Fedora broke my Mint! -- Dual boot solved

[Pugnacious_Penguin]

I'm a Linux n00b,
I wanted to check out Fedora because it supports my video card. I love Mint, it's my favorite OS so far but I obsessively spent countless hours of pain trying to get Mint to work with my ATI 9200SE to no avail. Anyway, when I installed Fedora c8 on my machine yesterday I managed to break my Mint boot. I no longer have access to Mint and am wondering if anyone knows how to fix this?

I forgot to add a few important details:
Mint v.Deryna (Gutsy)
HD: SATA (hd0,2)
Fedora installed on partition: sdb3
Mint installed on partition: sdb1
I think that GRUB is in the MBR but I'm not certain: Fedora > boot > grub > menu.lst

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sdb3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sdb
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.23.14-107.fc8)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.14-107.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.14-107.fc8.img
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img
title Linux Mint
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

[Husse]

I've had that experience too
You have to repair grub
See the wiki
http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... _your_grub
Now there is a problem You say Mint and fedora are on sdb
Do you have a sda, a disk with one partition? (Windows?)
If so you should use (hd0,1) when you repair
Grub is in the MBR of sda if it exists

[Pugnacious_Penguin]

There is no sda... I installed the only SATA drive I have and wasn't paying attention. I was unfamiliar with SATA and thought it "autosensed" master/slave drives by jumper or something. Anyway, there is no sda, I didn't even realize this was an issue until I started messing with Linux. Can I plug the SATA drive into the other SATA port and change GRUB to read sda instead of sdb or would that comp[letely screw both OS's?

[Husse]

OK - this was a bit new to me as well. You seem to have used the second SATA not the first
There is no master/slave in SATA, but first second, third and so on
Let it be there, but thinking of it the only thing you would have to do if you move to the first SATA (check so you end up on the right one) would probably be to change sdb to sda in a few places. But if you don't plan on getting more disks in the near future - let it be
Grub is in the MBR of sdb which becomes 0 in this case
So my advice in my first post is still valid
It's so easy to forget that all does not have my level of knowledge...
I forgot to mention that after repairing grub you should be able to boot Mint - but not Fedora
To be able to do that you have to copy the appropriate portion of Fedora's menu.lst to that of Mint
This would be

Code: Select all

title Fedora (2.6.23.14-107.fc8)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.14-107.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.14-107.fc8.img
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

That gives you Fedora...

[Pugnacious_Penguin]

Ohhhh man, Husse, thanks so much; you made my day! I got it worked out thanks to your advice. Thank you, thank you, thank you!