Help with install... grub.

[xlr8r]

Hey guys. i am a newbie to linux and after looking around i felt that knoppix would be a good way to go, so i used the live cd and decided i liked and i would install on my old pc to muck around and experiment with.

The pc is a 700mhz athlon processor, 4gig HD(3gig partitioned for knoppix, 1 gig for swap) and a second HD with 1 gig free. 128mb ram.

I looked into it and decided that the debian install was probably the best way as i read that begginer is pretty much like the live cd. Well it took a while to get this going, at first the install worked but when i booted my pc nothing loaded after checking the CDROM.

I reformatted the partitions and started again, Debian install and lilo on the boot manager (MBR?)....setup completed succesfully, knoppix installed on HD. I turn on my computer and i get a black screen with GRUB with text like 'BASH like command editor is supported.' and then stuff about using TAB key for commands. then GRUB> prompting me to type commands, i have looked around but cant find any way of getting past this, i thought it may have been a problem with my install so i formatted and repeated but surely enough i am at the same GRUB screen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, if any more information is need please tell me what you need and i will try to get it for you.
Thanks.

[tr]

I turn on my computer and i get a black screen with GRUB with text like 'BASH like command editor is supported.' and then stuff about using TAB key for commands. then GRUB> prompting me to type commands.

That means you have a bash like prompt where you can type boot options. You should type the commands you need to boot your new installed Linux, eg.

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-xfs root=/dev/hda1 rw vga=791

I don't know you parameters - so change those according to your system. I,m not sure if Knoppix makes a symlink to kernel, so you could type something like this:

kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 rw vga=791

But if you are new to Linux, perhaps it would be better to use the default boot loader, Lilo. As far as I remember, there was no possibility to choose Grub instead of Lilo during hdd-install. So I think you have installed it afterwards ('apt-get install grub' ?).

If you get your Linux to boot, I suggest to run 'liloconfig' as a superuser (su) and check /etc/lilo.conf. If you change anything don't forget to run 'lilo' which updates your changes.

Did you make lilo boot diskette? You can do it afterwards by

lilo -b /dev/fd0
...so you can boot your Linux if something goes wrong with liloconfig. Run 'lilo' after making boot diskette.

Notice that you have two possiblities to boot from Lilo. First: you get boot menu (default system boots after 7 seconds):

propmt
timeout="70"

Second. You don't get boot menu (default system boots after 2 seconds) if Shift is no pressed during Lilo text.

delay=20

You can change those times anything you want. Hope this helps.

[xlr8r]

Thanks for the help TR, sure enough the second code works, without the (hd0,0) i logged in and ran liloconfig in root terminal and it said it worked but i still ended up with the GRUB command line. i looked in the Boot folder in hda1 and there is a file called grub. Does this have anything to do with it? please help.

[xlr8r]

I might mention the knoppix is the only OS on the computer.

[xlr8r]

i assume the reason lilo is not working is because Knoppix is the only OS on the computer? is there a way to bypass this GRUB screen so i do not have to type in a long command each and every time i load the computer?

[tr]

i assume the reason lilo is not working is because Knoppix is the only OS on the computer?

Nothing to do with that. But if Knoppix is the only OS, you don't get any menu if not pressing Shift button when LILO text is seen in the beginning of the boot process.

Did you remember to run 'lilo' after 'liloconfig'? If you still get Grub prompt, please check /etc/lilo.conf that you have

boot="/dev/hda"
meaning that lilo is in mbr. And don't forget to run 'lilo' after making changes to lilo.conf! Notice also that errors in lilo.conf don't make changes active. So please check that no error message is shown when running lilo.

[xlr8r]

ok i followed your instructions and i seem to be plagued by errors.

When i run Liloconfig:
Error: correct /etc/lilo.conf manually and rerun /sbin/lilo.

When i run lilo
FATAL: either FIX-TABLE or IGNORE-TABLE must be specified.

I open /etc/lilo.conf as the root user and went through and boot and root both seem to point to /dev/hda. i am fresh out of ideas again.

I also typed help lilo or something similar in the command line as root and then got a list of commands so i saw install lilo and i chose that to install to MBR but still no luck?

[xlr8r]

*sorry double post*

[xlr8r]

can somebody please help me with correcting these errors, i am totally stumped and cannot figure anything out.

