Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:28:05 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote: I had to add to /etc/modules a couple of modules. I can't remember in which order, but at first I had no mouse pointer showing at all. I modprobed one module, then had the mouse pointer, but couldn't move it, then modprobed the second module, and all was working ok. See the 2 modules below. mousedev psmouse Both the Sarge and the Etch kernels have a psmouse driver; only the Sarge kernel (2.6.8) has a mousedev driver. Armed with this discovery, I took another look at my operational /etc/lilo.conf file. And I now suspect that my current entries are insufficiently precise (and the guidance in the man-page is too cryptic|out-of-date) to load the desired kernels. Given that the relevant entries in my /boot directory read: System.map-2.6.18-4-486 System.map-2.6.8-2-386 config-2.6.18-4-486 config-2.6.8-2-386 initrd.img-2.6.18-4-486 initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386 vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-486 vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 what are the needed entries in /etc/lilo.conf that will result in loading Etch with the 2.6.18-4-486 kernel and Sarge with the 2.6.8-2-386 kernel? All advice will be gratefully received. Felix Karpfen -- Felix Karpfen Public Key 72FDF9DF (DH/DSA) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? Joe Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grubroot (hd0,8) grubsetup (hd0) grubquit hd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub are the prompts. Rodolfo: I tested it and it seems to work fine. Only, I can't now restore the previous situation: I do: # grub grub root (hd0,5) grub setup (hd0) grub quit , then reboot but the system can't get into hda6. It's strange, I find no reason why it works with hda9 and not with hda6. Please, any ideas? I've done more tests and these are my conclusions: 1) if I run the above grub commands from the `target' partition everything goes well: e.g., if I want to install hda6 grub boot loader to the mbr, I have to do: # grub grub root (hd0,5) grub setup (hd0) grub quit from hda6; instead, if I want to install hda9 grub boot loader to the mbr, I have to do: # grub grub root (hd0,8) grub setup (hd0) grub quit from hda9. This way things seems to go fine. 2) If I give those commands from Knoppix 5.0, they work for Etch, whereas Sarge does not manage to boot any more: I have to get back to Knoppix and install Etch grub to mbr, boot from there into Sarge and there install grub to mbr. So, if I want to use those commands, from Knoppix, to, say, restore Linux boot after a Windows installation, they are not supposed to work with Sarge, whereas they should with Etch. What do you think? Bye, Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Sunday 01 July 2007 13:33:17 Rodolfo Medina wrote: [snip] I've done more tests and these are my conclusions: 1) if I run the above grub commands from the `target' partition everything goes well: e.g., if I want to install hda6 grub boot loader to the mbr, I have to do: # grub grub root (hd0,5) grub setup (hd0) grub quit from hda6; instead, if I want to install hda9 grub boot loader to the mbr, I have to do: # grub grub root (hd0,8) grub setup (hd0) grub quit from hda9. This way things seems to go fine. 2) If I give those commands from Knoppix 5.0, they work for Etch, whereas Sarge does not manage to boot any more: I have to get back to Knoppix and install Etch grub to mbr, boot from there into Sarge and there install grub to mbr. So, if I want to use those commands, from Knoppix, to, say, restore Linux boot after a Windows installation, they are not supposed to work with Sarge, whereas they should with Etch. What do you think? IMO, it is all working as it is supposed to. As for Sarge, I wouldn't know because I never used Sarge. My first Debian was Etch, and it didn't last long because I am the sort that prefers the bleeding edge. Remember that Knoppix is based on Sid/Experimental, so of course the grub that it uses is much newer than that of Sarge, and depending on which version of Knoppix one uses, could be newer than that in Etch. I would strongly recommend just converting your Sarge system to Etch, but I can understand your reluctance to do so. But, like I said before, once the MBR is written, then just adjust grub's menu.lst file and have it boot any system you want. If you add new systems, you don't *have* to let the installation install grub, since it's already there, but you would have to tell your menu.lst where to fine the new system. That is just another Title entry into the grub's menu.lst Best of luck to you. I think you're getting the hang of the grub commands. Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? Joe Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grubroot (hd0,8) grubsetup (hd0) grubquit hd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub are the prompts. I tested it and it seems to work fine. Only, I can't now restore the previous situation: I do: # grub grub root (hd0,5) grub setup (hd0) grub quit , then reboot but the system can't get into hda6. It's strange, I find no reason why it works with hda9 and not with hda6. Please, any ideas? Thanks, Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Saturday 30 June 2007 15:24:08 Rodolfo Medina wrote: Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? Joe Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grubroot (hd0,8) grubsetup (hd0) grubquit hd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub are the prompts. I tested it and it seems to work fine. Only, I can't now restore the previous situation: I do: # grub grub root (hd0,5) grub setup (hd0) grub quit , then reboot but the system can't get into hda6. It's strange, I find no reason why it works with hda9 and not with hda6. Please, any ideas? Thanks, Rodolfo No idea. If it works for /dev/hda9. then (providing the right files are on the partition) then /dev/hda6 should work fine, and you're correct in calling it (hd0,5). The only thing I can think of is that the files that grub needs are missing, but to be honest, it really doesn't matter where grub is sitting, as long as you can tell it where to find all the different OS's on your machine, then you're good to go. So, in short, I don't quite understand why you're trying to do all this in the first place. As already mentioned, installing Etch will automatically find the other systems and put them in the grub menu. Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:33:09 +0200, Rodolfo Medina wrote: On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:33:09 +0200, Rodolfo Medina wrote: I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. Has anyone done this successfully? I faced a similar problem, wrote to linux.debian.user for advice and scored a zero response. In my case I went ahead, made a backup of Sarge to a newly-created partition, checked that I could boot into it and then ran a dist-upgrade on my main Sarge partition. Result: - Etch boots and works perfectly (fortunately); - Sarge boots (despite some fatal notifications during the boot); all the tested programs still work; the mouse does not. Running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 achieved nothing. For the record, I use LILO. Felix Karpfen -- Felix Karpfen Public Key 72FDF9DF (DH/DSA) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Saturday 30 June 2007 22:41, Felix Karpfen wrote: On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:33:09 +0200, Rodolfo Medina wrote: On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:33:09 +0200, Rodolfo Medina wrote: I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. Has anyone done this successfully? I faced a similar problem, wrote to linux.debian.user for advice and scored a zero response. In my case I went ahead, made a backup of Sarge to a newly-created partition, checked that I could boot into it and then ran a dist-upgrade on my main Sarge partition. Result: - Etch boots and works perfectly (fortunately); - Sarge boots (despite some fatal notifications during the boot); all the tested programs still work; the mouse does not. Running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 achieved nothing. For the record, I use LILO. Felix Karpfen This is going back a bit, but all my Debian installs started off as Woody 3.0r2, and have been constantly upgraded. I had no mouse problems (ps2 mouse) with the 2.4.27 kernel, but moving to a 2.6.8 kernel caused problems. I had to add to /etc/modules a couple of modules. I can't remember in which order, but at first I had no mouse pointer showing at all. I modprobed one module, then had the mouse pointer, but couldn't move it, then modprobed the second module, and all was working ok. See the 2 modules below. mousedev psmouse Don't know if this helps, but it fixed my problems at the time. Nigel. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? Russell L. Harris [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There is only one master boot record per drive. hda6 and hda9 are two partitions of the same drive, namely, drive hda. Perhaps you mean that hda6 is the /boot partition, and you wish /boot to be hda9 ? You need to provide us with more information. Yes, you're right, I'll try to better explain myself. On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. I hope that now it is clear enough what I want. Thanks for any help Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
On Friday 29 June 2007 15:33:09 Rodolfo Medina wrote: Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? Russell L. Harris [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There is only one master boot record per drive. hda6 and hda9 are two partitions of the same drive, namely, drive hda. Perhaps you mean that hda6 is the /boot partition, and you wish /boot to be hda9 ? You need to provide us with more information. Yes, you're right, I'll try to better explain myself. On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grubroot (hd0,8) grubsetup (hd0) grubquit hd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub are the prompts. I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. I hope that now it is clear enough what I want. Thanks for any help Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Joe Hart wrote: On Friday 29 June 2007 15:33:09 Rodolfo Medina wrote: Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? Russell L. Harris [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: snipped On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grubroot (hd0,8) grubsetup (hd0) grubquit hd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub are the prompts. I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. I hope that now it is clear enough what I want. Thanks for any help Rodolfo If I understand correctly, you have Sarge on a partition that you want to preserve, while using a second partition on the same disk to install Etch. Once you're happy with the Etch install, you'll redo the Sarge partition formatting to use with your new Etch install. But you mentioned 5 partitions for Linux, the above is only two, so what are the other 3 used for? Will you need any of them for the Etch part, are they used with Sarge, or used some other way? You need the answers to the above, which will modify to some extent what you do. But I think what you do is simply install Etch, selecting hda9 as the partition to install (the / filesystem for Etch), plus any of the other partitions (or none) depending on the answer to the question. When you get to Etch's grub installation step, it will detect the Windows and Sarge installs and offer to setup grub in the master boot record for you. It should (if all works as expected) provide you with boot options for Windows, Sarge and Etch. I said should, but I don't expect any problems, I've done this type of thing several times, successfully. And this way, you don't need to worry about grub prompts or grub (disk,partition) numbering issues. When you're happy with Etch (shouldn't take too long!