Yet another Boot-loading thread

[Yonderknight]

I need some help getting WinXP and mandriva to dual-boot with GRUB.

I used to have ubuntu and winXP installed, and they dual-booted with grub just fine. I wanted to try some other distros though, so I installed slackware linux, which also dual-booted fine using Lilo.

Then I tried installing Mandriva Linux 2007, and chose to use GRUB boot loader with a graphical interface. When I rebooted, however, the screen just contained the text "L 99 99 99 99...." and more 99's repeating.

A quick google said this was a Lilo problem, so I'm guessing the Mandriva install might have messed up Lilo. I ran a windows boot disk and repaired the MBR, so now I'm stuck with the windows boot loader.

So now I'm trying to reinstall GRUB or Lilo. When I run the Mandriva boot disk again, I can go to "Configure your system" in the menu and choose "Boot Options". It says "No, boot loader found, creating new profile" or something along those lines, and I choose GRUB again like I did during the first installation. But when I reboot, it still uses the windows boot loader.

So, how can I reinstall GRUB using either an Ubuntu or Mandriva live CD or a slackware install CD? I guess as a last resort I can completely reinstall Mandriva, but that's a last resort.

Thanks!

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

boot up Mandriva from boot disk and execute 'grub-install /dev/sda' command. post error message if any.

* if you have IDE PATA harddiskm replace sda with hda.

[Yonderknight]

Command not found =(.

[devils casper]

aren't you logged in as root? you must have root privileges to execute that command.

[Yonderknight]

Hrm okay. I'm automatically logged in as Guest when I run the live CD.. Can I run a command as root through the shell?

[devils casper]

execute 'su' command to gain root privileges.

[Yonderknight]

[root@localhost guest]# grub-install /dev/hda
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
You must set the root directory by the option --root-directory, because
/boot/grub does not exist in the root device Could not find device for /boot.
[root@localhost guest]#

[devils casper]

post the output these commands

fdisk -l          ( Device Column only ) 
df -h              ( FileSystme Column only )

[Yonderknight]

[root@localhost guest]# fdisk -l
omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        3590    28836643+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            3591        4865    10241437+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3            4802        4865      514080   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda5            3591        4801     9727294+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1               1        4865    39078081    7  HPFS/NTFS

I'm not sure why there are 4 partitions...as far as I know I have one NTFS partition for windows that's ~30gb, an ext3 partition that's 9gb and a linux swap that's ~1gb.

[root@localhost guest]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
none                  814M  698M  116M  86% /

[devils casper]

/dev/hda2 is an Extended Partitions. its a perfect partition Structure.
download SuperGRUB CD .iso image from here. burn .iso image to CD and boot from it. select Re-install GRUB option from list.