help installing grub, and general linux stuff
 

Hello. I am very new to linux so if you could keep it low on the lingo that would be appreciated.

I am trying to install grub into the mbr of my hd so i can dual boot fedora6 and windows xp.

I just downloaded grub1.95 and am trying to build and install it.

I unzipped it by going:
zcat grub-1.95.tar.gz | tar xvf -

then i moved into the directory and went:
./configure

and that gave an error saying i need lzo 1.02 or later. So i downloaded that package then unzipped iut and typed:
./configure
make
make install

But make install gives the following error messages:
[Mash@localhost lzo-1.08]$ make install
Making install in include
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/Mash/lzo-1.08/include'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/Mash/lzo-1.08/include'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
/bin/sh ../acconfig/mkinstalldirs /usr/local/include
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzoconf.h /usr/local/include/lzoconf.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzoconf.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzoutil.h /usr/local/include/lzoutil.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzoutil.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo16bit.h /usr/local/include/lzo16bit.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo16bit.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1.h /usr/local/include/lzo1.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1a.h /usr/local/include/lzo1a.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1a.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1b.h /usr/local/include/lzo1b.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1b.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1c.h /usr/local/include/lzo1c.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1c.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1f.h /usr/local/include/lzo1f.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1f.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1x.h /usr/local/include/lzo1x.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1x.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1y.h /usr/local/include/lzo1y.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1y.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo1z.h /usr/local/include/lzo1z.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo1z.h': Permission denied
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 lzo2a.h /usr/local/include/lzo2a.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/include/lzo2a.h': Permission denied
make[2]: *** [install-includeHEADERS] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/Mash/lzo-1.08/include'
make[1]: *** [install-am] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/Mash/lzo-1.08/include'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

Im not quite sure whats happening? Is this because im not logged in as root or something?
Any help would be appreciated.

Yes. You need to do all that as root. Type su, press Enter and you'll be asked for your (root) password.

But why do you have to do all that? Fedora should have grub.

Yeah thats what i thought. I did have kubuntu installed and dual booted with windows fine, but i wanted to change to fedora6. When I installed it, it didn't prompt be about configuring bootloader or recognise another OS on the drive or anything. Kind of odd I thought.

That can't be right. I'd ask on the Fedora forum. Someone will have a helpful answer. They must have grub or lilo in the repositories, if not on the installation disk.

I swear Linux systems are getting worse.

Use GRUB from Kubuntu
 

Hello :-)
The best option for you is to use the GRUB from Kubuntu.
check out the menu.lst file for fedora (/boot/grub/menu.lst in the partition where fedora is installed) and see what is the entry for normal fedora boot.
then use the menu.lst in your kubuntu drive and append the lines for fedora (taken from menu.lst of fedora and putting the lines in the menu.lst of kubuntu)
then run grub-install in kubuntu.
that should include all three operating system in the grub menu.
and btw, not all linux distros are geeting worse, fedora is always been a windows like linux. just to think you install successfully and then cannot boot into graphical by starting X server...this is only possible fedora.

Fedora Core uses GRUB as the default bootloader (and it asks you where you want to install it during your initial setup), so there is no need to compile it from source. Just make an entry for Windows in your /boot/grub/menu.lst and you should be good to go.

If you say GRUB is not on the MBR, then try the following as root
Replace hda with the name of your primary hard disk (uaually /dev/hda on ide hard drives and /dev/sda on scsi).

Sweet thanx for all the advice, I got it working finally and now I know alot more about the grub system, and can customise it the way I want.

WOOHOO!