Grub question (Ahem....help! Now it just says 'GRUB')

[Bob McClure Jr]

On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 03:50:29PM -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi,
>    Obviously I have some things to learn about grub. (Again, alas...) ;-)
> 
>    Here's my setup:
> 
> 1) The machine's 80GB drive came with Win XP Pro
> 2) I resized /dev/hda1 using System Commander 7 (installed) to 30GB
> 3) Using System Commander I made a 30GB Extended partition (/dev/hda2)
> to install Linux
> 4) Using SC7 I moved this partition up to the top of the drive. The
> drive now looked like 30GB(NTSF), 20GB free, 30GB extended
> 5) I installed Linux by making 3 partitions within the extended partition
> - /dev/hda5  - 50MB - /boot
> - /dev/hda6 - 1GB - swap
> - /dev/hda7 - Approx. 30 for /
> 6) I added a 5GB FAT32 partition just above the NTFS partition. (/dev/hda3)
> 7) Linux was installed and ran for 6 months. The disk looked like this
> ASCII art:
> 
> <-- 30GB ext3 -->    [        |       ]
> <-- 1GB Swap -->   [ Extended] /dev/hda2
> <-- 50MB ext2 -->    [        |       ]
> FREE SPACE (15GB)
> <-- 5GB FAT32 -->
> <--30GB NTFS -->  
> 
> A couple of days ago, getting ready to add a Fedora Core boot to the
> mix I did a couple of things:
> 
> 8) Using System Commander 8.1 I enlarged the Extended partition to
> cover 50GB. I rebooted the machine a couple of times. No problems.
> 
> 9) Using System Commander 8.1 I moved /dev/hda5 down to the bottom of
> the Extended partition, and I moved the swap partition down also. I
> rebooted a couple of times. No problem.
> 
> 10 Today I moved the 30GB hda7 partition downward to just above the
> swap space. When I went to reboot the machine came up lame. Grub just
> says GRUB and quits.
> 
> I'm confused about this. 
> 
> 1) I thought grub was in /dev/hda5.

grub.conf is.

> /dev/hda5 is marked as bootable, not hda7.

I think that's irrelevant to GRUB.  Only your BIOS cares about that.

> The machine has been booted since I moved hda5 and hda6. Why
> did moving hda7 make any difference at all?

I don't know.  Rick probably does.

> 2) What do I do to get the machine booting again?

I'd say to boot with your distro disk #1 into rescue mode, let it
mount your system on /mnt/sysimage, pop out the CD, and then

  chroot /mnt/sysimage
  grub-install /dev/hda
  exit
  exit

That should fix it.

> I've loaded Knoppix and all the partitions are there. They are in teh
> same order they were in before. All the data appears top still be
> there, although you cannot see grub so that part I'm not sure about.
> 
> Guru level guidance warmly appreciated.

I don't qualify.  Sorry.  But let us know if that works.  I'm still
learning.

> thanks,
> Mark

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure at earthlink.net  http://www.bobcatos.com
Grace happens.