How do I bypass GRUB?
 

1. I want to copy some files from a 'dead' SuSE9.3pro_64 bit installation on a Ferrari 3400, and since I added the 64-bit fglrx driver for ATI Radeon 9800 it has over written my grub file and it now overrides my BIOS setting of CD/DVD, floppy drive (there is none) and then HDD. So I am unable to boot to my KANOTIX64 DVD and then mount my USB2.0 Maxtor One-touch 250GB external HDD.

2. How come the Kanotix64 CD doesn't boot - it always used to. And my Spinrite disk from Gibson Research www.grc.com started fine and found no errors on my 100GB Hitachi Travelstar 5,400 rpm HDD?

3. One of my other problems appears to be that the 'automatic' update system, which is really quick if one uses the 'delta' rpms, which has downloaded all the rpms that I chose but it has kept rejecting a number of installations thereof with the following message:

ERROR(InstTarget:E_RpmDB_subprocess_failed)
---
error: db4 error(-30978) from db->close: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
[the above three lines are repeated 4 times, then:]
error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->close: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery.

Any assistance would be appreciated, and what is the disk reformat/erase again (something like rm -fs?) - I might need that command shortly - I've only loaded about 4GB of programs from the DVD so far!

Cheers
Richard

Grub loads after the BIOS, so to boot into a cd or dvd you'd need to go into the CMOS ("BIOS") and reset that order to what you want.

Once done, you should be able to boot into a cd or dvd and mount your hd.

As root, running
or will indeed DELETE your entire directory tree (including ANYTHING mounted to it (i.e. other hard drives) (not cd/dvd)) but that is VERY dangerous if its not your intent to erase all data!!

To reformat (which will also erase all data!):
run cfdisk from a shell (to partition, if needed)
run mkfs to make a file system on it (ext2, ReiserFS, etc)

or to reformat graphically (prettier, maybe easier too):
QtPart or DiskDruid from your K/G menu (it should be on many, if not most, live cds)

Not sure how to help you with the delta package issue; i hope i helped with the rest a bit!

Thanks for your input, I agree that I would have ascribed to your belief that the CD/DVD (first) in the BIOS list should have 'trumped' the GRUB settings, but for some obscure reason it ain't working for me today!

In the meantime, I am reading the 78 page GRUB manual, to see if I am smart enough to add a menu option to access the CD directly, and while reading same I mounted the USB HDD and did a "cp -pPr /* /mnt/suse9364" the latter being a directory I mkdir'ed on the USB HDD. Unfortunately the symbolic links appear to be unacceptable to the Fat32 (seen as vfat) on the USB HDD and my SuSE HDD is reiserfs (with the exception of a 1GB /swap partition which is formated as 'swap'.

Thanks for the input on exactly how to wipe my drive - when it comes to that.

Cheers again

huh.

silly me, I ran rm -rf / the next day, not sure what i was thinking! I had to reinstall :( but its going well now.

You could try booting off of a floppy and then moving on to the CD/DVD from there; it would be the same as the BIOS boot order change but the floppy might work if the disk does not.