and fixboot commands to reinstall those sectors.
Then for Fedora and SuSE, you can go several routes depending on how you want to control the boot. The absolute easiest (and arguably safest) would be to install grub to the Fedora partition boot sector and then mark that partition active; the Windows boot code would start Fedora’s grub and you would chainload from there to the Windows or SuSE boot sectors to boot those. I’m not familiar with the Fedora DVD, what if offers for recovery - like can it booted like a LiveCD? Or can it be booted into a Rescue System like openSUSE’s? Actually, if the Fedora DVD doesn’t have those options, probably the SuSE DVD can do this for you, too; just boot it into Rescue System and login as root. Then do:
grub
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0,1) (hd0,1)
quit
sfdisk -A2 /dev/sda
Reboot and you should get to the Fedora menu. Then from Fedora you use its tools, or do it by hand, to set up the chainloading to Windows and SuSE.
If you want openSUSE to take control, because it is on a logical partition, you will have to install grub to the MBR: Boot into Rescue System, login as root, and do:
grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0) (hd0,4)
quit
And then set up the chainloading. From whichever Linux you choose, you set up the chainloading first by installing grub to the other distro’s partition boot sector. In other words, if you did Fedora first then after getting that booting you would use the (hd0,4) grub setup for SuSE; if you did SuSE first then you would afterward use the (hd0,1) grub setup for Fedora. Then edit menu.lst to add the chainloading stanza. Whichever menu.lst you use, or in both, the Windows chainloading stanza will be:
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
Before using either of these methods, be absolutely sure you have the partition numbering correct. After booting the DVD, you do:
fdisk -l
And remember that the grub numbering starts with zero, so sda1 = (hd0,0) and so on.
I currently have Fedora, Suse, WinXp (among them Suse is installed last). Open /boot/grub/menu.lst and have configuration like this:
default 0
timeout 5
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message
title openSUSE 11
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3160815AS_6RADNZSN-part3 resume=/dev/sda5 splash=silent showopts vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae
[size=][size=]title Fedora 9
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=3a836c59-f4b0-450a-8ae3-5bc94ad5b314 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.img
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1[/size][/size]
I also had problem like u, fedora was not working. I think u’re able to browse the drive with fedora (suppose disk1). Then open /media/disk1/boot/grub/menu.lst. See the UUID field there and copy it and paste in the UUID field of /boot/grub/menu.lst. Save it and reboot. it’ll work fine.
The method I posted above uses “chainloading”. The method posted in post #15 uses the “direct” method. Both work fine. The advantage of chainloading is that when the kernel is changed in one distro you do not have to modify menu.lst in the other distro, each distro has grub in its partition boot sector and uses its own menu.lst.
If you want to use Fedora to control the boot using the direct method, make a backup of menu.lst and as root run the script update-grub. It will re-create the menu.lst file, probably including the direct booting stanza in it for openSUSE. But it is important to look at that file’s documentation. It is designed to work with the update-grub script, and every time Fedora updates its kernel, that script gets executed. So you don’t want to edit it by hand without first understanding how the file is structured by update-grub, or you may have a problem the next time there is a Fedora kernel update.
D’oh!
The proverbial “Are you sure you’ve plugged it in?” this morning - used superGrub to fix Windows last night (good tip dossjh! I mean who’d have thought that the Windows install DVD would be incapable of setting an active partition? Almost leads one to suspect a nefarious conspiracy by parties unknown to make it harder for people to dual-boot linux… ;)), and then followed mingus’ grub setup instructions to get grub back on, then spent the whole morning staring at “Non-System disk or disk error” complaints before realising that yes, I did actually have a (non-system) floppy in the drive from fixing Windows. What an eejit. 
Anyway, sincere thanks for all the help. Inability to boot anything on your primary machine instils that special brand of panic. This is how it worked out in case anyone is similarly troubled…
deepfry:~ # fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01210120Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 204796619 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 204796620 286712054 40957717+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 286712055 290905019 2096482+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 290905020 488392064 98743522+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 * 290905083 332850734 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 332850798 488392064 77770633+ 83 Linuxdeepfry:~ # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Dec 14 20:11:53 UTC 2008
default 3
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/message
##YaST - activate###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.7-4
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-4-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500JD-00FYB0_WD-WMAEH2238165-part5 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500JD-00FYB0_WD-WMAEH2238165-part3 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-4-pae###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.7-4
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-4-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500JD-00FYB0_WD-WMAEH2238165-part5 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-4-pae###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Fedora (2.6.27.7-134.fc10.x86_64) (/dev/sda2)###
title Fedora 64
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (fd0)
chainloader +1
You’re welcome, glad to have been of some help.