Repairing Grub
 

I need to transfer a Linux Kiosk to another hard drive which is of course a different size. Problem is that Grub of course just throws it's legs up in the air and does nothing.

Didn't seem much of a problem at first just repair the grub by using Knoppix.

Knoppix just hangs at the RTC so thats no go.

Trued Unbunta and couldn't see any console options under boot options. This just hangs on entering X windows.

Tried Suse live CD and that can't see the hard drive.

Tried the Debian net install CD iso and that gives the option to install grub but then wants to format the drives which of course I don't want to do.

So what's the next as another machine is needed for testing.

Um, you have not yet posted your system configuration (drive and partition assignments), nor your grub.conf file contents, nor even which drive contains your MBR.

Do you get a grub boot menu? A gurb> prompt?

Can you boot linux rescue? Have you done so and run grub-install?

Can't post the drive assignments at the moment as the machine is at work. Can't get to the grub.conf file contents as I haven't been able to boot into a system to get at them.

It's just a single drive hda1

It just sits at Grub and flashes the cursor at you.

The Live CD's I tried so far won't boot or can't read the disk or won't give the option Linux Rescue or if they have the option don't tell you about it. The nearest I got is Debain which shows install grub loader and then wants to wipe hard drive which I have to cancel out off as formating isn't an option.

Some nice soul has nicked my orginal Debian Cd's and I haven't had a chance to download a new set as yet.

O.K., just how did you do the "transfer?" dd to another drive, or a dump / load, or some other method? Do you have the "older" drive available, and does the system run properly with that drive installed instead of the newer one?

When you say "It's just a single drive hda1," you're implying that the whole Linux Kisok is installed on a single partition of (hd0) (in GRUB notation). This seems unusual since most Linux systems work better with the swap file on a different partition, although a logical volume can include swap and / in the same physical partition. (Does Linux Kisok even use LVM?)

You say that "Knoppix just hangs at the RTC so thats no go." How long did you wait at that "hang?" Knoppix can take as much as twenty minutes to decide that it's not getting anywhere, but it usually manages to boot. But this suggest that the hd you're using may have some hardware problem. So, what steps have you taken to verify that the hd is actually properly installed and running?

You can download the System Rescue CD from here. This live CD includes several tools for checking hard drives.