[champagnemojo]

It's odd if you got grub without editing .knofig unless you installed it yourself after knoppix-installer completed. Is that what happened? Maybe telling people what you've done so far can help them to give you some advice on how to fix things. Also you might want to post your lilo.conf file. I'm sorry...I wanna help you...I just don't know what's going on here.

[xlr8r]

ok all i did. was install with knx2hd and follow instructions, debian-like, lilo in MBR etc. created boot floppy and then rebooted, i didnt change any settings, open any programs. just rebooted and i have this grub command line like thing.

I formatted the drive last night again into ext3 and have a 1gig linux-swap partition, reformatted both and re-installed with the same settings as above. i will try to post my lilo.conf file but i am running it on another computer and it doesnt have internet access yet, so i will need to save a copy to a floppy and bring it out here. ill see what i can do.

[champagnemojo]

ok all i did. was install with knx2hd and follow instructions, debian-like, lilo in MBR etc. created boot floppy and then rebooted, i didnt change any settings, open any programs. just rebooted and i have this grub command line like thing.

I formatted the drive last night again into ext3 and have a 1gig linux-swap partition, reformatted both and re-installed with the same settings as above. i will try to post my lilo.conf file but i am running it on another computer and it doesnt have internet access yet, so i will need to save a copy to a floppy and bring it out here. ill see what i can do.

So it's even happened on multiple installs now eh? It surely can't be grub...but I don't know why it looks like that. Hopefully one of the more expert forumites can help you. I'll bump your message up anyways.

[xlr8r]

Thanks very much champagnemojo. yes multiple installs 3 to be exact. i just installed it on this computer, multi-booting winME and i get lilo to come up fine. but on the other one. i just keep getting this grub thing.

[compshrink]

I'm having the exact same problem as xlr, and I can't use "kernal (hdX,Y)/vmlinux root=/dev/hdaZ rw vga=791"

I have tried every possible combination of X, Y, and Z... and it won't give me access to liloconfig when running the livecd, and the bootdisk i made with installation boots me up to a blank screen, with 1 blinking cursor, which doesn't respond to anything.

Please help... :^(

[shah]

Lilo and Grub cannot coexist in a same mbr. You need to remove Grub and lilo first.
You need to rebuild your master boot record.
I don't know if fdisk /mbr will work since whole hardisk partition was created by linux.
You can try if you willing to take the risk.
My advice (from experience) is don't use Grub if you have NT based OS on your partition. You might end up with missread
partition.

[compshrink]

I Only have linux on my hdd right now, along with multiple fat32.

How do I uninstall grub? Also, been trying to config lilo, and I seem to have gotten everything except the "image=****/vmlinuz" line. I found the location, varified it's there, and then put in /dev/hda4/boot/vmlinuz, and when I run lilo the error is "Fatak: open /dev/hda4/boot/vmlinuz: Not a directory" Isn't it a file not a directory anyway?

Also, I cannot make a bootdisk, i searched my knoppix cd, there is no boot.img on it, and I can't make a lilo bootdisk since I can't get lilo to configure.

[baldyeti]

when I run lilo the error is "Fatak: open /dev/hda4/boot/vmlinuz: Not a directory" Isn't it a file not a directory anyway?
That path has to be wrong; you certainly cannot see a kernel image when issuing 'ls -al /dev/hda4/boot/vmlinuz'. Assuming linux is installed on the /dev/hda4 partition it's probably mounted as / (or /boot if you have a separate boot partition), . The image path, then would look something like /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs. There are possibly symbolic links to that under both / and /boot, but I'd advise being explicit in your lilo.conf, so when you start having several possible kernel revisions to boot from, things stay clear.

[kurtz25]

Hmm, I am having the exact same problem as xlr as well. I thought that lilo would be the bootloader from everything I read, but now I've got grub.

I remember something like installing lilo in the MBR last night when I was working through this install, but I was tired and didn't take notes... Not a good idea when learning a new OS.

UPDATE: Having a slightly better idea than when I started about what LILO should look like and how it works, I can describe a problem:

1) It says it is "unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system" when I run liloconfig (as root).

2) It looks like it is getting a fatal error after trying to map a RAM disk:

Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd.img-2.4.26
Fatal: Empty map section

ERROR: correct /etc/lilo.conf manually and rerun /sbin/lilo


--I remember seeing this stuff last night, but just hoping it would work anyway, which might be why I got grub instead.

I understand that I need to open up my lilo.conf file and fix something, but... What?