Hello guys!

I was a happy SuSE user after days of struggling to configure everything.
The other day, I used Partition Magic to resize partitions to make more room for my Linux partition. (Dual boot with Win2000 & SuSE)
After rebooting, I noticed Partition Magic nuked GRUB, so I used my Win2000 CD to do FIXMBR, and now Windows works fine.
My problem is I cannot find a way to reinstall GRUB or LILO so I can choose which OS to boot again...
I've got SuSE Disks, and the latest Knoppix CD.
I'm currently on Knoppix and it detects both my Windows partition (hda1) and SuSE partition (hda3) without any problem.

I've been googling and searching bunch of forums for days without much success, this forum has many similar threads and I tried some solutions suggested in there, but none of them worked...

Here are some things I've tried

First, I used my SuSE DVD and booted in rescue mode (Btw, is something wrong with my computer since SuSE Disks don't boot in graphic mode anymore?),
anyway I did
which gave me back And then I got this error I don't think the rescue mode can detect existing Linux partition, or I don't know the command to mount it..

I also did
but setup gave me an error and I think it said something about hd0 not being found...

I am totally clueless now, if any of you guys can help this , it'd be great!
Thank you in advance.

Boot into your SuSE rescue mode. Then tell rescue mode to boot an existing system which boots you into your SuSE system. Then do grub-install.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

The problem is I don't know the command to do it
Could you tell me more about it?

"The problem is I don't know the command to do it
Could you tell me more about it?"

By "do it" I guess you mean switching from your rescue system to your SuSE system.

In the graphic version of the SuSE rescue DVD there is a line somewhere that says "boot existing system" and you highlight that and press enter.

Since you are not in graphic mode on the SuSE rescue DVD then I guess that you are at a command prompt. Use the chroot command to switch to the / partition of your installed SuSE system. For example if your SuSE / partition is /dev/hda3 and it is an ext3 partition then:
mkdir /wren
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda3 /wren
chroot /wren

After you chroot then your may have to mount /boot if /boot is a separate partition. Then:
grub-install
___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Thank you jailbait.
I'll try that and will get back with the result.

YEEEAHH! That worked Thank you thank you!
Here's what I did
Thank you jailbait, you made me a happy

Now I suggest that you make a SuSE boot floppy to use the next time you destroy the MBR.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Jailbate,

I am a long suffering MS user who after years of proding by me older bro have gone totally linux, suse 9.0 to be exact.
The Dell Inspirion I slaved over to tune up w/linux (well - watched my bro do it via command line for a couple hours...) has booted to "primary disk not found". The suse cd gets me into rescue mode, from there I am totally clueless, could you post the command lines I should type in to rescue the configuration?

Mahalo and aloha,

ar

"could you post the command lines I should type in to rescue the configuration?"

There are two ways to use the SuSE install CD to get into your SuSE system.

1. Look through the install CD GUI until you find an option to "boot an existing system" or something similar. Select that option and the SuSE installer will give you a list of every bootable partition that it found. Select your SuSE Linux partition and SuSE will boot it for you.

2. If you go to the rescue mode command line interface then you can boot into SuSE Linux if you know what partition is your / partition. Assuming that your / partition is /dev/hda3 then you would use the following command to switch to your SuSE Linux system:

mkdir /ukelele
mount /dev/hda3 /ukelele
chroot /ukelele

3. If your brother made a boot floppy like he should have then a third way to get into your SuSE is to boot with the boot floppy.

Once you get into SuSE you can probably fix the problem. From your description of the problem I cannot tell exactly what your problem is. I suspect that it is a problem with your boot loader. Are you using lilo or grub?

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Jailbait,

Thank you - I have the machine back on line.
Immediately upon successful rescue I attempted to create a rescue disk to no avail.
I was relying on the YaST's processes to complete it, but after 6 trys (some w/new disks) I gave up. The error message only occurred at aprox 90% of disk verification.
Any prior history w/this problem?

I am going to the "lifeboat" site you recommend now to create the boot disk, I am just un command line savvy for the most part - - wish me luck...

Thanks again,

ar

"Immediately upon successful rescue I attempted to create a rescue disk to no avail.
I was relying on the YaST's processes to complete it, but after 6 trys (some w/new disks) I gave up. The error message only occurred at aprox 90% of disk verification.
Any prior history w/this problem?"

I always create boot floppies by hand. If you are using lilo then section 8 of this HOWTO explains how to do it:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites