dual-boot not working after upgrade to f16 from f14

[gsmith62]

I have now spent 3 evenings trolling the forum trying things out and it seems, making things worse. :o(

Carried out the upgrade using the pre-upgrade described @ fedoraproject.org/wiki/PreUpgrade. there were no messages and I rebooted.

the first time:
The grub menu came up showing

f16
f16 recovery
Win XP

On selecting f16 it started, I got the blue bar a the bottom of the screen and when it was about a quarter of the way, it banged out into a maintenance mode asking for the root password.

So I spent an evening trying to find out anything relevant from the forum.
Almost everything pointed to the newer grub2 not installing properly.
I tried the grub2-install and grub2-mkconfig commands but they returned errors. and I was stuck in maintenance mode.
At some point I must have broken something and I am now not sure what I did(SORRY), but I decided to boot into Windows, because I needed get some info. XP started and I was able to work. I notice the antivirus was out -of-date so I upgraded. the required a reboot.

On rebooting, I got the bios splash-screen followed by a black screen with a cursor top left. Then it continued into a boot loop, splash -black-splash-black....and so on. :o(

So I downloaded the f16 iso and burnt a dvd.

I am able to boot and I can get into the recover fedora installation mode.

nothing I have tried has given me a boot menu.


Here's what I think should have worked but didn't:

bash-4.2# vgchange -a y
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_gandalf2" now active
[root@localhost grub2]# lvscan
ACTIVE '/dev/vg_gandalf2/lv_root' [38.97 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/vg_gandalf2/lv_home' [36.38 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/vg_gandalf2/lv_swap' [5.19 GiB] inherit

bash-4.2#
bash-4.2# mkdir /mnt/root
bash-4.2# mount /dev/vg_gandalf2/lv_root /mnt/root
bash-4.2# mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/root/boot
bash-4.2# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/root/dev
bash-4.2# mount -o bind /proc /mnt/root/proc
bash-4.2# mount -o bind /sys /mnt/root/sys
bash-4.2# mount -o bind /run /mnt/root/run
bash-4.2# chroot /mnt/root

sh-4.2# grub2-install --no-floppy --recheck /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.

sh-4.2# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.3.0-8.fc16.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.3.0-8.fc16.x86_64.img
Found Microsoft Windows XP Professional on /dev/sdb1
done

exited out of chroot and out of shell. rebooted, no boot menu.
==============================================
here some info about my system:
Dual boot Win XP pro sp3, Fedora 16
4GB RAM, 2 x 250GB HDD,


#parted -l in parted.txt
#fdisk -l in fdisk.txt
#df -h in df.txt
#os-prober in os-prober.txt
============================================

I'm hoping it's something simple, but I just cannot get my head around it. I'd be very gratefull for any help.

Please let me know if you need any more info about the system.

Cheers!!

Grant

[gsmith62]

oh yes, I also updated the boot loader using the recovery dvd. but that didn't work either.

Grant

[Dutchy]

Okay, I'm a bit puzzled; the problem is that you can't get it to boot into a usable DE and after trying to fix that you now have trouble to activate the grub menu?

For the grub menu: have you tried holding down the shift key? That should activate it (although having mutliple OSes should already do that).
To the main problem: have you tried to enter a different runlevel (i.e. runlevel 5)?

You've already provided a lot of information but could you also provide /boot/grub2/grub.cfg?

[gsmith62]

Originally Posted by Dutchy

Okay, I'm a bit puzzled; the problem is that you can't get it to boot into a usable DE and after trying to fix that you now have trouble to activate the grub menu?

For the grub menu: have you tried holding down the shift key? That should activate it (although having mutliple OSes should already do that).
To the main problem: have you tried to enter a different runlevel (i.e. runlevel 5)?

You've already provided a lot of information but could you also provide /boot/grub2/grub.cfg?

@ Dutchy
not half as puzzled as me. ;o)

I'm now in a state of not able to boot into either OS. Unless I put the dvd in it just goes in circles and never boots.

here's the contents of the grub.cfg run one last time this morning.
================================================
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub2-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="${saved_entry}"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
}

set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sdb1)" --class windows --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd1,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root D0246F89246F7180
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/90_persistent ###
### END /etc/grub.d/90_persistent ###
============================================

In the mean time I have gone out and bought a new pc with win7. I've added a 2TB drive on which I will be doing a fresh install of F16. However I still need to get this old one running as it is going in the basement.
So I still need a pointer as to what may be wrong.

How do I get into runlevel 5?

Cheers!
Grant