[NTLUG:Discuss] Boot Sector problem
Leroy Tennison
leroy_tennison at prodigy.net
Thu Apr 6 05:27:05 CDT 2006
Terry wrote:
> On 4/5/06, Terry <trryhend at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 4/5/06, Terry <trryhend at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Use Mandrake's rescue mode, (hopefully on install CD#1), to boot up
>>> your Mandrake system and do it from there.
>>>
>>>
>> And then:
>> If I'm not mistaken, Mandrake 10.1 used Grub and so...
>> To install the GRUB boot loader on your drive you should use the utility
>> grub-install
>>
>>
>
> Information from grub info:
>
> Once started, GRUB will show the command-line interface (*note
> Command-line interface::). First, set the GRUB's "root device"(1)
> (*note Installing GRUB natively-Footnote-1::) to the boot directory,
> like this:
>
> grub> root (hd0,0)
>
> If you are not sure which partition actually holds these files, use
> the command `find' (*note find::), like this:
>
> grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
>
> This will search for the file name `/boot/grub/stage1' and show the
> devices which contain the file.
>
> Once you've set the root device correctly, run the command `setup'
> (*note setup::):
>
> grub> setup (hd0)
>
> This command will install GRUB on the MBR in the first drive.
>
>
>
>
>
>> (This is assuming the GRUB application is already been installed on
>> your system - and it more than likely has been, as long as you
>> finished the install process to that point and only left off writing
>> the boot loader to the MBR of your hard drive.)
>>
>>
>>> On 4/5/06, Pervaz Allaudin <pervaza at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I managed to erase my boot record while trying to switch from Fedora 2 to Mandrake 10.1 on my old dual system. On top of that that all the CDs are erroring out due to crc error so I cannot do another reinstall. So both windows 98 and Linux are dead in the water.
>>>>
>>>> I am able to boot with Knoppix and did find the grub-install command; My problem is Knoppix gives a read only error and I am not too sure what my non-knoppix hda1&2 is mapped on.
>>>>
>>>> I tried both - There is /knoppix/dev/had1&2 and a dev/hda1&2 somewhere also if I am not mistaken. had2 was by FD2 /boot and hda1 my windows 98.
>>>>
>>>> So the question is how can I get my boot loader back into my hard drive?
>>>>
>>>> Also should I put it on had1 - the windows system - which I think I had previously?
>>>> The web pages where I checked warned against going into the MBR and went for longer procedure of copying the boot file while into window etc.
>>>>
>>>> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance
>>>>
>>>> Pervaz
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------------
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>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> http://ntlug.pmichaud.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> <><
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> <><
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> <><
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://ntlug.pmichaud.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
I need to point out a possible issue here and will add a couple of other
possible solutions. First, the find command only finds exact paths so,
if you happen to have a separate partition mounted at /boot (like I do),
it won't find /boot/grub/stage1. The reason is that /boot/grub/stage1
only exists when the partition is mounted, what's on the partition is
/grub/stage1. One way to check this is do 'grub geometry (hd0)'. (Be
careful with this command because extraneous entries appended to it
could have the undesirable effect of ***setting*** the drive's
geometry.) Look at the partitions listed to get a clue at to what you
have. Another (probably better) way is to 'find /etc/fstab' and then
'cat <drive>/etc/fstab' so you will know for sure what you have. In the
latter case you will replace <drive> with (hd<m>,<n>) where <m> and <n>
are the appropriate values.
On the Knoppix CD you should be able to run or switch to a command
prompt (Ctrl-Alt-F1 through F6). Type 'mount' and see what it shows is
mounted. Run 'fdisk' and see what is available.
Another option is to make a grub diskette. If you feel comfortable
downloading images from the Web I found a reference to some at
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/comments-feedback-suggestions/5985-grub-diskette-download.html.
Finally, there are other live CD's out there. The two I know about are
SuSE and "Trinity Rescue Kit". However, if you are getting read errors
on multiple CDs I'm wondering if you may actually have a (CD) drive
problem. Got any additional hardware lying around?
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