Reinstalling Grub boot loader

[exploder]

I have installed SUSE 10.0 after installing Debian Sarge on my pc. What SUSE has done is it installed it's boot loader removing Debian's Grub boot loader. For some reason I didn't like SUSE because of the easy to use interface which is making me feel like Windows o/s. I am planning to install Slackware 10.2. I haven't downloaded Slackware yet.

Now I want to remove SUSE from my hard disk. If I remove it then the boot loader will be stuffed up right?

If thats the case then how to reinstall Grub again so that I can boot my Debian pc? I heard that we can install Grub boot loader usning Knoppix Live CD, is it true?

[Vergil83]

take a look at http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-19999.html

[budman7]

If you are going to install Slack over Suse, just do it.
Then you can add Debian to Slacks bootloader.

[exploder]

Thanx a lot guys.

[drakebasher]

Before doing anything, you should make one or two Grub boot floppies (you do have a floppy drive, I hope!) You can see how to do that by running 'info grub' and then following the links * Installation:: -> * Creating a GRUB boot floppy::

With that and some familiarity with your boot/grub/grub.conf scripts, you can boot anything on your system. And you can re-install Grub with it.

Also, since you apparently like multiple distros, if you don't have a separate /boot partition, you really should consider it. Then for each new distro you can install the bootloader to the first sector of the root partition and then chainload the new distro from the "master" grub.conf on the MBR. After that, you can further refine things by editing your master grub.conf to boot each distro directly.

[exploder]

drakebasher, when I type in "info grub" I can't see any info regarding creating GRUB boot up floppy!!!!

[drakebasher]

drakebasher, when I type in "info grub" I can't see any info regarding creating GRUB boot up floppy!!!!

So what do you see? You should see a text screen with hyperlinks with format '*<link>::' like I show in my previous post. Move the cursor to a link and press enter. Your first screen should have a list including *Installation::, which when followed will show a page including a link '*Creating a GRUB boot floppy::'. If you don't see any of that, I guess you must be missing some documentation. You might be able to get the right file from Grub's web site. Or maybe someone here can post the instructions (I'm at a Windows box ).

[drakebasher]

...Or maybe someone here can post the instructions (I'm at a Windows box :cry: ).

This is extracted from the 'info grub' documentation:

• Creating a GRUB boot floppy
  ===========================
  
  To create a GRUB boot floppy, you need to take the files `stage1'
  and `stage2' from the image directory, and write them to the first and
  the second block of the floppy disk, respectively.
  
  *Caution:* This procedure will destroy any data currently stored on
  the floppy.
  
  On a UNIX-like operating system, that is done with the following
  commands:
  
  # cd /usr/share/grub/i386-pc
  # dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
  1+0 records in
  1+0 records out
  # dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1
  153+1 records in
  153+1 records out
  #
  
  The device file name may be different. Consult the manual for your
  OS.
  

While I'm at it, may as well show the other good stuff:

• Installing GRUB natively
  ========================
  
  *Caution:* Installing GRUB's stage1 in this manner will erase the
  normal boot-sector used by an OS.
  
  GRUB can currently boot GNU Mach, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD
  directly, so using it on a boot sector should be okay. But generally, it
  would be a good idea to back up the first sector of the partition on
  which you are installing GRUB's stage1. This isn't as important if you
  are installing GRUB on the first sector of a hard disk, since it's easy
  to reinitialize it (e.g. by running `FDISK /MBR' from DOS).
  
  If you decide to install GRUB in the native environment, which is
  definitely desirable, you'll need to create the GRUB boot disk, and
  reboot your computer with it. Otherwise, see *Note Installing GRUB
  using grub-install::, for more details.
  
  Once started, GRUB will show the command-line interface (*note
  Command-line interface::). First, set the GRUB's "root device"(1)
  (*note Installing GRUB natively-Footnote-1::) to the boot directory,
  like this:
  
  grub> root (hd0,0)
  
  If you are not sure which partition actually holds these files, use
  the command `find' (*note find::), like this:
  
  grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
  
  This will search for the file name `/boot/grub/stage1' and show the
  devices which contain the file.
  
  Once you've set the root device correctly, run the command `setup'
  (*note setup::):
  
  grub> setup (hd0)
  
  This command will install GRUB on the MBR in the first drive. If you
  want to install GRUB into the "boot sector" of a partition instead of
  the MBR, specify a partition into which you want to install GRUB:
  
  grub> setup (hd0,0)
  
  If you install GRUB into a partition or a drive other than the first
  one, you must chain-load GRUB from another boot loader. Refer to the
  manual for the boot loader to know how to chain-load GRUB.
  
  Now you can boot GRUB without a GRUB floppy. See the chapter *Note
  Booting:: to find out how to boot your operating systems from GRUB.