possible to reinstall boot loader on the MBR?
 

Hello again everyone.

Well, I have been doing a lot of testing on a RH 8.0 linux server we have setup. We are planning to eventually migrate our data to this Linux server.

However, I am concerned that when the install was done, the bootloader was placed on the first active partition and not the MBR.

First question:
Is it possible to tell where the bootloader is installed? Whether on the MBR or the 1st active partition?

Secondly; if it is installed on the 1st active partition, is it possible to move it to the MBR, or will that require a reinstall?

Thanks everyone.

Tarballed

If your using LILO for your bootloader, then check /etc/lilo.conf. The first line should say "boot=/dev/hdx"
If "hdx" is hda1, then lilo is installed in the first sector of the first primary partition(on the primary master IDE drive), if you change it from boot=/dev/hda1 to boot=/dev/hda, then run /sbin/lilo , then lilo will be installed to the MBR.
If your using scsi instead of IDE, the just change every mention I made of "hd" to "sd".

Thanks for the input skidhmor.

It makes perfect sense once I read your post.

However, there is a little twist on this. :)

The current setup on this server is two SCSI drives with software RAID. Both drives are exact mirrors of each other. For kicks, here is the output of lilo.conf:

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/md0
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.8.0smp
label=2.4.18-24.8.0smp
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-24.8.0smp.img
read-only
root=/dev/md0

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.8.0
label=2.4.18-24.8.0
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-24.8.0.img
read-only
root=/dev/md0

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14smp
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14smp.img
read-only
root=/dev/md0

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14
label=linux-up
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img
read-only
root=/dev/md0

/dev/md0 includes /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1

I'm not sure if there may be away to see if bootloader is installed on the MBR or not, but thought I would post this.

Any thoughts? Possibly have to reinstall the OS? Which is ok, as the server is just a test for the time being.

Thanks.

Tarballed

Hmmm, not sure about THAT. I've never delt with Raid.
But if your system boots from the harddives, then I'd say the bootloader has to be installed on whatever equivalent of the MBR the RAID volume uses(i.e.-sector0).