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I would like to find out the correct, safe way to re-install the GRUB boot loader. I already have a working redhat 9 system, and I've been using a commercial program (system commander) to handle booting into either my windoze XP or Redhat partition. However, I periodically have problems with system commander, and I would like to go back to GRUB.
What's the right way to re-install GRUB. I know there is a "grub-install" command, but I read the GNU webpage documentation which made it sound like this approach had a high likelihood of leaving my system in an unbootable state. I know too that I could re-install RH9 from scratch, and ask for the GRUB loader, but the installation program doesn't give me the option of just installing the loader, and instead I have to do a full upgrade of the system, which takes many hours and might override some of my current settings.
Being somewhat of a newbie I don't want to screw this up. Also I never had to know the devices for my different partitions with my current boot loader, but I suspect I'll need this info to re-install GRUB (unless there's a way to auto-detect the operating systems). Is there a simple way to find out where XP and RH9 sit (i.e. hda1 etc...) from within linux?
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you might have, and I thank you in advance.
Thank you Skyline. I never used that option before. Looks good.
Newbix: No doubt, red hat support knows what they're doing. However, I've used grub-install several times without harm and have seen it suggested half a dozen times. If it's that or a reinstall, try it.
and thanks RickyJaff for the suggestion about the boot diskette. Well, I took the plunge and there is only a small snag which I hope someone can help me with:
I did "grub-install /dev/hda", and rebooted and I do get the GRUB selection window with the choices:
2.4.20-6bigmem
2.4.20-6smp
DOS
Which is almost what I need. The problem is that I no longer get the option to log in under the plain "2.4.20-6" kernel, which is the one I've been using. So for example, if I log in under bigmem or smp, I can't bring up the X-window interface because I installed my NVIDIA drivers under 2.4.20-6. I could re-install the drivers, and I suppose anything else that needs to be updated, but I'd rather know why I don't see 2.4.20-6 as an option anymore, and if there's a way to fix that.
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