GRUB on floppy, not mbd
I'm very new to Linux. When I installed the previous version of
Ubunto (5.x), it gave me the option of installing GRUB on a floppy, which I did. This allowed me to have a dual boot on the HD: Windows 98 or DR-DOS. (Yes, DOS really is important to me -- I'm a writer, with thousands of files in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.) However, when I installed the latest version, Dapper Drake, GRUB was automatically installed on the mbd. My question: How do I copy GRUB from the mbd to make a bootable floppy? Or, alternatively, is there a way to re-install Dapper Drake so that GRUB will be on a floppy? John Lauritsen |
Grub is controlled by the file called /boot/grub/menu.lst
If you have a look at this file on both your new Dapper install and on the old bootable floppy you can see how the file relates to the boot options you get. So if you want your grub floppy to have the same options as the hard-disk version, just copy this (menu.lst) file from the hard disk to the floppy. Do you have all your boot options in your new install? Do you need to re-instate your original mbr? |
It's reasonably easy to make a grub floppy, but why not use grub to triple boot all your systems ???. Both Win98and DR-DOS should be chainloadable.
Makes more sense to me, and "future proofs" your setup. I'm suprised the Dapper installer didn't give you the option to also boot (at least) one of those systems. |
Getting GRUB on floppy
Thanks. I really am quite new to Linux, although not to computers. I found the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and copied it to a floppy, but the floppy was not bootable. I had hoped there was a command of some kind that would copy GRUB from mbd to a floppy that would be bootable.
Dapper Drake installed GRUB automatically on the mbd without asking me where I wanted it. It set up a dual boot: Ubuntu and Windows98. However, I now have no access to a pure (non-Windows) DOS. If I re-install DR-DOS, it will set up a dual boot (DR-DOS & Windows), but will obliterate access to Linux. Of course that would be fine, if I had a floppy to boot into Linux. Quote:
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Thanks. I would like very much to have a triple boot (Linux, Windows98SE, and DR-DOS), but I have no idea how to do this. I am just getting started in Linux, and need to be up and running before I can really explore it. I have writing work to do, and for this I need access to a good (non-Windows) DOS.
The Dapper installer gave me no options, but it did install a dual boot, which is Ubuntu and Windows 98. I can re-install DR-DOS and get a dual boot with DR-DOS and Windows, but then Ubuntu will be inaccessible. I may have to go back to the previous version -- 5.x, whatever it was called. If it is easy to make a grub floppy, please tell me how to do it. I'd be most grateful. JL Quote:
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Right, so you want a triple boot with ubuntu, windows 98 and DR-DOS, and so far you have a dual boot with ubuntu and windows 98. Is that right? If yes, carry on, if no stop there and tell us which bit I got wrong.
So, what you need to do is create an entry in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file that starts DR-DOS for you. When it is finished, the new entry will look something like this: title DR-DOS root (hdx,y) makeactive chainloader +1 boot This entry is not finished - you need to replace x,y with the location of your DR-DOS installation. This can be inferred from your hard-drive(s) partitioning scheme and your exisitng menu.lst. To view these, type (from a ubuntu command line terminal): Code:
sudo fdisk -l If you post the results of these two commands here, we can finish this. If you insist on a grub boot floppy, we can do that as well, but we will need the same information to create it, and it is not really necessary for what you want. |
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Have you still got that original boot floppy? If yes, you can make it work for your dapper install simply by replacing the menu.lst on the floppy with the one on your hard-drive (I think - I'm wrong here if the earlier ubuntu didn't use grub, but you said it did, right?) If you no longer have the boot floppy, you can make one with the grub-floppy command. Try this in a terminal: Code:
sudo grub-floppy /dev/fd0 And the reason I didn't say this before is that this won't give you access to DR-DOS. I recommend that you don't do this, and that you get your triple boot set up by putting an entry for DR-DOS in your grub menu.lst file. |
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DISK /dev/hda: 13.0GB device boot start end Id System /dev/hda1 * 6 FAT16 hda2 f W95 Ext'd LBA 5 6 FAT16 6 b W95 FAT32 7 b W95 FAT32 DISK /dev/hdb: 6448 MB device boot start end Id System /dev/hdb1 5 System 5 83 Extended 6 83 Linux 7 * 83 Linux 8 82 Linux Swap/Solaris device boot start end Id System /dev/sda4 * 6 FAT16 When I gave the cat /boot/grub/menu.lst command I got: title Ubuntu, memtest86+ root (hdb1,6) kernel /boot/memtest boot ### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST title Other operating system root title Windows 95/98/Me root (hd0,0) save default make active chainloader +1 |
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The sudo grub-floppy /dev/fd0 did work: I got a bootable floppy on it, but just the GRUB> prompt. I don't know how to put the menu.lst on the GRUB floppy. Thanks for your help. |
Sorry I've been away for work for a few days.
You are nearly there. Strangely your Windows/DOS disk has 3 partitions that might be DR-DOS (hda5, hda6 and hda7 from your fdisk output), so we'll try each of them to see if they'll boot. This is easiest to do from the grub prompt so write down everything after this sentence, then reboot with the grub floppy in the drive. Type this in at the grub> prompt (check where spaces are and are not): Code:
root (hd0,4) If it doesn't work, repeat but replace (hd0,4) with (hd0,5), then finally (hd0,6). These are the grub notations for the three possible partitions on that first hard-drive. Keep a note of the one that worked (4, 5 or 6). You can stop writing now. Come back to this thread with your ubuntu install and we'll fix it so it's a triple boot system (unless it doesn't work, in which case we'll try again). If this works, then those are the commands you need in the menu.lst file, except in the file you need a title as well. So, in a terminal: Code:
sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst Then go to the bottom of the file, after the Windows entry, and add this text, but replace x with the number that got you to DR-DOS: Code:
title DR-DOS Then reboot and see if it works. And please let me know if it does. Good luck Bernie |
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I suspect that it may not be possible to make a triple boot that includes both Windows and DR-DOS. Windows doesn't seem to coexist peacefully with an independent form of DOS. Quite a few years ago there was a small war between Microsoft and Caldera over DR-DOS. A Caldera salesman I spoke to said that with the Caldera dual boot, Windows wouldn't even know that DR-DOS was there. So, it may be that DR-DOS has somehow hidden or camouflaged itself. However, I really don't understand these things. For now, it would be fine to simply put on a floppy the menu.lst that is now on the mbd. If I can do all the things in Linux, that I now do in Windows, then some time in the future I might eliminate Windows and go for a computer that dual boots between Linux and DR-DOS. This may sound eccentric, but for a writer it really isn't. The computer columnist, Edward Mendelson, has a web site devoted to WordPerfect 5.1 and 6.2 for DOS, which he considers the greatest word processors of all time. I agree, and could add reasons of my own. Thanks again. |
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