Just replying to my own email! > Kubuntu has significant issues with my Dell laptop too.. > http://jguk.org/2007/11/ubuntu-killed-my-laptop.html > > I tried again last night with 7.10, i put /boot on a USB stick, and > the GRUB on the MBR of that USB stick. GRUB appeared, but nothing > would boot, couldn't find the kernel from external USB root drive.. I > had though putting /boot on the USB stick it would have found that at > least.. or maybe I need to munge the device table or something..? The > USB devices were all connected in the same order that worked in the > installer. > > GRUB couldn't even load MS-Windows off the main drive, I had to unplug > the USB drive and USB stick to get it to do anything. Flakeyness like > this is what puts people off, all my friends want to try GNU+Linux, > but if it can't dual boot on a laptop they're not interested.
Perhaps someone can tell me how to use GRUBs interactive mode, I typed "help" but it was pretty unintelligible. Tried typing "boot hd0" etc but it wouldn't boot off my MBR on the "C" drive. I would have been happy to boot from the /dev/hda1 bootsector too, but again it wasn't clear how to do that either. I was just reading again online and it seems I might be able to enter: grub> root (hd0,1) but mabye this is a better guide: http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/gnu/grub/html_chapter/grub_4.html#SEC21 grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0) grub> chainloader +1 grub> makeactive grub> boot All of this information is of cause unavailable when I am sitting at the grub> prompt in my hotel with no way to get online to read it. They should have provided a "bootmenu" command, which will let me scroll through drives (MBR) and partitions(bootsectors) and select the one to boot from. I don't see why GRUB has to be so obscure in use. Another reason my friends aren't going to figure out how to get a dual boot install working. Cheers, Jon _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
