Re: Grub Problems

[cr]

On Thursday 25 September 2003 16:41, Bala R wrote:
> 1)  I have installed linux 8.0 on my system. The installation goes on fine 
>   but after that when the installer restarts my system, the system restarts
> but hangs before loading the grub and shows a prompt like this where
> nothing can be done and the system hangs.  The prompt is like a half loaded
> grub. It looks like this GRU
>
> Can u please suggest me a method to solve this problem
>
>
> 2) The second problem is that due to overwriting of MBR, my the system does
> not show the grub and logs on to windows by default.  How can i install the
> grub without getting into linux. Is there any option in the bootdisk or the
> Linux CD's.  If yes then please supply the required information.
>
>                                                               R. Balaji
> Iyer
>

No way am I an expert, but I've just been playing with all this...   

Maybe you just need to reinstall Grub on the MBR.   

You haven't said which partition your Linux  Grub installation is in, or what 
flavour of Linux.    8.0 - I assume Red Hat?      You need to know where your 
Linux boot directory is.   

(If you're running Debian, the Grub files are probably in the main root 
partition.   If you're running RedHat, they may be in a separate /boot 
partition, I think.   )

I assume you've got the Grub boot floppy?

OK, boot with it.   

Now try to find your /boot partition with root (hd0,1)     or root (hd0,2)  
or whatever...    if it says  
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83    then you know you've hit a 
Linux partition.   If it says 'fat', you haven't.

Now try 

find  /grub/
or
find  /boot/grub/    
then hit TAB and (if you got the right drive) it will show you a list of 
files, hopefully including grub.conf   or menu.lst, and stage1,  stage2  etc

When you've found it, type 

setup (hd0)

and it should install Grub on the MBR.    

(If you want to get rid of Grub from the MBR, a DOS floppy with FDISK on it 
is the usual method:
A:\>   FDISK  /MBR    )


(For more info, see Linux Journal  Issue 85, 'Boot with GRUB'   (I dunno the 
URL but Google should)    and of course the GRUB Manual on this site I think.)

As an alternative, if you can run DOS  (not Windows DOS, real old DOS) then 
you can get Grub for DOS at http://newdos.yginfo.net/grubdos.htm.   Note:  
Disable EMM386  if necessary (e.g. by renaming  config.sys and rebooting)  
before running GRUB.EXE.

cr