grub boot problem, lots of '=' signs, no boot menu

[steabert]

Hello,

i have a laptop with Win XP and ubuntu installed on it.
recently i had to reinstall Win XP, wich went fine.
i then had to reinstall the grub boot loader to get into ubuntu.
i followed some tutorials to reinstall grub with the knoppix live cd.
the installation went ok, but when i restart i get lots of '='-signs flooding
my screen and then weird text.
does anyone know what the problem is here????

thnx in advance for any help you can give me

cheers,
Steabert

[kevkim55]

Does grub displays anything in the beginning ? Like
Grub is Loading..........
Loading stage 2............... or something similar ?
The garbage that you see on your screen comes after that or is it that you see it all the moment BIOS finishes its business ?
You might wanna try re-installing GRUB but, with careful considerations as to what devices you set for root and setup options.

[steabert]

hi,

thnx for the reply

i get the garbage immediately after the bios is finished
i never see any grub info

the layout of my hard drive is three primary partitions,
first ntfs with win xp, second ext3 mounted to / and third is swap

to reinstall grub i used:
grub > root(hd0,1)
grub > setup(hd0)

then quit and reboot, with the same problem remaining
i really don't have any experience with this kind of boot problems

greetz,
Steabert

[kevkim55]

Hmm... when you invoke GRUB by running
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
what does grub says Stage 1 and Stage 2 installtion ? Success or failure or not found ?
One more thing I would like to mention though I'm not sure about this one. If what you have included in you posting is not a typo and this is how you typed in exactly, then, I think there should be a space between root and (hd0,1) and also between setup and (hd0)
This is what you said:
grub > root(hd0,1)
grub > setup(hd0)
This is what I think it should be:
grub > root (hd0,1)
grub > setup (hd0)

If none of this applies, can you try re-installing the GRUB packag ? I mean the GRUB package not the GRUB setup !

[steabert]

thanks for trying to solve this problem for me.

i did put in the spaces, and grub told me that
the installation was a succes, no problems there.

but what do you mean by reinstalling the grub package
in stead of reinstalling the grub boot loader?
can i do this from a knoppix live cd??

greetz