I have done alot of work and reading but I still cannot get the 4 os's on my computer to be seen and boot from the MBR.
Here is my grub/menu.1st :

gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz-2.4.18-k7 root=/dev/hda7 hdd=ide-scsi vga=791
initrd (hd0,4)/initrd

title debian3.0
kernel (hd1,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb5 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd (hd1,4)/initrd

title slackware9.0
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hda7 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd0,4)/initrd.shipped

I have modified this menu everyway I could think to but the only results are error 15: fs not found; error 13: incorrect fs and also kernel panic
I recently lost everything in trying to change these settings. Usually I can boot into SuSE and windowsME. I was able to recover my system after about an hours work. I can boot debian and slackware from floppy. Are there any easy answers for this? I even tried system commander PE but it can't load debian or slack either. Gujin loads slack bot won't load SuSE or debian. The numbers/addresses (above) are correct. Thanks for reading this.

Please post your partition table. Do you have two hdds?

I am no expert on grub but some crucial parameters seem to be missing. Here's a section of my grub menu.lst;
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.22-amdk7
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-amdk7 root=/dev/hdd1 ro hdb=ide-scsi apm=on apm=power_off
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.4.22-amdk7
savedefault

I note in yours the root parameter is missing and more crucially the under initrd there is no instruction on which initrd.img to use eg in my system I have 2 other old kernels available and grub lists these so for this latest kernel the instruction is to use /boot/initrd.img-2.4.22-amdk7

By any chance did you install a boot partition with each distro when you installed them. I was having the same problem with Win XP Pro, Red Hat 9, and Mandrake 9.1, then I went and re-installed Red Hat 9 but did not create a /boot partition. I then booted into Mandrake and edited the grub/menu.lst file to include the Red Hat 9 info and it works great.

There is most likely an easier way but I tried for days to get it to work like you were doing but this way works for me.

rberry88

Damn I can't even copy and paste my partiton table to this board aaaaaagggghhh!!!! I'm just about ready to give up!
Sorry...
Yes I have two hard drives windows is on the first partiton of drive 0
SuSE is on hda5 and SuSE's installer did setup an extended partion on the last partition of the 1st drive.
The 2nd drive has hdb2 for slackware and hdb5 for debian hdb6 & 7 are the swaps. I can boot all the os's from floppy. I have tried to install several boot mangers but none of them"see" slack or debian. Maybe I need to shrink the partions and move them all on to the 1st drive. And yes I have made both slack and debian active/bootable. Grub doesn't work right for me I will experiment more with lilo

Not sure what you mean by "I have made both slack and debian active/bootable"? When you installed each one, if you created a separate /boot partition for each then that is what each is booting with to find the /mbr that should contain grub.

Try booting (via floppy) into slack or debian on your machine and view the /grub/menu.lst file and copy the contents related to booting that distro exactly as written into the /grub/menu.lst file in your SuSE installation on the 1st drive. It sounds like you are trying to boot all the distros at the same time, hence why they are not showing up in any bootloader because they all have their own and the system doesn't know but to use only one, the first one.

rberry88

Hi, Thanks for the response, and booting by floppy is how I get into debian & slack although gujin (an off beat gnu bootloader) will boot slack. I can't look at the menu 1st in debian and slack because they're not using grub. I'm using the grub that is installed by default with SuSE 8.1. I'm using SuSE right now but I'll check to see if either of the others have a menu 1st (lilo?) but I don't think lilo has an editable menu1st. I will check anyway. And I'm reading one of the grub how-tos, perhaps that will help.

I think your ptoblem is that you have to define which is your root partition. Note you must define a root partition on hd1.

So, the right syntax would be:

Title What you want
root (hd0,X) (this can be check as I comment later)
kernel /directory where vmlinuz is under ro root=/dev/hdbx (depending of Slac or Debian)

initrd /directory where initrd-xxxx.img is under

OK if this doesn´t work, you can use your CDs to mount your system under /mnt/sysimage or another. Execute the command "grub". Once in the grub shell type:

find /boot/grub/stage1 (to verify the boot device)
root (hd1,x) (this setup boot device)(x depends on the result of previous command)

to install grub on the MBR:
setup (hd0) install GRUB on the MBR of hd0
setup (hd0,0) install GRUB in a boot sector

But if the problem persists, you can reinstall grub. Check carefully the device holding the MBR and type:
# grub-install /dev/hda if GRUB images are in the root directory or: # grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hda
if the boot partition is mounted as /boot

Luck
Greetings

IN SUMMARY TO ABOVE

hda7 in grub speak is (hd0,6) ie X minus 1

using the root (hdX,Y) command is similar to chroot in that its settting the relative file path to your boot folder

grub treats scsi as ide so try leaving out that bit

so assuming your linux is on hda7

that line becomes

root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd.img

You are better off HIDING linux from windows
so b4 you unhide windows partiton, hide each and every linux partition.

theres more reading here
http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.92/html_mono/grub.html