how to install grub?

[phsieh2005]

Dear OpenSUSE experts,

I have a dual-boot computer, WIN XP and OpenSUSE 11.1. It has 2 hard drives, hence, Win XP is on one HD and OpenSUSE on the other. Of course, grub is on the WIN XP drive.

I would like to move the OpenSUSE HD onto another computer (with the same MB, CPU, graphics card). But, this HD does not have grub in the MBR. Is there a way to install grub so that I do not have to re-install OpenSUSE on this HD? Thanks!

Pei

[yancek]

You could install Grub to the mbr of that disk before moving it but it's not possible to give exact details without partition information. If you install Grub after moving the HD to the new computer, just use a Live CD or your installation disk as root to get to a Grub prompt (grub>) to enter commands. If your OpenSuse root partition is on the first partition of the drive you would enter the following as root from grub prompt:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

This assumes only one hard drive on the new computer. You will need to modify your menu.lst file to change drive/partition names if it is the only/first drive since it was the second drive previously.

[D-cat]

...maybe. SuSE 11 started using DISK_ID instead of the old partition number assignments. You might get lucky and not have to mess with menu.lst.

The easiest way to reinstall grub is with the SuperGrub disc (now part of the PartEd Magic CD). It should let you install grub with no issue.

Also, don't forget when you pull the disk out of the first machine, it's probably going to error out on boot. You can use supergrub to blank the MBR for Windows as well, or you'll need a Windows install CD to boot into the Recovery console and type fixmbr.

[phsieh2005]

Thanks guys!

I will give superGrub disk a try first.

pei