asked on

Pls help me in getting rid of GRUB

Hi everybody

I have two issues , new to linux , pls provide all steps

1- During FC4 installation(re-installation after been used for 1 week) I accidentally opted to install GRUB on the boot partition instead of MBR, upon completion of installation, I can’t get the option to run Fedora. My system straight away starts my windows 2000.
I have separate partition for /boot

I don’t have floppy drive .

2- Installing GRUB on MBR is a bit annoying I was wondering to have like an olden days solution to start LINUX thru windows with LOADLIN.EXE, which I was used to do with windows 98. I used Linux sometime back casually .

Rgs and many thanks in adv

net_sec_guru

You need to go into the BIOS and set the CD to be the first device to boot, put the hard drive second.
Do you have Windows installed already? If so, boot from the CD, enter the recovery console (press R when it asks you whether you want to install windows etc.) When you're at the console, type:

fixmbr

and that will remove GRUB from your system.

If you don't have Windows installed, GRUB will be overwritten as part of the installation.

jv-st

I assume that q1 is that on boot you want a choice of windows or fedora. This can be done very nicely without disturbing windows bootloader.

1) in linux make an image of the fedora partition bootsector as a file, say bootsect.fed
2) copy this file to c:\bootsect.fed
3) in boot.ini, add a line:
c:\bootsect.fed="fedora"

net_sec_guru

If you want to run Linux off of a cd you can always use Knoppix.

http://www.knoppix.org

jv-st

to elaborate on my answer, I think its good to have installed grub on the fedora partition instead of MBR. On MBR you probably would lose ability to boot windows (symption "missing NTLDR").

If you create the boot sector file, eg dd if=/dev/hda1 of=bootsect.lin bs=512 count=1 (if you are in linux , can also be done in windows if need be), this file will contain the grub bootloader.
After putting c:\bootsect.fed="fedora" into boot.ini, when you boot, MBR goes to windows NTLDR (windows boot loader), where the "fedora" line will chain to grub on your fedora partition

blackberrymspl

ASKER

HI jv

somehow my both questions are covered from ur answer.

as i mentioned earlier i have already installed GRUB on the boot partition thats the reason when i start my pc i straight away go to windows, SO no way to go to linux and perform "dd if=/dev/hda1 of=bootsect.lin bs=512 count=1"

now i tried to use windows utility to make "boot sector file" , thats called BOOTPART , followed exactly what u said above but to no avail :(

after boot i can see linux in selection list but after selection it say " cannot find system disk , press any key to continue :(

i tried to boot pc with Fedora CD to confirm the GRUB installation , and it says " fedora installation detected , GRUB is installed on /dev/hda3" which is my boot partition.

it would have been great if this boot.ini stuff works , it would have solve my problem and get rid of GRUB, which i don't want to install on MBR

any help?

many thanks

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

jv-st

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jv-st

ps, I find gmail a great way to transfer files if all else fails, eg just make a draft with the file as an attachment in fed, then download from the draft in windows. could be any web mail of course.

blackberrymspl

ASKER

HI jv
rock & roll!!

there was no problem with boot.ini or the grub

only issue was i was using bootpart 2.2(non LBA support)

i tried bootpart 2.5 LBA support and it works .

but ur bootsect.lnx matter most

thanks