I've read so many good things about grub, so I am trying to really get a good understanding of it.

I could use some help with setting up a Grub-floppy that is not attached to an operating system, as saikee has recommended. But I have already run into problems...

First, my system:

sata drive recognized as sda, ide drive recognized as hda.
Sata drive holds Winxp in the first partition, /boot in the second (primary partition) and Suse 9.3 in 10th partition within an extended partition.

ide drive holds an old version of Winxp in the first partition, and I don't really even need to boot it, but I am leaving it here to play, and help me to understand grub.

Suse boots nicely from grub, winxp ntloader controls the MBR.

I followed saikee's instructions for creating a grub floppy. I booted it up, and grub loads. My problem comes when i try to boot an os.

I typed in "root" at the grub prompt, and tabbed to see my choices. My choices are fd0, hd0, and hd1. Nothing about sd0...
So I tried root (hd0) and hit enter, and received the following message: Filesystem type unknown, using whole disk.

That stopped me, so next i tried typing in root (hd1) and hit enter, and received the same message. So now I don't know what to do... :-(

I know this is probably simple to do, but I can't see what the next step is! Can someone help me?

Edit: I think i forgot something really dumb: I think i forgot to type in (hd0,0) the comma and then the particular partition! I'll be back if (when I get stumped again!

Oh, my, it worked! Wow, what a powerful tool! I used it to boot WinXp...

This is what i typed from the grub prompt:

root (hd0,0) then hit "enter" and got a message I don't really need to understand. I thought it didn't work, but i then typed in the second command

chainloader +1 then hit "enter" and nothing happened...

Then I typed in boot and hit "enter"
and wham! I'm in Winxp!

What was throwing me was, I wasn't gettin the feedback I expected after hitting enter each time. But it works! Now to try booting my Debian, Suse, and slackware installs. :-)

"Nothing happened" = command successful in *NIX
There is a joke telling in Windows every command gives feedback to let the operator know OS is not crashed (yet).

GRUB and LILO always conflict with Windows.

So try GRUB for DOS please. It is a cross-platform boot loader based on GNU GRUB. The GRUB.EXE can be started from DOS/Win9x; and GRLDR can be started from BOOT.INI of Windows NT/2K/XP/2003; and even more, the GRUB.EXE can be started from LINUX via the KEXEC tool.

By using GRUB.EXE or GRLDR, you don't have to touch your MBR. It is the safest way coexisting with DOS/Windows.

You needn't install GRUB for DOS. Just run GRUB.EXE from DOS, or append a line of "C:\GRLDR=START GRUB" into your BOOT.INI(restart and select the "START GRUB" menu item), that will do.

Download GRUB for DOS here: http://freshmeat.net/projects/grub4dos/

There is a fat12grldr.img file with the GRUB for DOS release. You can create a GRUB bootable floppy with this fat12grldr.img file.

Or, you can just copy GRUB.EXE to your DOS floppy and run GRUB.EXE to enter the GRUB environment.

Tinybit, I took at quick look at Grub for DOS. In reading the README, i saw mention of problems with WinXP Service Packs (which I have) and problems that will arise with Windows Vista and NTFS. I'm probably not going to persue learning Grub for Dos because of those limitations. It seems I can use the normal Grub for any OS including Dos, so I don't see what the difference to me would be.

Besides that, the file is a tar.gz, which needs to be installed in Linux anyway. So it's not purely for DOS in my mind. I viewed it in WinXP using WinRAR, but it looks like it needs to be run with Make? I'm so linux-newbie-ish, though, I may not be seeing the advantage to using Grub for DOS...

Using the regular GRUB, I never have to touch my windows MBR. I keep Windows happy by letting it control my MBR, then I make that partition inactive and set my active partition to be the one with /boot, and GRUB. Grub will boot all of my OS's that way, but if the need arises to let Windows control things again, it's easy to set the partition containing the MBR back to Active.

Thank you, Linda.

GRUB4DOS is just for those who need it. You, as an advanced Linux user, needn't use it. Thank you again.

linda I think your objection to the packaging is valid - I suspect tinybit didn't appreciate what you were saying.

I had similar concerns, and intend to pursue it in the projects fora.

syg00:

You have posted more than 800 times. So I would like to say something to you: Is GRUB4DOS garbage? Please check it. It makes no sense to do other things like what you have said.

It wasn't meant as a criticism, merely an observation.
I suspect this misunderstanding is more to do with the English language.

I shall do some testing and post on your forum, as I said.

Oh, Sorry for my bad understanding. Welcome, syg00. You(everyone in this forum) are all my friends, thank you all.