-), you just edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file for Etch to remove the section that boots Sarge and to change (if needed) the 'default' boot number to match the number position for Etch in the boot section (look for lines beginning with 'title', near the end of the file). Reformat hda6 and you're done. -- Bob McGowan smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition? I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. Bob McGowan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: If I understand correctly, you have Sarge on a partition that you want to preserve, while using a second partition on the same disk to install Etch. Yes, that's right. Once you're happy with the Etch install, you'll redo the Sarge partition formatting to use with your new Etch install. Well, no: once I'm happy with Etch (i.e., I've managed to install everything) I want to install hda9 grub boot loader to the master boot record of the hard drive, so that I can format hda6 when I need to (maybe to install Debian 4.1? :)). But you mentioned 5 partitions for Linux, the above is only two, so what are the other 3 used for? Will you need any of them for the Etch part, are they used with Sarge, or used some other way? In them other Linux systems are installed, to do tests (to test applications before installing them). Well, they're too many, I also want to resize them and eliminate some. You need the answers to the above, which will modify to some extent what you do. But I think what you do is simply install Etch, selecting hda9 as the partition to install (the / filesystem for Etch), plus any of the other partitions (or none) depending on the answer to the question. When you get to Etch's grub installation step, it will detect the Windows and Sarge installs and offer to setup grub in the master boot record for you. It should (if all works as expected) provide you with boot options for Windows, Sarge and Etch. [...] When you're happy with Etch (shouldn't take too long!-), you just edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file for Etch to remove the section that boots Sarge and to change (if needed) the 'default' boot number to match the number position for Etch in the boot section (look for lines beginning with 'title', near the end of the file). Reformat hda6 and you're done. Yes, I could do as you say, but I'd prefer keeping the hda6 boot loader to the mbr until Etch is complete in hda9. Besides, I want to learn how to do all that because it may turn to be useful in other circumstances: e.g. when you want to install MS Windows *after* Linux, I suppose. Thanks, Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina wrote: Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snipped Bob McGowan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: If I understand correctly, you have Sarge on a partition that you want to preserve, while using a second partition on the same disk to install Etch. Yes, that's right. Once you're happy with the Etch install, you'll redo the Sarge partition formatting to use with your new Etch install. Well, no: once I'm happy with Etch (i.e., I've managed to install everything) I want to install hda9 grub boot loader to the master boot record of the hard drive, so that I can format hda6 when I need to (maybe to install Debian 4.1? :)). But you mentioned 5 partitions for Linux, the above is only two, so what are the other 3 used for? Will you need any of them for the Etch part, are they used with Sarge, or used some other way? In them other Linux systems are installed, to do tests (to test applications before installing them). Well, they're too many, I also want to resize them and eliminate some. You need the answers to the above, which will modify to some extent what you do. But I think what you do is simply install Etch, selecting hda9 as the partition to install (the / filesystem for Etch), plus any of the other partitions (or none) depending on the answer to the question. When you get to Etch's grub installation step, it will detect the Windows and Sarge installs and offer to setup grub in the master boot record for you. It should (if all works as expected) provide you with boot options for Windows, Sarge and Etch. [...] When you're happy with Etch (shouldn't take too long!-), you just edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file for Etch to remove the section that boots Sarge and to change (if needed) the 'default' boot number to match the number position for Etch in the boot section (look for lines beginning with 'title', near the end of the file). Reformat hda6 and you're done. Yes, I could do as you say, but I'd prefer keeping the hda6 boot loader to the mbr until Etch is complete in hda9. Besides, I want to learn how to do all that because it may turn to be useful in other circumstances: e.g. when you want to install MS Windows *after* Linux, I suppose. In that case, when asked during the Etch install about where to put grub for Etch, tell it to put it on hda9. Then, when it finishes, but *before* doing the reboot, use Alt-F2 or some such to open a shell command line in an available virtual console, determine where things are mounted by typing 'mount', cd to /???/boot/grub (??? is the mount point of hda9 on the install RAM disk) and copy down the boot stanza info created for hda9 from menu.lst. I'm not sure if this will be completely correct for the Sarge side, but it should be close. When you reboot, you'll get the Sarge grub install, which knows nothing about etch (yet). Boot into Sarge as usuall, cd /boot/grub, edit menu.lst to add the info about Etch. You could also do this as described earlier by others, using the grub command. In either case, you should now have a valid Etch boot description for the Sarge loader. Later, when all is well, you would boot Etch and run grub again to install it to the master boot record. -- Bob McGowan smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
How to move the master boot record?
Hi, Debian users. In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? Thanks for any hint, Rodolfo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Hi. If i have not misunderstand, you'd like to move the boot partition? In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? If you are using grub probably it's enought to do a: grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hda where /boot directory is your new boot partition (if this is the case). I've done something similar few days ago, but using a live cd (knoppix) and chroot. Hope it helps you Bye
Re: How to move the master boot record?
Rodolfo Medina wrote: Hi, Debian users. In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? The master boot record is always in the first sector of the drive, in your case that would be in /dev/hda. I guess you mean the boot-manager instead? That depends on the boot-manager you are using, it should display its name before it loads the kernel. Common names are grub and lilo. In don't know how grub is configured, but for lilo: For lilo, the option of where the boot-manager is installed is set up in /etc/lilo.conf under the entry boot=/dev/hdaX Once you changed that line, run lilo as root, and it will update the location. Please read the lilo-manpage (man lilo) before doing this and make sure you know what you are doing, otherwise you may render your system unbootable or erase your data! Cheers, Mike Thanks for any hint, Rodolfo -- Michael Hansen - http://www.pfna.de/ Monheim / Germany -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to move the master boot record?
* Rodolfo Medina [EMAIL PROTECTED] [070628 16:35]: In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is it possible, and how? First of all, forget about any advice which you may receive concerning LILO. GRUB is the boot manager you should be using. Life is MUCH simpler with GRUB than it was with LILO. There is only one master boot record per drive. hda6 and hda9 are two partitions of the same drive, namely, drive hda. Perhaps you mean that hda6 is the /boot partition, and you wish /boot to be hda9 ? You need to provide us with more information. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: grub master boot record problem
Mike wrote: Bear with me on this one... I have 3 hard drives, hda is a ntfs drive for extra space on windows, hdb is supposed to be a debian etch drive... And the kicker, sda is the windows drive with the master boot record. When I install debian testing it see's windows on sda but installs the mbr on hda. (the extra ntfs drive that is nothing more than extra space). I figure, no big deal, it should still be able to call sda for windows and hdb for linux even if its there. Nope, it won't boot the SATA windows drive (sda) but it boots hdb (debian) just fine. So I figure, ok grub-install /dev/sda. But instead of working it starts up giving me this GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB (to infinity, it just keeps going forever) So of course now windows doesn't boot anymore so I boot to the xp cd and fixmbr... which also stuffs it on hda with the RETARDED F6 YOU HAVE TO GO TO A MUSEUM TO GET A 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE TO LOAD SATA DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS AT BOOT TIME. (yes, i think that was ill thought out for something written from 2000-2003). So whatever... I unhook all of the other drives and fixmbr again to fix the problem. Now that is fine and all, but now i'm right back where i began except with ntloader on hda instead of grub because windows wanted it on with a rescue disk to fix that one too. So if no matter what I do, its always going to install the MBR on hda if it has a choice with both SATA and ATA drives in the same system. How do I get around something like this? I just want the mbr on sda so grub can boot both drives. Or am I going about this all wrong /dev/hda (ntfs windows extra space) /dev/hdb (ex3 linux) /dev/sda (ntfs windows drive with MBR) Any suggestions? You can put grub anywhere, for my Thinkpad-t42 I have it on hda4: grub root (hd0,3) setup (hd0) quit (or exit?) on my USB-hd on same PC, not normally attached, on sda4: grub root (hd1,3) setup (hd1) If I ran this while a HD was in cdrom/dvd bay then instead of hd1 it would be hd2 (the hdc would be hd1), Meanwhile on the debian auto install, you may need