GRUB failure after WinXP re-install or complicating grub.conf

[Scott Talbot]

On Mon, 2004-07-19 at 00:04 +0000, Jim Cornette wrote:
> On 07/18/2004 11:31:33 AM, Scott Talbot wrote:
> > > grub-install /dev/hda2
> > 
> > 
> > This should be /dev/hda, which is the mbr of the boot disk.
> > grub-install
> > knows where the /boot partition is, and will tell the boot process to
> > find it when needed.
> > 
> > Scott
> >
> 
> This might be true with one boot partition. for my setup grub would be  
> quite surprised! :-)
> 
> Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hdb6              7194780   4418172   2411132  65% /
> /dev/hdb5               101086      7789     88078   9% /boot
> The above two partitions are from an FC2 to FC3T1 install. Grub is  
> installed on the mbr. (hdb5 is the boot partition for this setup
> 
> The two partitions below are a development version that I run of  
> Fedora. The grub is installed on hda1. This is also on reiserfs
> /dev/hda1               101086      8127     87740   9% /hda-boot
> /dev/hda2              6192860   4925540   1267320  80% /hda-root
> 
> This is my multimedia pack edition running FC2 with "xine and friends".  
> The grub version is installed on hdb1.
> /dev/hdb1               101086      7609     88258   8% /hdb-boot
> /dev/hdb2             19955836  12346124   6596012  66% /hdb-root
> 
> My grub.conf file looks like the below for the mbr version. This  
> chainloads the proper version. I let each distribution take care of  
> updating it's own grub version with package removal or additions. I  
> don't have to do manual grub entries with this method.
> If I ran the grub-install /dev/hda command, grub would be installed  
> onto whichever version that I am running. This is what upgrading with  
> anaconda does, if you do not manually walk through and adjust for each  
> OS specific file setup.
> 
> #boot=/dev/hda
> default=1
> timeout=10
> splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> password --md5 longjumbledpassword
> title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.435.2.3)
>         root (hd1,4)
>         kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435.2.3 ro root=LABEL=/1 3
>         initrd /initrd-2.6.6-1.435.2.3.img
> title Fedora Core (2.6.7-1.492)
>         root (hd1,4)
>         kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.492 ro root=LABEL=/1 acpi=on 3
>         initrd /initrd-2.6.7-1.492.img
> title hda-1
>         rootnoverify (hd0,0)
>         chainloader +1
> title hdb-1
>         rootnoverify (hd1,0)
>         chainloader +1
> 
> Just so you can get the picture as to the partitions. hdb3 contains my  
> distribution that I boot from mbr (hdb5 and hdb6). I don't know how to  
> chainload boot off of this partition, without installing it in mbr.
> 
> ]# fdisk -l
> 
> Disk /dev/hda: 6448 MB, 6448619520 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 784 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/hda2              14         784     6193057+  83  Linux
> 
> Disk /dev/hdb: 30.7 GB, 30736613376 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3736 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hdb1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/hdb2              14        2537    20274030   83  Linux
> /dev/hdb3            2538        3460     7413997+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hdb4            3461        3736     2216970   82  Linux swap
> /dev/hdb5            2538        2550      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/hdb6            2551        3460     7309543+  83  Linux
> 
> It is nice that grub-install is smart enough to know which partition is  
> your /boot. I was not aware that /dev/hda would do anything other than  
> install on grub on the mbr.
> 
> Later,
> 
	Jim:

	Nice setup!  I also have multiple distros: FC2, FC3T1, Mandrake10,
Win2k, and am glad to see how you chainload the other distros.

	In my case I have Grub in the MBR which loads the .conf from hdc6. the
grub-install command is still pointing to the hda as that is what the
machine will boot from, and of course from there, I can chainloader to
anywhere I want.

	When the windows wiped your mbr that is the only one you should have to
replace, no?