[SOLVED] Cannot start Fedora 16 after install

[fmcgraw]

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 as my main operating system but I wanted to deepen my linux experience and decided to go with Fedora. Until recently this was a dual boot setup with Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows XP - however I have got rid of Windows so I can use the 80gb to install another OS to play around with.

Installation of Fedora isn't a problem but when I select Fedora from the grub menu it returns the following errors: VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown block(0,0)

Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

I have attached the grub config files from both Ubuntu and Fedora. During the installation I opted to install the bootloader on the first sector of /dev/sda1 which is where I am installing Fedora to instead of /dev/sda to prevent it from overwriting the Ubuntu grub loader.

This is how I have my partitions setup:

root@MACHINE:~# fdisk [options] -l /dev/sda

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       10444    83886080   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           13055       13576     4192965   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3           13577       30401   135146812+  83  Linux

Having researched the issue I have found these two bug reports with the same error -
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=632412
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=698209

I'm not sure if it is a bug I am dealing with or a problem with the setup of grub.

[07CobaltGirl]

Where is the Ubuntu installed?

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------

OK, I found it in your Fedora config file.

Ubuntu is booting from (0,3) and is located on /sda3, wouldn't that make Fedora installed on (0,1) and booting from /sda1?

Originally Posted by From Ubuntu config

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Fedora release 16 (Verne) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 134e729d-d469-498c-8867-4f45e84898d9
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686 root=/dev/sda1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

Originally Posted by From Fedora config

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Fedora Linux, with Linux 3.1.0-7.fc16.i686' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 134e729d-d469-498c-8867-4f45e84898d9
echo 'Loading Linux 3.1.0-7.fc16.i686 ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686 root=UUID=134e729d-d469-498c-8867-4f45e84898d9 ro nomodeset rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb KEYTABLE=uk rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.img
}

So this makes the question, why is grub looking at (0,0) at all? There apparently isn't a (0,0), or is there?

[fmcgraw]

Originally Posted by 07CobaltGirl

Ubuntu is booting from (0,3) and is located on /sda3, wouldn't that make Fedora installed on (0,1) and booting from /sda1?

Yes, I have tried changing it but it still returns the same error.

Originally Posted by 07CobaltGirl

So this makes the question, why is grub looking at (0,0) at all? There apparently isn't a (0,0), or is there?

I can't see where it is getting (0,0) from at all. Although fdisk doesn't show it in my previous post the only other thing on the hard drive is 20gb of free space which sits between Fedora (sda1) and the Swap.

The only thing I can think to do is delete /dev/sda1 and install using the option "use free space" in the installer instead of "create custom layout".