Help with MBR Debian fresh install

[jgz]

I have ubuntu gutsy and windows xp on hd1, did a fresh install of Debian 4.0 and put it on sd1 then grub on MBR. Now when I boot up I get error message 21 from grub. How can I recover all the operating systems with grub. Before I think grub was on hd0.

[Jonathan183]

I have ubuntu gutsy and windows xp on hd1, did a fresh install of Debian 4.0 and put it on sd1 then grub on MBR. Now when I boot up I get error message 21 from grub. How can I recover all the operating systems with grub. Before I think grub was on hd0.

I'd give the SuperGrub CD a try to start with. You could also give this a try HOWTO Restore GRUB to find installed versions of grub.

If you need more help I suggest you boot from a live CD and post output from fdisk -l together with what you tried.

[jgz]

I will give both of those tips a try. (thanks)

[jgz]

It restored my original grub, so I have ubuntu and windows xp. Now how do I get my Debian install active on my grub menu.

[devils casper]

Boot up Ubuntu and mount / ( /boot, if you created ) partition of Debian.
Post the names of files that are stored in /boot of Debian.

Post the output of sudo fdisk -l command too.

[jgz]

Heres results of sudo fdisk -l below. In /boot dir for Debian I have following files config-2.6.18-5-686 config-2.6.18-5-686.bak initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686 System.map-2-6-18-5-686 vmlinuz2-2.6.18-5-686 and no Grub dir. I was able to boot Debian from Super Grub CD but could not add it to my Grub start up of Ubuntu Gutsy. At this point I need to add it to Grub start up menu.

Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc8654145

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 2350 18876343+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 5875 7475 12860032+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 2351 3566 9767520 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 * 2351 3323 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 3324 3566 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sda: 18.3 GB, 18360785920 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 17510 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe760e760

[devils casper]

Add this code in Ubuntu's menu.lst file

title Debian
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/hda5 ro
initrd /boot/initrd-2.2.6.18-5-686

Save file and reboot machine. In case it doesn't work, post the contents of Debian's /etc/fstab file.

[jgz]

What I did was a fresh install and it worked on the ide drive. When I first installed it was to my scsi drive which screwed up my grub mbr. Thanks for the help.