GRUB

[zerohourkill]

Where should i install GRUB(i mean partition) so if i want to delete distro i dunt have to clean up my whole Hard Disk, but only Linux partition. I once deleted Suse, and then i couldnt boot in windows xp, it said that computer cannot find Grub. So i just emptied my whole hard disk, cuz i wasnt able to boot or reinstall windows

[demoninside]

I think if want to use grub then it will take over on mbr,
else if u do not want to do this then istall it to first linux sector and prepare a boot disk,
coz then u`ll be needing this every time u need to boot into ur linux mexhine,

Secondly, it takes about 5min to repaire ur MBR after deleting linux partetion from ur HDD, so it`s better to install it there nd ther repaire ur MBR.

[prateekgoel123]

You even don't need to make boot floppy.
download XOSL, and you can manage booting

[pradeep_chauhan]

Originally Posted by prateekgoel123

You even don't need to make boot floppy.
download XOSL, and you can manage booting

grub is a very powerfull boot loader and does away with the need of softwares like XOSL. On my system Grub gives you the option to boot into
Fedora
Gentoo
Slackware
Win XP
Solaris 10

So grub installed on the mbr is the best option.

[vignesh]

Its easy .install it on the first sector of mbr.When you don`t want the linux.Use a boot floppy for windows ar a bootable cd.then run
fdisk
set the active partition to your windows partition and then do
fdisk/mbr to remove grub.

[vignesh]

@pradeep_chauhan
I had installed suse9.1 on hda10 partition.Then I installed mandrake 10.1 by deleting a partition on windows so the suse partition got renamed to hda9 and now mandrake is installed on hda10.I also have winxp.How do I triple boot the system.i.e my grub shold show
1.winxp
2.suse 9.1
3.mandrake10.1

I know I have to edit the grub file biut i can`t find it in /boot .By the way the present grub show windows and mandrake

[pradeep_chauhan]

Do you have a seperate / boot partition ? I think there is a seperate boot partition so make a dir at any place say /mydir and
# mount /dev/hda8 /mydir
now
#vi /mydir/grub/grub.conf

here you have to edit the details as per the new partitions.

If this does not work post the partitions you have on your hdd.

[vignesh]

there is no hda8 that is the swap partition.hda9 is mandrake and suse is in hda10 but used to be in hda9 before mandrake was installed.

[vignesh]

there is no hda8 that is the swap partition.hda9 is mandrake and suse is in hda10 but used to be in hda9 before mandrake was installed./boot partition I only know there is /boot in the root directory where the grub.conf is present or are you talking about the /boot type of filesystem.

[pradeep_chauhan]

Please post all the partitions on your disk. Till now i know
hda8 = swap
hda9 = linux 1
hda10 = linux2

also you say that in hda9/boot there is grub.conf then edit it whats the problem?

[vignesh]

there is no grub.conf in hda9 I am asking you where it is in mandrake. there are 4 windows partitions hda1,5,6,7.

[pradeep_chauhan]

When you start your system Do you get the grub splash / choice screen? If yes press the key to edit the entry and see where root= XXXXXXX points to thats the location where you will find the kernel and in the same location within /grub will be grub.conf.
aslo boot in linux do a
# fdisk /dev/hda

then give command to see partitions p
pl post the output you get.

[vignesh]

the current choices are mandrake and windows in mandrake`s boot screen is it same as grub i don`t know.

[pradeep_chauhan]

The output of the fdisk command of my disk is as below


[root@pebble pradeep]# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 19457.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5471 43945776 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5472 14590 73248367+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 14591 19457 39094177+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 5472 8021 20482843+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 8022 8034 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 8035 11221 25599546 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 11222 11351 1044193+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda9 11352 14590 26017236 83 Linux

Command (m for help): q

[root@pebble pradeep]#

In the listing the partition /dev/sda6 is the /boot partition and when i mount it you will see the grub.conf file
[root@pebble pradeep]# mount /dev/sda6 /mydir/

[root@pebble pradeep]# ls /mydir/grub/
device.map ffs_stage1_5 menu.lst splash.xpm.gz vstafs_stage1_5
e2fs_stage1_5 grub.conf minix_stage1_5 stage1 xfs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5 jfs_stage1_5 reiserfs_stage1_5 stage2
[root@pebble pradeep]#

I hope this helps

[vignesh]

Do we have to have a /boot partition along with swap and the / partition ?
I cant understand anything there.

[pradeep_chauhan]

Why dont you post your hdd info? as i said before and shown above doa fdisk /dev/hda and then select option p the resulting o/p please post it. Without this info its not possible to go any further.

[vignesh]

hda1 =winxp
hda5 ,hda6,hda7 are fat32 partitions
hda8 = swap
hda9 = linux 1
hda10 = linux2

the present grub is
mandrake default one showing linux and windows

[vignesh]

hda1 =winxp
hda5 ,hda6,hda7 are fat32 partitions
hda8 = swap
hda9 = suse but was before in hda10 since I had a extra fat32 partition.which I removed when i installed mandrake
hda10 = mandrake

the present grub is
mandrake default one showing linux and windows

[pradeep_chauhan]

Boot into linux, ithink you will be able to boot in linux 2 and check for grub in filr in /boot/grub/
If not there the only other place is as follows
make a dir /mydir and mount the linux 1 partition on to it
#mount /dev/hda6 /mydir
then go to /mydir/boot/grub/
here you will find the file.

[zerohourkill]

Sry, havent been posting in while.....

Anyway. Now i have no Linux on my computer installed(although i had), I have only one 80gb partition which is used by XP, So i want 2 noe how i can install SuSE 9.1 again, so i can uninstall it without any problems(i mean get my XP safetely back) anytime...

[zerohourkill]

Thanks for ur help by the way...I'll try all those suggestions

[vignesh]

I mounted the suse partition there is no grub conf file .I think it has a different name or something.

[pradeep_chauhan]

Try menu.1st

[vignesh]

there is no menu.1st in mandrake but it is there in suse and it has a locked symbol and i am unable to view its contents. By the way I think mandrake is using lilo not grub.

[pradeep_chauhan]

become root by using su then password entry then you will be able too see the contents.

[zerohourkill]

OK i see,

In suse there is also option, when u intall it to use lilo insted of grub,maybe its better to use lilo?

[vignesh]

Originally Posted by pradeep_chauhan

become root by using su then password entry then you will be able too see the contents.

did that only.Did not work.

[pradeep_chauhan]

This is very strange i mean we have tried all the tricks in the book and we are not making any progress. I have four OS of which three are linux and its very easy to set up as i said above. Ok let me recap linux has a dir called /boot where it stores the kernel .img and the grub files this dir can be on the same partition or a seperate partition. In your case it seems its on the same partition ok, now we have checked both the distro and are unable to find the grub dir or the grub.conf file. This is very stange and i am not sure what we are missing can you shed some more light on what i have just said.

[vignesh]

Actually I read an article in lfy magazine where the writer boots win98 , ubuntu and fedora.Since I already had winxp amd suse I wanted to try the same So I installed mandrake to see who it works with this.Actually as I said before mandrake uses lilo not grub I guess so how about i try installing mandrake first and then suse and may be then I can log in as root and edit the menu.1st file. Give me your comments.This I will do only in the middle of may and my exams are on monday so this my last post till may 13th where I again post here and we will again try.Sorry of the trouble.You have been very helpful. Hope you are free during the mid of may when I will try this.Anyway tell me if I can try that way( installing mandrake first and then suse )