simply only change the /boot/grub/menu.lst to point to the correct disk for WinJunk, see GRUB-doc. By the way, my 3 points to hda4 and sda4, each has my /boot/grub/stuff with a mini-linux (RIP). == this boots partitions on hda and hdc from hda4 # grub.conf: grub : root (hd0,3) : setup (hd0) GRUB_PARTION=hda4/BKUP # timeout 8 color black/cyan yellow/cyan default 3 fallback 1 # hd0,1 = hda2 = extended # hd0,2 = hda3 = VFAT # hd0,4 = hda5 = swap # hd0,6 = hda7 = DATA title [0] WinXT (PARTITION 1) rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 title [1] FIX-RIP on BKUP (PART4) RecoveryIsPossible Locus_of_GRUB-BOOT-file kernel (hd0,3)/boot/kernel root=/dev/hda4 vga=2 acpi=off title [2] Debian-Linux-Sid(PART6) Failsafe/DebSid-copy kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=791 selinux=0 noresume initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img title [3] Debian-Linux-Sid(PART8) NORMAL kernel (hd0,7)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 vga=791 selinux=0 resume=/dev/hda5 initrd (hd0,7)/initrd.img title [4] SUSE-Linux-10 (PART9) NORMAL kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 vga=791 selinux=0 splash=silent resume=/dev/hda5 showpts initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd title [5] SUSE-Linux-10 (PART9) Failsafe kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 showopts ide=nodma acpi=off vga=2 noresume selinux=0 barrier=off nosmp noapic initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd title [6] Debian-Linux (DISK2-in-cdrom-bay-PART2) kernel (hd1,1)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc2 vga=791 noresume initrd (hd1,1)/initrd.img title [7] SUSE-Linux (DISK2-in-cdrom-bay-PART6) kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc6 vga=791 selinux=0 splash=silent resume=/dev/hda5 showpts initrd (hd1,5)/boot/initrd -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
grub master boot record problem
Bear with me on this one... I have 3 hard drives, hda is a ntfs drive for extra space on windows, hdb is supposed to be a debian etch drive... And the kicker, sda is the windows drive with the master boot record. When I install debian testing it see's windows on sda but installs the mbr on hda. (the extra ntfs drive that is nothing more than extra space). I figure, no big deal, it should still be able to call sda for windows and hdb for linux even if its there. Nope, it won't boot the SATA windows drive (sda) but it boots hdb (debian) just fine. So I figure, ok grub-install /dev/sda. But instead of working it starts up giving me this GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB (to infinity, it just keeps going forever) So of course now windows doesn't boot anymore so I boot to the xp cd and fixmbr... which also stuffs it on hda with the RETARDED F6 YOU HAVE TO GO TO A MUSEUM TO GET A 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE TO LOAD SATA DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS AT BOOT TIME. (yes, i think that was ill thought out for something written from 2000-2003). So whatever... I unhook all of the other drives and fixmbr again to fix the problem. Now that is fine and all, but now i'm right back where i began except with ntloader on hda instead of grub because windows wanted it on hda more than sda too. Which is fine, i can just grub-install /dev/hda with a rescue disk to fix that one too. So if no matter what I do, its always going to install the MBR on hda if it has a choice with both SATA and ATA drives in the same system. How do I get around something like this? I just want the mbr on sda so grub can boot both drives. Or am I going about this all wrong /dev/hda (ntfs windows extra space) /dev/hdb (ex3 linux) /dev/sda (ntfs windows drive with MBR) Any suggestions? -Mike -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Do SCSI disks have a MBR (master boot record)?
Do SCSI disks have a MBR? Is it just LBA=0 on the disk? Should lilo be installed in MBR or the other choice during install to boot debian linux from a scsi disk? I installed Lilo in MBR of a SCSI only system and I have to use the rescue floppy to boot every time. The floppy is annoyingly slow to boot. The AHA-2940UW says BIOS installed correctly and then insert bootable media. I marked the /boot partition as bootable. Join Excite! - http://www.excite.comThe most personalized portal on the Web!
