Having a problem with Grub under OpenSuse 10.3.

I start the installation (using free space) on a p/c which also has win xp. The first part of the installation goes fine (and shows that it is installing the bootloader based on the defaults to the mbr) but when my system re-boots it goes into windows as grub has not been installed.

I booted to Opensuse using the 10.3 CD and tried re-installing grub (using yast) and then tried the c/l way as su grub-install /dev/fd0 but still nothing.

Is there anything else I can try?

tells me you told Linux to "replicate" the booting instruction on device (fd0) which is a floppy disk. So did you have a floppy disk made this way? It contradicts with your early statement of
[quote]shows that it is installing the bootloader based on the defaults to the mbr[/url]

To ask any Linux to install Grub into MBR with Suse 10.3 the command in "root" console (i.e. with root privilege) should be
If you don't have root privilege Suse will just ignore your command. To get root privilege you need to type "su" at the terminal and supply the root password to get yourself into root.

Thanks for your posting.

I tried saving grub to the floppy as nothing had been saved to the mbr (through yast). I had not thought of using the c/l to try and re-install grub to the mbr and will try this tonight.

Thanks again.

I haven't installed 10.3 yet but you should be able to boot the cd/dvd and do a repair. It will ask you where to install the grub, sometimes it will be under "expert" option or something similar.

I am not a big fan of Desktop or Suse's Yast when it comes to working with the boot loaders.

The information I supplied in CLI will work in "every" Linux.

One will have a job to find a distro that has Yast the moment one steps outside Suse.

I would have thought knowing how a generic method in CLI by using "any Linux Live CD" to rescuse "any unbootable Linux" is something worth to know, even not to discover the installation CD is using the same method nor to understand the principle behind.

Many thanks for the postings.

I did try the repair option using the opensuse dvd without success. I will try the c/l option but suspect that my problem is that opensuse/yast has not properly installed grub (for some strange reason) on my system.

I have tried a few installs and used different media again without any luck. It could be some strange problem with opensuse/kernel my hardware - as opensuse 10.2 always installed without any problems.

Will post back tonight once I have tried grub-install /dev/sda.

Thanks again

Got to the bottom of my problem - it was down to opensuse not mapping out my hard drives correctly. Yast was mounting the different partitions right but had my first hard drive (sda) as hd1 and my second hard disc (sdb) as hd0. The problem was that yast was trying to save grub at the mbr (that does not exist) on sdb. When I corrected the device.map config file - yast got even more confused.

The easiest option, I found, was to install opensuse 10.2 (which set up everthing correctly) and do an upgrade to 10.3 (which used the system seeting from 10.2).

Thanks again for posting. Much appreciated.

I think the easiest way out is to forget Yast and take the matter in you own hand by getting/editing device.map, menu.lst and fstab right. Therefore no software can touch you.

It ia folly that a computer program like Yast should be trusted to do every thing right regardless the millions different combinations it encounters in a PC hard disk. Every software is liable to have bugs.

saikee I don't think no one will argue with your knowledge about boot loading and you're probably right about YaST but I believe that is one of the reasons a lot of people choose Suse. It makes the installation of software a lot easier and you don't have to worry about having all your dependences. It tends to make the system a little fatter but also easier if everything works the way it is supposed to. Apparently from what I have read so far YaST in 10.3 is broke like 10.1 used to be. What I'm trying to say is that a lot of us are not sharp with CLI and the reason I chirped in was it appeared dth1 was trying to repair through YaST.

Larry Webb,

Point taken.

I was merely saying Linux users be prepared flexible and to accept programs may have bugs.

Yast has a graphic version but also a text mode too. I run every version of it since 9.1. I entered Linux through Suse too.

I think it is what you are used to. I've been using Suse since version 8.1 and am used to the yast way of doing things and rpm's. Can change config files and the like and am now an expert on grub - after my recent problems!

Possibly a better approach is apt (rather than rpm) but I didn't like that much when I tried Kubuntu. Only installed from source once - k3b and it was a good feeling when I finally got it going but give me a rpm any day.