[NTLUG:Discuss] Grub assistance
burton at smallnetsolutions.com
burton at smallnetsolutions.com
Tue Jan 22 20:39:08 CST 2008
Tom's right - when you pull the old drive, sdb will become sda and won't have an MBR. You will need to do two things...
(1) Install grub into the MBR of what is now /dev/sdb.
(2) Fix up any references to /dev/sdb to be /dev/sda.
The easiest way to do this is to pull the drive boot off a live cd or repair cd. You can then chroot and do the grub install command. Something like this: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/redhat-fedora-linux-help/66122-install-mbr-grub-knoppix.html should work.
You will also need to fixup /etc/fstab (that's #2, above).
After that, it *should* boot.
If this drive is nicely setup for your MythTV config and you don't want to lose it, do a partition/drive image backup before you touch anything, naturally.
-----Burton
The question is not how to edit the grub.conf. The question is where is
you Master Boot Record (MBR). If, as is more than likely, the MBR is on
the Windows drive, removing that drive will render the system
unbootable. The safest way around that is to back up your Linux disk (at
least the data), remove the Windows disk, reformat the Linux disk,
reinstall Linux and then restore your data. In the very unlikely event
that the MBR is on the Linux disk, you should be able to remove the
Windows disk and then delete the everything from "title Other" down. I
would suggest you go to: www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.htm to
read up on GRUB before doing anything. You should definitely back up you
Linux disk before doing any thing.
Mike LaPlante wrote:
> Okay, I have a Fedora 7 system that has /dev/sda as a windows drive, and
> /dev/sdb as linux. However, I haven't booted the windows drive in over a
> year so I was wanting to pull that drive out of the system.
>
> My concern is that this will piss off grub. I'm thinking before I do
> that I need to change some lines in grub. I'm just not sure which ones I
> need to mess with. Also wonder if I need to mess with fdisk and change
> the boot partition.
>
> Here is my current grub.conf
> ----------------------------------------
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #boot=/dev/sda
> default=0
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> title Fedora (2.6.23.12-52.fc7)
> root (hd1,1)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.12-52.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/1 noapic
> initrd /initrd-2.6.23.12-52.fc7.img
> title Other
> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
> chainloader +1
> ---------------------------------------------
> And here is the output of fdisk -l
> ------------------------------------------
> Disk /dev/sda: 61.4 GB, 61471162368 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7473 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
>
> Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdb1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sdb2 6375 6387 104422+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sdb3 6388 6648 2096482+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/sdb4 6649 14589 63786082+ 5 Extended
> /dev/sdb5 6649 14589 63786051 83 Linux
>
>
> Note it appears I left an NTFS partition on the second drive. I forgot
> all about that until just now. >.<
>
> So do I need to change the commented out boot=/dev/sda in grub? No idea
> why its commented out, I've never touched the file. And I think I would
> need to change the root lines to root (hd0,1) or something like that?
>
> Thanks
> Mike
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
>
--
Tom Hayden III
Coherent solutions for chaotic situations
tom.hayden.iii at mail.airmail.net
214-435-4174
2636 Verandah Ln.
Apartment 1431
Arlington Texas, 76006
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