Protecting the bootloader from a windows reformat
I'm using win 2k and FC3 at moment,
a time will come when win2k needs formatting but that will overwrite the MBR so GRUB won't be accessible. I need something that allows me to boot back into Linux so i can reinstall grub, or just a different way of setting it up/booting the system so it doesn;t get overwritten with a reformat Making a floppy from within fedora isn;t really an option either as my floppy drive ain't working properly. thanks |
I've had a similar set of questions about GRUB of late, as I have been having problems and will probably end up restoring Windows MBR and booting Linux off of floppies. Anyway, this link http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/5361/4/ offers some insight, but it implies that you can get to a grub> prompt in the first place, like by using a Knoppix CD, for example. You also may want to consult the GRUB manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html.
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Yep, knoppix or a small linux live CD (DamnSmallLinux maybe?) is the way to go. That will let you boot to a live linux CD, then you can mount your own / partition somewhere, chroot to that directory and run grub-install /dev/hda to put grub back on the mbr (follow actual instructions though, that's just what I remember from one time I used grub...I use Lilo on my own machine)
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Thanks for a swift reply guys, i'll check out those links and sort something out, it's jus ta right nightmare, finally got fedora doing everything i want it to and didn;t want to have to go through it all again.
Sometimes when i've installed bootloader i've had the option of installing it somewhere besides /mbr would this help the problem? |
A nice feature of the grub shell is auto-completion. If you can access the /boot parition, you can load your systems "menu.lst" file and use that to boot your system.
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It's always a good idea to make yourself aa boot disk for emergencies.
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Ok i checked out the links, but i'm a bit confused,
i think my best choice would be to download knoppix and if formatting windows then i should boot into the live cd and run the grub setup part. however trying the command grub at the moment gives me bash: grub: command not found so i wonder if it would work. i think i want to make a floppy disk that i stick in each time the computer boots with grub on (i could do this on a seperate machine?) but the guide confused me a bit with which device etc.... |
What about rescue mode on the CD's? You can't use an install cd to boot FC anymore? I haven't used FC for a while but you used to be able to boot the system by install cd 1.
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hey
I thing u r cdrom is working Boot with u r first CD and then boot prompt boot: linux rescue $ chroot /mnt/sysimage $ grub-install /dev/hda the above grub-install fail sometimes so u have to $ grub grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 or grub> find /grub/stage1 It will return something like (hd0,8) grub> root (hd0,8) grub> setup (hd0,8) grub> quit |
Thanks alot, i was trying to boot from CD last night and after several options i got nowhere :)
However i am unable to run the grub command from inside fedora still |
With the 2.6 kernel a boot floppy will simply contain the bootstrap loader for grub or lilo. An alternative is to run the mkbootdisk command to produce a CD ISO image file.
mkbootdisk --iso If you don't have this command perhaps you have: mkrescue --iso. |
You know that grub-install has to be run as root? And does fedora definitely use grub, or does it use lilo?
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I'm using Grub
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