grub doesn't load

grub doesn't load

[Anshuman Singh Rawat]

Hi,
I have a dual boot system with grub as the loader.
I wanted to change the default from WinXP to linux.
So I changed the 'default' from 1 to 0 in grub.conf.
1 = Win (the second entry in grub.conf. linux was the first).

Now the big problem is grub doesn't load any of the 2 OSes. Infact,
it doesn;t even reach that startup screen. It just freezes!!

Any clue how to fix this without a rescue disk (this PC doesn't have a floppy drive) ?

A quick help will really be appreciated!
Thanks.
Anshuman

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Re: grub doesn't load

[James Miller]

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:

> I have a dual boot system with grub as the loader.
> I wanted to change the default from WinXP to linux.
> So I changed the 'default' from 1 to 0 in grub.conf.
> 1 = Win (the second entry in grub.conf. linux was the first).
>
> Now the big problem is grub doesn't load any of the 2 OSes. Infact,
> it doesn;t even reach that startup screen. It just freezes!!
>
> Any clue how to fix this without a rescue disk (this PC doesn't have a floppy drive) ?
>
> A quick help will really be appreciated!

One word: Knoppix.  Well, actually a few more.  Yes, Knoppix is a rescue
disk of sorts, so I've given an answer you don't want (because I don't
know any other).  With a Knoppix bootable CD, you could get a pretty full
Linux gui you could then use to locate and edit the file you changed, in
hopes that changing it back would fix the problem.  Note that I have
little expereince with grub, so I'm only guessing changing it back would
fix things.  DamnSmallLinux could work too, and is a much smaller
download.  This all presumes you can somehow access the 'net and download
and burn a CD though.  I don't know how possible that might be for you
with a non-working computer.  If you do manage to do this, note that
you'll need to get to a root console and mount your machine's HD manually:
the automated method Knoppix gives you (i.e., an icon on the desktop)
mounts the drive read only.  You need it mounted read/write, so the manual
method from a root console is the way to do it.  Don't know offhand how
DamnSmall mounts (i.e., whether read only or not).  Hope that helps.

James

PS  Then, there are things like Tom's rtboot (or whatever it's called),
that run from floppy.  A smaller download yet, but no nice gui.
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Re: grub doesn't load

[pa3gcu]

On Saturday 19 June 2004 02:33, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a dual boot system with grub as the loader.
> I wanted to change the default from WinXP to linux.
> So I changed the 'default' from 1 to 0 in grub.conf.
> 1 = Win (the second entry in grub.conf. linux was the first).
>
> Now the big problem is grub doesn't load any of the 2 OSes. Infact,
> it doesn;t even reach that startup screen. It just freezes!!
>
> Any clue how to fix this without a rescue disk (this PC doesn't have a
> floppy drive) ?

One must presume you installed via a cdrom then as you have no floppy,
so use your install cdrom as a rescue medium.
Most distro's have a rescue option.
You made no mention of which distro so i cant say.

> A quick help will really be appreciated!

To get proper help one needs to know _details_ of course you forgot the 
details so the reply's may well be quick but if they are helpful is another 
matter.

> Thanks.
> Anshuman

-- 
If the Linux community is a bunch of thieves because they
try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
is built on organized crime.

Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/


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Re: grub doesn't load

[Anshuman Singh Rawat]

Thanks for the replies.

I rescued it using the disk. On undoing what I had done (which screwed up grub), Grub still didn't recover (I am sure that I undid correctly, as I had only changed one parameter in grub.conf - 'default'). So I reinstalled grub from the disk.
But the problem still remains of changing the boot order.

Anyone?

Thanks,
Anshuman

----- Original Message -----
From: pa3gcu <pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl>
Date: Saturday, June 19, 2004 3:56 am
Subject: Re: grub doesn't load

> On Saturday 19 June 2004 02:33, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I have a dual boot system with grub as the loader.
> > I wanted to change the default from WinXP to linux.
> > So I changed the 'default' from 1 to 0 in grub.conf.
> > 1 = Win (the second entry in grub.conf. linux was the first).
> >
> > Now the big problem is grub doesn't load any of the 2 OSes. Infact,
> > it doesn;t even reach that startup screen. It just freezes!!
> >
> > Any clue how to fix this without a rescue disk (this PC doesn't 
> have a
> > floppy drive) ?
> 
> One must presume you installed via a cdrom then as you have no floppy,
> so use your install cdrom as a rescue medium.
> Most distro's have a rescue option.
> You made no mention of which distro so i cant say.
> 
> > A quick help will really be appreciated!
> 
> To get proper help one needs to know _details_ of course you 
> forgot the 
> details so the reply's may well be quick but if they are helpful 
> is another 
> matter.
> 
> > Thanks.
> > Anshuman
> 
> -- 
> If the Linux community is a bunch of thieves because they
> try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
> is built on organized crime.
> 
> Regards Richard
> pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
> http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-
> newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
> 

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Re: grub doesn't load

[pa3gcu]

On Saturday 19 June 2004 23:43, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
>
> I rescued it using the disk. On undoing what I had done (which screwed up
> grub), Grub still didn't recover (I am sure that I undid correctly, as I
> had only changed one parameter in grub.conf - 'default'). So I reinstalled
> grub from the disk. But the problem still remains of changing the boot
> order.

