LinuxQuestions.org - grub legacy on netbook Samsung N130

I do not know whether this is the right forum - since I do not know whether my problem is in any way netbook-connected.

When I installed Debian lenny and chose grub legacy for my boot loader, I had it installed in the mbr.

At that time I had one other linux OS on my computer. Grub recognized it, wrote it into the /boot/grub/menu.lst and everything was fine.

Afterwards I backed up my system completely to another partition and wanted (and still want) to be able to boot up to it and work on it. (Of course I edited the fstab).

After that I edited the menu.lst, i. e. I manually added the bu-system to it, copying the text of the other OS and changing the /dev to boot up to.

Nothing I have tried so far has worked. The bu-system, i.e. the third OS just will not show up in the boot menu at start.

In the meantime I had changed the boot manager in the mbr by grub cp, working from a different system. It did list the bu system in the boot menu and I did manage to boot up to the system with it - but I did not really like it. So I tried lilo - which also did not work.

So I decided to try again to use grub legacy, which was still existent in lenny (my work system) and found the how-to quoted below on how to "recover grub)

Quote:

http://wiki.debian.org/GrubRecover

Reinstall GRUB bootloader (grub manual)

If you have grub-legacy 2 and your root partition is /dev/sda3 then you can re-install grub in the MBR of your hard drive by typing the following commands :

sudo grub
grub>root (hd0,2)
grub>setup (hd0)
grub>quit
exit

Note that in grub-legacy (hd0,2) is the third partition.

Then choose "Reboot the system", everything should be fine.

Again it did not work.

This issue has been running for months now and I have asked on the German and English-language debian forums. No-one could help me.

So for a last attempt I am asking here :banghead:

Below is the (I think) relevant part of the code of my /boot/grub/menu.lst

#

Code:

## ## End Default Options ##

#

 

#

title          Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686

#

root            (hd0,4)

#

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sda5 ro

#

initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686

#

 

#

title          Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686 (single-user mode)

#

root            (hd0,4)

#

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sda5 ro single

#

initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686

#

 

#

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

#

 

#

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian

#

# ones.

#

title          Other operating systems:

#

root

#

 

#

 

#

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing

#

# linux installation on /dev/sda1.

#

title Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (on /dev/sda1)

#

root (hd0,0)

#

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=4ee6dbcd-6fd6-411c-b3c0-106d4971db46 ro

#

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic

#

savedefault

#

boot

#

 

#

 

#

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing

#

# linux installation on /dev/sda1.

#

title          Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda1)

#

root            (hd0,0)

#

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=4ee6dbcd-6fd6-411c-b3c0-106d4971db46 ro single

#

initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic

#

savedefault

#

boot

#

 

#

# This entry manually added for the bu on /dev/sda4

#

title<-><------>Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686 (on /dev/sda4)

#

root<--><------>(hd0,3)

#

kernel<><------>/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sda4 ro.

#

initrd<><------>/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686

#

savedefault

#

boot

#

 

#

title<-><------>Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686 (single-user mode)

#

root<--><------>(hd0,3)

#

kernel<><------>/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sda4 ro single

#

initrd<><------>/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686

#

Aside from the practical issue, I am also just interested in the reason why this does not work.

Is anyone here expert on grub legacy and can enlighten me?