Description of problem: After installing Fedora 11 from a live CD and rebooting, I'm greeted with an unfriendly non-graphical "grub> " prompt. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): anaconda-11.5.0.59-1.fc11.x86_64 How reproducible: Exact same thing happened when I installed fedora 10 (sorry for being to lazy to report the bug at the time), so I assume this is 100% reproducible. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Boot Fedora-11 live CD, select "Install to Hard Drive" 2. Make /dev/sda1 (laptop harddrive) an encrypted filesystem, and mount it on / 3. Make /dev/sdb1 (usb key) an unencrypted filesystem, and mount it on /boot 4. Allow anaconda to install grub on /dev/sdb (DON'T change any of the default options or you'll be hit by bug 524399) 5. Reboot Actual results: Get an unfriendly "grub> " prompt. Expected results: Machine boots into Fedora Additional info (How to work around this problem): The generated /boot/grub/grub.conf file is # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd1,0) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/luks-77dd5030-6e73-4392-bcb1-d85017dcb5cb # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/sda default=0 timeout=0 splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz hiddenmenu title Fedora (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64) root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/luks-77dd5030-6e73-4392-bcb1-d85017dcb5cb rhgb quiet initrd /initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64.img I fixed by modifying this file to (the NOTICE seems to be wrong): # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd1,0) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/luks-77dd5030-6e73-4392-bcb1-d85017dcb5cb # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/sdb1 default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz hiddenmenu title Fedora 11 (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/luks-77dd5030-6e73-4392-bcb1-d85017dcb5cb rhgb quiet initrd /initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64.img and then running (on a different system with the usb key inserted): # grub (snip) grub> find /grub/stage1 find /grub/stage1 (hd0,0) (hd1,0) grub> find /grub/grub.conf.orig # Differentiate between hard drive & usb key find /grub/grub.conf.orig (hd1,0) grub> root (hd1,0) root (hd1,0) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 grub> setup (hd1) setup (hd1) Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"... 28 sectors are embedded. succeeded Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+28 p (hd1,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded Done. grub> quit After making these changes, I was able to reboot into the Fedora-11 kernel. Unfortunately, there was a mounting problem, but that's a separate bug...
It seems that you did not correctly set the BIOS drive order. If you decide to retry this be sure to select sdb as the drive the system will boot from in the screen where you can select which drives to use for auto partitioning and choose between different auto partition options and custom partitioning. Also when configuring the bootloader, select "configure advanced bootloader options", and make sure that sdb is listed first in the BIOS drive order list (changing the drive which the system boots from should have put this correctly). Looking at the initial grub.conf, anaconda assumed the system would boot from sda, so wrote the mbr there, and assumed that the usb-stick would be the second disk as seen by the BIOS. IOW it assumed a BIOS drive order of: internal disk, usb stick. And I believe you wanted it to have that reversed.