rescue debian

dilberim82 · 04-14-2005, 12:27 AM

Hi everyone,
I need my pc by 8 AM please help...

I asked my bro to install XP because i needed for school and he did but i cannot access debian now and i have my homework in there. I was using grub, don't have a rescue disk, don't know which hd partition it loads from. How do i figure it out and fix it?

Thanks for all the replies, i really need them

TigerOC · 04-14-2005, 01:30 AM

You can use your install cd to boot the box. You need to know the partition though and for this you would need at least some basic utilties on a boot disk be they either DOS or a Linux utility. You would be able to see the partitions from a DOS disk by using the command fdisk or Linux cfdisk. Once back in Debian you could then just do grub-install /dev/hdxy to get grub back. Do yourself a favour and make a floppy boot disk or cd. Have a look at this page of mine;

http://www.oats.org.uk/linux/gruboot.htm

m_yates · 04-14-2005, 07:32 AM

You can also use a Knoppix CD if you have one. When you boot a Knoppix CD, it automatically detects partions and creates corresponding directories for them in /mnt, like /mnt/hda1, /mnt/hda2, etc. From Knoppix you can open a terminal, become root with "su", them mount the partitions. For example:

Code:

mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2

You can then browse the partitions to find your Debian install. You can copy files from the partition to a USB drive, or copy files to e-mail through internet mail in Knoppix. You can also chroot from Knoppix to the Debian install. For example, if Debian is on /mnt/hda2:

Code:

chroot /mnt/hda2

At that point, you are running as root on your Debian system. You can run the grub-install command from there to fix your boot loader.

Knoppix is very handy to keep around

dilberim82 · 04-14-2005, 02:09 PM

I did what you said m_yates and i got my stuff from the linux partiion. Now the problem is grub-install /dev/hdc2

Code:

/sbin/grub-install: line 477: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 479: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 477: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 479: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 477: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 479: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 477: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 479: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 477: /dev/null: Permission denied
/sbin/grub-install: line 479: /dev/null: Permission denied
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

is what i get... /dev/hdc1 is xp

m_yates · 04-14-2005, 04:05 PM

You probably want to install grub in the master boot record so that it can handle booting windows and Debian. A good overview of configuration is here: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...part=1&chap=10 It is for Gentoo, but the same stuff applies in Debian.

Are you sure it is /dev/hdc? That is normally the IDE slot that the CD or DVD drive is connected to.