Re: GRUB problem

[Art Edwards]

If you can boot from cdrom, use cfdisk to toggle the boot properties of the partitions (as root, of course). Art Edwards Jeremy Merritt wrote: If having multiple partitions is the problem or part of the problem, how do I make /dev/hda2 bootable and make the others not bootable? Is that the only thing that needs to be done in addition to the other steps? --- Art Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Jeremy Merritt wrote: I have been having a problem getting my GRUB bootloader to return on boot. No matter what I do, it keeps going to XP. I consulted with other people on this list and got some good input. But have run into a dead end again. Can someone analyze these steps and tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what I need to do to get the GRUB menu to return the way it was when I first installed Debian: Steps so far: 1. Boot up with live CD (Knoppix) 2. Activate shell and go root 3. Mount /dev/hda5 as /mnt/hda5 4. chroot /mnt/hda5 /bin/bash 5. grub-install /dev/hda5 -- Reports successful install but no results on bootup fdisk -l information (hda5=Mandrake, hdb2=Debian, system is booting from hda1=XP): Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 2433 19543041 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 2434 4865 19535040 5 Extended /dev/hda5 2434 3197 6136798+ 83 Linux /dev/hda6 3198 3337 1124518+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hda7 3338 4865 12273628+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/hdb: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 1 3188 25607578+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/hdb2 * 3189 7298 33013575 83 Linux /dev/hdb3 7299 7476 1429785 5 Extended /dev/hdb5 7299 7476 1429753+ 82 Linux swap Disk /dev/hdd: 30.0 GB, 30020272128 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3649 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdd1 * 1 3649 29310561 83 Linux __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com From your listing, it seems that you have multiple bootable partitions. You should only have one. On hda, it seems that you are booting from the windoze partition, in which case, unless you have configured the XP boot-loader for linux, it will always boot into XP. If hda2 is / for the first linux system, I would make that bootable and run grub from there. I think you can also overwrite the MBR. I have a dual boot laptop with XP and debian. I overwrote the MBR and boot everything from GRUB. Art Edwards __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com