Im on slackware current. i downloaded grub-1.96 and compiled it a few days ago. when i would run grub-install /dev/hda it apeard to create all the needed files in /boot/grub but would hang before finishing. i finaly gave up cleared out all the files redownloaded them and compiled again it worked this time. the thing is i have no clue what i did and after a system crash(hdd errors due to dropping my laptop not a software issue) and reinstalling slackware i cant figure out how to get grub2 working again. has anyone seen this before or have any ideas?

i compile simply by:
tar -xvf grub-1.96.tar.gz
cd grub-1.96
./configure
make
make install

I assume grub successfully compiled, you can get to a grub prompt from within slackware and that when you run grub-install from a console the command never completes, i.e. it hangs. Further assuming you have successfully edited your menu.lst file to boot your slackware installation, try opening a console and running as root:

# grub

which sould take you to a grub prompt if grub is properly installed on your system. Your console should look like so:

grub>

At the grub prompt run:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

assuming slackware's kernel is installed on /dev/hda1 which is (hd0,0) in grub speak. /dev/hda2 would be (hd0,1), /dev/hda5 would be (hd0,4), etc. I further assume that your bootloader is to be installed on the mbr of hda which is (hd0) in grub speak.

When these command have successfuly run, type:

grub> quit

to exit from the grub prompt.

yes it compiled with no errors but

first the menu.lst in grub2 is /boot/grub/grub.cfg
second there is no /usr/sbin/grub in grub 2 or i would've simply used grubconfig
and third i discovered after leaving it for a while it does work but for some reason is taking bout 10 minutes.

Maybe its a result of your hardware being dropped? Notebooks do funny things after being dropped or water damaged... I used to fix notebooks all the time screens, mobo's, hdd's, etc... I'd get a 2.5" to 3.5" converter and hook it up to a tower and test the hdd. see if the issue can be isolated.




EDIT: You might want to check the ./configure options... maybe a ./configure=/usr/local/bin or another .. just a suggestion

Sorry about that; haven't really been following grub development. From their website, grub 2 is still in pretty heavy development so I guess you can expect some bugs and you can definitely expect some incompatible changes in future releases of grub 2.

Just curious, did you also try designating the drive in grub syntax instead of /dev/hda, i.e.:

# grub-install (hd0)

and if so, was the result the same?

I'm fairly certain you should have a grub executable somewhere on your system even with grub 2. It may have been dumped in some weird location. Have you been able to locate it anywhere?

check out http://landofconfusion.comze.com/grub-1.96-i486-1.tgz i made a slackbuild of grub2 and installed it on here via pkgtool if you want to see what i did to make it check out http://landofconfusion.comze.com/grub2.tar.gz

grub2 uses different naming. what was grub hd0,0 in grub it is hd0,1 in grub2

one should use svn version; 1.96 is too old

Here you can find newer versions without dealing with svn (perhaps packaged versions are different from svn ones...)
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/

Grub website is: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/ lot of documentation there...

mbvo slackubuild (http://landofconfusion.comze.com/grub2.tar.gz) still works with version 1.97.1 I just finished compiling with no errors and now will install the package... Let's cross fingers! All this because I want ext4 support...
Thanks mbvo!!!