I cannot get my comuter to boot from the Linux drive. It says GRUB on the top of the screen and just sits there. I thought it was that 1024 cylinder thing, so i reinstalled making sure the boot partition came first. Still nothing. i am so frustrated right now, does anyone know what is wrong??

I am not sure but if I remeber I had the same when I improperly defined kernel root device (kernel ............... root=/dev/hdaN <- N was incorrect) in grub.conf.

its not that i've tried every possible number there. and when i compare the boot disk to grub.conf, nothing is different.......
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i found that reading the grub manual was so much more helpful than anything anyone could tell me. grub manual

after this your understanding will be complete (just a guess, sounds like mbr portion pointing to something that is not there)

So try to reinstall grub with the following 2 commands (below I assume you have 1 hard drive /dev/hda and the boot loader will be put on MBR):

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

It should fix the problem. If not post the grub messages.

no i have 2 hard drives. im running linux on hdb. from what i read in that manual, it appears grub hangs on HD's greater than 32 gigs, and supposedly i have to fuckin spend $50 to update my bios?? wtf is that about. someone else must be running XP and RH8 on 2 separate drives that are both over 40 gigs. i have been sitting at this damn computer for almost a week trying to get this shit to work. i just dont get it. why the hell is this so complicated? i have never had to read so much shit in my life. the reason i need grub to work is so that i can change my damn kernel. if i just boot from the boot disk u cant make any kernel changes. i even tried copying the image of my new kernel onto the boot disk to replace the old one, but "not enuf space". bah.

Next time be more specific. In what way can I know you have 2 drives (IDE or SCSI ?) and how the Linux drive is poartitioned (it flows on the grub installation commands) ?
I assume the Linux is sitting on hdb1 with single partition and you want to place grub on MBR.
If I am right try:
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd0)

IDE, i dont want to overwrite the MBR, then prolly nothing on my computer will work.
partition 1: boot
partitoin 2: root
partition 3: swap
partition 4: vfat
-where would i be entering thse commands? after i do "grub" at terminal window?

The commands should be entered after invoking grub command (prompt 'grub>')
try (not checked by me):
root (hd1,0) and next
setup (hd1,0) - this will place the loader on the 1st partition of second drive (i.e. /boot on hdb1) but this case you need a another main boot loader at MBR created with another system

or
setup (hd1) - this will place the loader on MBR od hdb

But I do not want to consider in what way Linux will be started (I do not know XP booting policy and possibility of pointing which system should be started)

and important matter: in grub.conf you should have:
root (hd1,0)
kernel /your_kernel_name ... root=/dev/hda2
against usual
kernel /boot/your_kernel_name ... .....

-thnx for ur help, i do appreciate it. but grub is already setup on the boot partition, i chose that in the install options. that is what this will accomplish i believe.

***********--------------_______--------------***************


PROBLEM SOLVED

~~~~~~~~~~~~_____________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh man!! Please tell us *HOW* you solved your problem!!! I wonder how many others read this thread all the to the bottom only to find a dead end :-((