Grub doesn't boot XP or Linux !?!

[ironman616]

Hi - My first post here - I have 30g pre-installed HD w/ XP, and I added 120g HD and loaded Suse 8.1 to it. I tried to boot system and I only get 'GRUB' in upper left corner of screen. Cannot boot either OS. There is not a prompt, just a blinking cursor that does not respond to any command. I went with the default install. So......How do I fix booting problem, and do I need to change the install setup? Also, I have access to Suse 8.2 with Lilo - would this be a better option?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - I tried to include all 'pertinent info' according to guidelines & I have spent a good amount of time researching threads - however I noticed that people with similiar problems were not trying to install on separate HD's.

Thanks in Advance,

Pat

(Great Community!)

[ShieldWolf]

I have Win2k on the primary HD and Mandrake 9.1 on the second HD and use Grub to boot to either. I installed Grub on the MBR of the primary(Win2k) HD. Is this where your Grub resides?

As far as switching to lilo, try it if you want, but of the two, I prefer Grub.

[terribleRobbo]

ShieldWolf: Do you mind posting your grub.conf?

ironman: Same to you.

Compare and contrast. That and the fact I want to do the same thing as you, ironman. :D

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by ironman616
Also, I have access to Suse 8.2 with Lilo - would this be a better option?


You already have SuSE 8.2 installed and use Lilo as the bootloader?

If that is the case, then you should have installed Grub from SuSE 8.1 into 8.1's root partition and then added a entry to your Lilo config (/etc/lilo.conf) from 8.2 to also boot SuSE 8.1.

Is that what you are attempting to do?

[ironman616]

Morning - Thanks for the quick replies - Wife is threatening divorce (lol) if I don't get this fixed soon - this set back my arguement to her that Linux is 'the way to go' , but we would go slowly and have both on our 'puter before swithing completely. Also - I would like to make clear one thing - I am not a complete novice - BUT this is still a new 'frontier' for me and I may need more step by step guidance than the average 'advanced' user -

OK - I will post config later - I am on my way to work - Yes - Grub resides on the MBR of the primary. - No - I did not install 8.2 - I just have it and thought installing it would 'magically' fix everything!!!!

Should I go into Recovery Consoleand use either 'fixboot' or 'fixmbr' or ????

Pat

[mdwatts]

So you have Windows on the first HD and Linux on the second.

Please post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst so we can have a look as we may spot where the problem is.

You may need to reinstall grub after using

grub-install /dev/hda

if Grub is installed in the mbr of the primary/master HD.

[serz]

Originally posted by ironman616
Should I go into Recovery Consoleand use either 'fixboot' or 'fixmbr' or ????
That will remove Grub from the mbr and it will fix it in order to just boot your Windows XP.

[ironman616]

Hope someone is still willing to help - sorry for the delay - work.....you know how it is. Following is on my config. screen


gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=791
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hdb2 ide=nodma apm=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.shipped


Thanks in advance again

Pat

[homey]

You don't have all of the information in the grub.conf Try something like this ...

boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=15
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=791
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd

Then run this command: grub-install /dev/hda

[mdwatts]

homey is correct as you need a boot section for XP and 'boot=/dev/hda' to tell Grub where to install itself (mbr) and where to initially boot from.

< searching keywords >

grub install grub-install dualboot windows

[ShieldWolf]

Here is a copy of my /boot/grub/menu.lst, just in case you still need to see it.


timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
i18n (hd1,0)/boot/grub/messages
keytable (hd1,0)/boot/us.klt
altconfigfile (hd1,0)/boot/grub/menu.once
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off0 vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=0x0122
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=0x0122
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

Hope this helps. :)

[mdwatts]

I thought we were helping ironman616?


Hope someone is still willing to help


I'll have to work on ironman's problem first since he is the one that posted to begin with.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by ironman616
Hope someone is still willing to help - sorry for the delay - work.....you know how it is. Following is on my config. screen


gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=791
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hdb2 ide=nodma apm=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.shipped


Thanks in advance again

Pat

As homey suggested, add

boot=/dev/hda

to your Grub config and run

grub-install /dev/hda

to rewrite Grub to the mbr.

If that still doesn't work see if adding

map (hd0, hd1)
map (hd1, hd0)

helps.

boot=/dev/hda
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
map (hd0, hd1)
map (hd1, hd0)

Now if that still doesn't work, post the contents of those other files I mentioned further up in the thread.

[mdwatts]

ShieldWolf... Do any of the suggestions I posted for ironman616 also apply to your problem?

boot=/dev/hda and the map commands if required?

[ShieldWolf]

Uh, no problems here. My setup works fine. Thanks for asking though. I just thought that it might help to see a working setup.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by ShieldWolf
Uh, no problems here. My setup works fine. Thanks for asking though. I just thought that it might help to see a working setup.

:o Guess I need to logoff for the day as I must be imagining things. :eek:

[homey]

ShieldWolf,
That's an interesting and different look in your menu.1st file. I wonder how your file /etc/grub.conf looks.

The menu.1st that ironman616 posted is like the one posted at suse.com and is like the one which I have tried.

Still doesn't work for me yet. :)

[ShieldWolf]

That's menu.lst(ell ess tee), not menu.1st. Could that be the problem? :confused: I know that with some fonts it's hard to tell between 1 and l.

I use Mandrake 9.1, and that file was created by one of the Drake wizards, hence the unique look, but it should work on a non-Mandrake system.

I don't have a grub.conf file in /etc or anywhere else for that matter. Sorry. :(

[homey]

:rolleyes: guess I didn't get all of that coffee out of my keyboard yet. I'll have to take another look at it tomorrow. :D

Edit: I couldn't wait until tomorrow. :)
Anywho, typos aside this is what I found....

I had the answer right in front of me before when I said that you could boot from the grub> prompt by typing....
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 and
initrd /boot/initrd then
boot

Vmlinuz and initrd are in the /boot directory and the entry in
menu.lst left out the /boot :(

So here is a working setup for anyone who may be interested......

/boot/grub/menu.lst looks like this

gfxmenu (hd1,0) /boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 15

title Redhat Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img

title Suse Linux
kernel (hd1,0) /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 vga=791
initrd (hd1,0) /boot/initrd

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

/etc/grub.conf looks like this Note: the install part is on one line and the quit is on the third line.

root (hd1,0)
install /grub/stage1 d (hd0) /grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd1,0)/grub/menu.lst
quit


You can check your syntax by running the command: grub-install /dev/hda . If you have errors, don't bother trying to reboot until you fix the errors.