Re: Do SCSI disks have a MBR (master boot record)?
Do SCSI disks have a MBR? I think that the MBR is just a name for the first block(s) of a disk, I don't think its special in any way other then being at the start of the disk. Is it just LBA=0 on the disk? does SCSI use LBA? I thought that was IDE only.. Should lilo be installed in MBR or the other choice during install to boot debian linux from a scsi disk? I reccomend the MBR, I have installed on maybe 40-50 different systems with SCSI and always choose MBR. I haven't dual booted in 3 years so if your dual booting you may not want to use the MBR(System commander was my booting tool of choice back in the day). I installed Lilo in MBR of a SCSI only system and I have to use the rescue floppy to boot every time. The floppy is annoyingly slow to boot. sounds like the bios of the system may have a bug in relation to booting from a SCSI card. one system I have here has a similar problem, its a Supermicro P6DBE, even with lilo loaded to the MBR, the bios sees the boot record but it hangs when it tries to boot it. Haven't really looked into it, probably a bios upgrade would fix it. is your system configured to boot from SCSI? does it even TRY to boot from SCSI ? are there any IDE devices on the system? (either hd or cdrom), if so disconnect them see if anything changes. This P6DBE would hang completely without a IDE hard disk connected, since there is a CDRW on the IDE as well, I had to disable the CDRW in the bios to stop it from hanging, removing the CDRW from the chain completely may also fix the SCSI hang problem, haven't tried it yet. The AHA-2940UW says BIOS installed correctly and then insert bootable media. I marked the /boot partition as bootable. thats good, but without the bios on the MB being able to support booting from SCSI. I have many many 2940UW cards and have installed many debian systems to the MBR of the SCSI disk without any issues. nate -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Do SCSI disks have a MBR (master boot record)?
On Wednesday 20 November 2002 11:07 am, wrote: Do SCSI disks have a MBR? Is it just LBA=0 on the disk? Should lilo be installed in MBR or the other choice during install to boot debian linux from a scsi disk? I installed Lilo in MBR of a SCSI only system and I have to use the rescue floppy to boot every time. The floppy is annoyingly slow to boot. The AHA-2940UW says BIOS installed correctly and then insert bootable media. I marked the /boot partition as bootable. sometimes the mainboards bios has a boot sequence selection, IDE or SCSI. If the IDE is selected on a scsi system it will try to boot from IDE, fail , boot from floppy. -- Greg Madden Debian GNU/Linux -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fixing the Master Boot Record
Hi everybody, In trying to get Slink installed successfully on my laptop (IBM Thinkpag 390E) I have learned that it is important to upgrade the Bios first. So, for the short term, I am taking some steps backwards. I downloaded a bios upgrade program on to a diskkette from IBM's website. To perform the upgrade, I need to boot up the computer with this diskette in the floppy drive. When I do that however, the computer gives me an error message saying that there is an invalid system disk in the floppy drive. I am instructed to remove it and then hit any key to continue. This doesn't happen with any disk as I can still boot up from a boot floppy. I think this is due to my installing LILO on the MBR. So I did an fdisk /mbr to remove LILO and then attempted to perform the bios upgrade again. I still get this error. So I then downloaded the upgrade program on to another diskette (in case the disk was the problem) and I still get this message. Can anyone tell me how can I fix my mbr so that I can boot up into this program and upgrade my BIOS? Thanks, Bryan Walton *** Bryan K. Walton Network Operations Center Analyst Berbee Information Networks Corporation 5520 Research Park Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53711 Phone: 608.288.3000 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[walton@berbee.com: Fixing the Master Boot Record]
Make sure to have the necessary dos system files like command.com on that floppy since you need to boot your computer into dos to be able to run the bios upgrade. You'll want to format that floppy with the option to install the system files on it and then copy the bios upgrade software and boot up. -Grant - Forwarded message from Bryan K. Walton [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 09:36:21 -0600 (CST) From: Bryan K. Walton [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Debian-User Mailing List debian-user@lists.debian.org, Debian Laptop Mailing List debian-laptop@lists.debian.org Subject: Fixing the Master Boot Record Hi everybody, In trying to get Slink installed successfully on my laptop (IBM Thinkpag 390E) I have learned that it is important to upgrade the Bios first. So, for the short term, I am taking some steps backwards. I downloaded a bios upgrade program on to a