Just what commands did you give grub after the changes.?
There is a command something like grub -install (don't have a grub machine 
handy here at the moment to check) to make grub reread its config file.

'man grub' should help.

-- 
If the Linux community is a bunch of thieves because they
try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
is built on organized crime.

Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/

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Re: grub doesn't load

[Amin]

pa3gcu wrote:
> Just what commands did you give grub after the changes.?
> There is a command something like grub -install (don't have a grub machine 
> handy here at the moment to check) to make grub reread its config file.
> 
> 'man grub' should help.
> 

It's something like:

$ grub-install /dev/hda

if you want to reinstall grub into the MBR.  To install it 
into the boot partition,

$ grub-install /dev/hda1

(If /dev/hda1 is the boot partition).

Yawar Amin
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Re: grub doesn't load

[Hal MacArgle]

Greetings: Missed most of this thread so forgive if I make a stupid
comment especially since I know nothing of WinXP:

Did you change /boot/grub/menu.lst?? Maybe your lashup doesn't use
that file? Also, read somewhere, that WinXP does some strange things
to the MBR, etc.. Don't know what, etc..

I do have two machines booting with Grub, several versions of
Slackware 9.X as default, or selected, and Win9X as a selection
partition.. It does work well for us... HTH.

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV - Slackware GNU/Linux 9.0   (2.4.20)
           
	     Anyone can pile complexity upon complexity;
                  only a genius can truly simplify..


On 06-19, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
> 
> I rescued it using the disk. On undoing what I had done (which screwed up grub), Grub still didn't recover (I am sure that I undid correctly, as I had only changed one parameter in grub.conf - 'default'). So I reinstalled grub from the disk.
> But the problem still remains of changing the boot order.
> 
> Anyone?
> 
> Thanks,
> Anshuman
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: pa3gcu <pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl>
> Date: Saturday, June 19, 2004 3:56 am
> Subject: Re: grub doesn't load
> 
> > On Saturday 19 June 2004 02:33, Anshuman Singh Rawat wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > I have a dual boot system with grub as the loader.
> > > I wanted to change the default from WinXP to linux.
> > > So I changed the 'default' from 1 to 0 in grub.conf.
> > > 1 = Win (the second entry in grub.conf. linux was the first).
> > >
> > > Now the big problem is grub doesn't load any of the 2 OSes. Infact,
> > > it doesn;t even reach that startup screen. It just freezes!!
> > >
> > > Any clue how to fix this without a rescue disk (this PC doesn't 
> > have a
> > > floppy drive) ?
> > 
> > One must presume you installed via a cdrom then as you have no floppy,
> > so use your install cdrom as a rescue medium.
> > Most distro's have a rescue option.
> > You made no mention of which distro so i cant say.
> > 
> > > A quick help will really be appreciated!
> > 
> > To get proper help one needs to know _details_ of course you 
> > forgot the 
> > details so the reply's may well be quick but if they are helpful 
> > is another 
> > matter.
> > 
> > > Thanks.
> > > Anshuman
> > 
> > -- 
> > If the Linux community is a bunch of thieves because they
> > try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
> > is built on organized crime.
> > 
> > Regards Richard
> > pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
> > http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/
> > 
> > 
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-
> > newbie" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
> > 
> 
> -
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Re: grub doesn't load

[pa3gcu]

On Sunday 20 June 2004 17:21, Hal MacArgle wrote:
> Did you change /boot/grub/menu.lst?? Maybe your lashup doesn't use
> that file? Also, read somewhere, that WinXP does some strange things
> to the MBR, etc.. Don't know what, etc..

If a linux bootloader is installed then AFAIK no version of dos or windows has 
anything to do with the MBR.

> I do have two machines booting with Grub, several versions of
> Slackware 9.X as default, or selected, and Win9X as a selection
> partition.. It does work well for us... HTH.

May i ask the following, how did you get a slackware distribution with grub,? 
if i remember correctly Patrick Volkerding once said, lilo is and will be my 
choice of bootloader for slackware, i know for a fact that slackware installs 
lilo by default so i imagen you must have installed grub yourself, may i ask 
why.?

>
>     Hal - in Terra Alta, WV - Slackware GNU/Linux 9.0   (2.4.20)
>            
>              Anyone can pile complexity upon complexity;
>                   only a genius can truly simplify..

According to your sig, then you would use lilo as it is in complexity more 
simple than grub.

-- 
If the Linux community is a bunch of thieves because they
try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
is built on organized crime.

Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/

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Re: grub doesn't load

[Amin]

Hal MacArgle wrote:
> Greetings: Missed most of this thread so forgive if I make a stupid
> comment especially since I know nothing of WinXP:
> 
> Did you change /boot/grub/menu.lst?? Maybe your lashup doesn't use
> that file? Also, read somewhere, that WinXP does some strange things
> to the MBR, etc.. Don't know what, etc..
> 
> I do have two machines booting with Grub, several versions of
> Slackware 9.X as default, or selected, and Win9X as a selection
> partition.. It does work well for us... HTH.

Reading this post I was reminded of something I had once 
done to recover me Linux installation (it was RH8) after I 
had installed Windows XP and it had wiped the MBR clean. 
Standard advice is to always install Windows first and then 
Linux, but I figured I could do the opposite and still 
recover everything.  I was right, but I went to this website 
for instructions: 
www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

HTH,

Yawar Amin
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