Re: Boot/login problems after installation

Gary Rickert wrote:

I get the boot options screen fine as long as I only select Fedora. However
I cannot login. Authentication failures /var/log/messages look good except
for the "couldn't set account for root", or ditto my user. As soon as I boot
XP, it goes into recovery and wipes (fixes) BOOT.ini so I no longer see the
options.

Ok, then this is (at least partially) an XP issue.
Are you sure the boot.ini has the same attributes it was installed as. IIRC it should be hidden - system (at lest it is on my system). At a command prompt "attrib \boot.ini" should give the attributes and mine is 'A SH'
Was the boot.ini edited and saved by an administrative user?

If it sees the file incorrectly it may restore it to default because it thinks it is corrupt or has been modified. If the boot.ini file is left with the default attributes it should not force a recovery of that file.

See below for ideas on the problem with fedora

-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Jeff Vian
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 12:25 PM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Boot/login problems after installation

Gary Rickert wrote:

I installed Fedora, default server on a new slave drive on my HP pavilion
a320n XP system. When booting after the install, the fedora boot will not
accept my user or root password. Under "linux single" I can see that the
user and root accounts exist. I can create a user, and that works OK. I
cannot login.

What options did you select for password/login on the FC install?
I always just select the defaults and it works perfectly.

When you boot to single user mode, have you checked /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow to see if the user is there and is using a shadowed password?
Have you tried changing the user password and verified it gets changed in /etc/shadow ?

I suspect that since the login problem occurs with different users and even creating a new user does not allow login, that something may be wrong in the way it was setup for authentication.

When I try to boot XP, the HP box goes into recovery and wipes out the
boot.ini modifications when I:

If you wish to use the NT Loader to dual boot the system you will need to

do

the following:

When you get to the point that Anaconda asks where you wish to install the
bootloader, make certain you chose your FC boot partition, e.g. /dev/hda2,
and NOT the MBR. You can use either GRUB or LILO, it doesn't matter. After
the install and before you re-boot make sure you make a bootdisk.

Now, when you re-boot do so with the bootdisk so you can boot into FC. Once
booted, log in as 'root' and insert a blank floppy then copy out the boot
sector like so:

mount /dev/fd0

dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/mnt/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

(hda2 may not be the actual partition you need to copy, I use this as an
example)

You can now ls /mnt/floppy to verify you have a 512 byte file named
"bootsect.lnx" and then:

umount /dev/fd0

Next, boot into XP and copy the bootsect.lnx file to the root directory of
the C: drive. Edit your BOOT.INI file and add a line:

C:\bootsect.lnx = "Fedora Core"

This must be added in the section labeled [OPERATING SYSTEMS] and normally after the line related to loading XP.
NOTE: the first OS in the boot.ini file selects which is default, so put the one you want as default first.

Save the file and re-boot. You will see the NT Loader menu offering you
either Windows XP or FC. If you choose FC it will jump you into the GRUB or
LILO bootloader. If you added your Windows partition in your Linux
bootloader during the install you will see a choice for FC or DOS/Windows.
If you scroll and choose Windows, it will put you back into the NT Loader
menu screen.

It also went into recovery the first time I loaded Fedora, but I am not

sure

what it did. The end result was that after I booted XP, I no longer got the
boot options screen, had to boot from boot floppy to get to Fedora. I am a
raw newbie and could sure use some help.

All of your steps above look fine

What do you mean you no longer got the boot options screen?
Using this procedure you are using the ntldr boot options and it should come up with the menu under that for selecting Windows or Fedora. If that is not happening then the boot.ini file did not get changed correctly.