diskkette from IBM's website. To perform the upgrade, I need to boot up the computer with this diskette in the floppy drive. When I do that however, the computer gives me an error message saying that there is an invalid system disk in the floppy drive. I am instructed to remove it and then hit any key to continue. This doesn't happen with any disk as I can still boot up from a boot floppy. I think this is due to my installing LILO on the MBR. So I did an fdisk /mbr to remove LILO and then attempted to perform the bios upgrade again. I still get this error. So I then downloaded the upgrade program on to another diskette (in case the disk was the problem) and I still get this message. Can anyone tell me how can I fix my mbr so that I can boot up into this program and upgrade my BIOS? Thanks, Bryan Walton *** Bryan K. Walton Network Operations Center Analyst Berbee Information Networks Corporation 5520 Research Park Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53711 Phone: 608.288.3000 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/null - End forwarded message - -- -Grant oio` They do not apprehend how being at variance it agrees with itself. --Heraclitus ioi`
Re: Fixing the Master Boot Record
Thanks to everyone on this simple issue. Turned out to be two problems, I didn't have a bootable floppy, and the IBM program needed to be extracted (something that I never saw mentioned on their download page). Thanks, Bryan *** Bryan K. Walton Network Operations Center Analyst Berbee Information Networks Corporation 5520 Research Park Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53711 Phone: 608.288.3000 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Fixing the Master Boot Record
On Mon, 1 Nov 1999, Bryan K. Walton wrote: perform the upgrade, I need to boot up the computer with this diskette in the floppy drive. When I do that however, the computer gives me an error message saying that there is an invalid system disk in the floppy drive. Do you have an operating system on the floppy? The bios upgrade program may only be the acutal appication to upgrade the bios Ernest Johanson Web Systems Administrator Fuller Theological Seminary
Re: Fixing the Master Boot Record
Your problem sounds like the BIOS program. More than anything else. Try formatting a disk in a windows machine and making it bootable (format a: /s) then boot the laptop from it. If this works then download the BIOS update again and extract to the same disk. Also check to see if the extracted files create an Autoexec.bat that runs the BIOS update. Check the site you got the file from also they often have manual update procedures. JJN Network Administrator The Colad Group, Inc. Bryan K. Walton [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 11/01/99 10:36:21 AM To: Debian-User Mailing List debian-user@lists.debian.org, Debian Laptop Mailing List debian-laptop@lists.debian.org cc:(bcc: John J Neff/Colad Group) Subject: Fixing the Master Boot Record Hi everybody, In trying to get Slink installed successfully on my laptop (IBM Thinkpag 390E) I have learned that it is important to upgrade the Bios first. So, for the short term, I am taking some steps backwards. I downloaded a bios upgrade program on to a diskkette from IBM's website. To perform the upgrade, I need to boot up the computer with this diskette in the floppy drive. When I do that however, the computer gives me an error message saying that there is an invalid system disk in the floppy drive. I am instructed to remove it and then hit any key to continue. This doesn't happen with any disk as I can still boot up from a boot floppy. I think this is due to my installing LILO on the MBR. So I did an fdisk /mbr to remove LILO and then attempted to perform the bios upgrade again. I still get this error. So I then downloaded the upgrade program on to another diskette (in case the disk was the problem) and I still get this message. Can anyone tell me how can I fix my mbr so that I can boot up into this program and upgrade my BIOS? Thanks, Bryan Walton *** Bryan K. Walton Network Operations Center Analyst Berbee Information Networks Corporation 5520 Research Park Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53711 Phone: 608.288.3000 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Fixing the Master Boot Record
I wanted to clarify regarding what I said below, Thanks to everyone on this simple issue. Turned out to be two problems, I didn't have a bootable floppy, and the IBM program needed to be extracted (something that I never saw mentioned on their download page). I PERSONALLY missed the note about the file needing to be extracted. I didn't mean to imply such a statement doesn't exist on IBM's page. Sorry. Thanks, Bryan
Master boot record fix
Thanks to all of you who responded to my message about reverting to DOS (even though I know it's wrong but for personal reasons I have to goto DOS) I had to solve the problem by actually going to hex edit the HD sectors at the beginning. It was definently corrupt. I know it was corrupt because the charecters in the boot sector were unrecognizeable. So I just edited all those sectors to 00. And that fixed the problem. Nils =O) [EMAIL PROTECTED] You could trouble me for a nice warm glass of shut up! http://members.tripod.com/YouthRAGE/ Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
