[Discuss] Kubuntu reinstall GRUB boot problems

[John Blomfield]

Murray Strome wrote:
> John Blomfield wrote:
>> I can't tell from the above what you mean when you say you have 
>> installed or re-installed grub?  If you haven't tried this so far, 
>> try it now!
> I meant that I used the operation "re-install GRUB" from the rescue 
> CD; this is one of the options it gave.
>>
>> 1. boot with a rescue CD to get a command line.
>> 2. your rescue CD should tell you where and how to mount your / (root 
>> file system)
>> 3. then #cd /boot/
>> 4. run grub i.e. #grub
>> 5.at the grub prompt i.e > find /boot/grub/stage1
>>    this should find all you installed versions of Linux and respond 
>> something like,
>> (hd1,0) which corresponds to sdb1 ( more if there are more 
>> installations)
>> 6. type still at the grub prompt > root (hd1,0)
>> 7.  and then > setup (hd0)
>> 8. > quit
>> 9. reboot
>>
>> John Blomfield
> Thanks, John;
>
> OK I tried this. I had to mount /usr in order for the grub command to 
> work. After doing that, it seemed to work just great (in my case the 
> root was detected as (hd0,2) which corresponds to sda3 where the new 
> root was installed. After I did all this (i.e. after setup (hd0)), it 
> said that it had done it successfully (I forget the exact wording).
>
> However, when I rebooted, it just went back to Windows 98, indicating 
> that it didn't REALLY change the MBR.
>
> Any other hints?
>
The fact that you had to mount /usr is a bit suspicious?  The grub 
executable on my system is under /sbin not /usr.

just to confirm that when you got the (hd0,2) response you typed:
 > root (hd0,2)
 > setup (hd0)
 > quit

Did grub also find your other / installation as well as (hd0, 2)?  If so 
try > root (hd?, ?) for that partition.

John
> I had thought of trying the (very complicated) directions on how to 
> replace GRUB with LILO in Ubuntu to see if that would work any better. 
> I guess another thing to try would be to put a bigger disk in IDE 0 
> Master and disconnect all the other drives until after doing the 
> install. Another thing I might try is disconnecting the drives on the 
> PCI IDE controller, trying to run GRUB again in the same way to see if 
> that makes any difference.
>
> I would like to understand what is going on. I have often seen an 
> install completely mess up the MBR, but never before a case where it 
> didn't even touch it! In other installations (even Kubuntu Alternate), 
> I was able to install GRUB on a floppy, but so far I haven't gotten it 
> to work on this computer.
>
> Murray
>
>
>
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