Re: Master Boot Record
On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Odin wrote: [ snip ] : is this the dd (if there is one) on the rescue floppy? It may be a : stripped down version. Perhaps someone with more C skills than I could : compile you a quick binary to do this without linking many (or any) : dynamic libraries. dd on the rescue floppy requires STDIN and STOUT to be redirected - the if and of options aren't supported AFAIK. e.g. `dd whatever.bin /dev/fd0' -- Nathan Norman MidcoNet 410 South Phillips Avenue Sioux Falls, SD mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.midco.net finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP Key: (0xA33B86E9)
Master Boot Record
As I referred to in my previous email, is that I have tried fdisk /mbr in DOS and that hasen't worked. I believe there is something corrupt in the boot sector/FAT tables. And I can't get it back. I have tried the DD if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 bs=1024 count=1 and it doesn't do ANYTHING. It gives me the default options menu...but nothing happens to the hard drive. Nils =O) [EMAIL PROTECTED] You could trouble me for a nice warm glass of shut up! http://members.tripod.com/YouthRAGE/ Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
Re: Master Boot Record
On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Nils Lorvick wrote: As I referred to in my previous email, is that I have tried fdisk /mbr in DOS and that hasen't worked. I believe there is something corrupt in the boot sector/FAT tables. And I can't get it back. I have tried the DD if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 bs=1024 count=1 and it doesn't do ANYTHING. It gives me the default options menu...but nothing happens to the hard drive. is this the dd (if there is one) on the rescue floppy? It may be a stripped down version. Perhaps someone with more C skills than I could compile you a quick binary to do this without linking many (or any) dynamic libraries. Of course, it's always possible that your first few sectors are hosed, but not too likely. I think you're on the right track with the dd command though, as I remember reading somewhere that in order for DOS to recognize a partition as its own, it must see either all zeros ore dos partition data on that drive. It's more complicated than that, but I don't remember a whole lot of it. Good luck. -Dano
Re: Master Boot Record
At 09:30 PM 2/19/1999 +, Nils Lorvick wrote: As I referred to in my previous email, is that I have tried fdisk /mbr in DOS and that hasen't worked. I believe there is something corrupt in the boot sector/FAT tables. And I can't get it back. I have tried the DD if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 bs=1024 count=1 and it doesn't do ANYTHING. It gives me the default options menu...but nothing happens to the hard drive. Nils =O) [EMAIL PROTECTED] You could trouble me for a nice warm glass of shut up! http://members.tripod.com/YouthRAGE/ I don't remember all the thread; does it go something like this? You've got one drive; it was setup to run Linux; now you need to go back to DOS and you can't get DOS to boot but Linux still does? You just have one drive, not two? You've booted off a DOS floppy and run fdisk and removed the Linux partitions and created one primary partition and made it active (bootable) and rebooted off the floppy and then ran fdisk /mbr and then rebooted off the floppy and then ran format c: /s? If this didn't work, I suspect some sort of hardware issue; perhaps your CMOS isn't autodetecting the hard drive properly, or you've got a master/slave jumper set improperly. If all the hardware is okay, then doing the above steps should wipe the drive and restore it to a bootable (minimal DOS) state. If it doesn't, I'm stumped.
Master Boot Record Wars
ext I think the 98 install on my Pentium may have trashed LILO. I cannot active the LILO menu with any combination of ctrl/alt/shift. I think I can recover w/ the recovery disk. /ext Yes, Windows doesn't ask, it just takes. Specifically, it takes the master boot record -- it likes to assume that it's the primary or only OS. You can easily restore the master boot record to Linux. From Windows, go into the CD-ROM. In the install directory, there's a file called boot.bat. Running this will run Linux installation. If it doesn't work from Windows, you can reboot in MSDOS mode and it'll work from there. (As it turns out, you don't even need a rescue floppy!) Then, in the installation menus, choose Make Linux Bootable from the Hard Drive or some such. Linux will get the MBR again. (As I like to say at that point in the process, Mine! Give it back!) Then you can boot Linux and redo lilo.conf and lilo. == [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==
