grub bootloader

[skorchio]

hello folks

I've had XP and Mandrake 9.1 dualboot on my machine for a few months, grub is my bootloader. I recently attempted to create a new NTFS logical partition on the hdd. On completion, this needed a reboot, which I started, but now the grub bootloader isn't working. Usually it prompts for linux or windows, but now it is just returning a

grub>_

prompt. It looks like I need to configure the grub bootloader to reflect the changes to the disk. I have no idea how to do this from the grub prompt

Any ideas?

thanks
Geoff

[DMR]

You're almost certainly right- adding the new partition has probably caused the partition information in grub's config file to become out of sync with the current partition layout.

Are your / (root) and boot filesystems on separate partitions, or is boot just a subdirectory on the / partition? If you can tell us that we can tell you exactly how to modify your grub config file to reflect the new partition layout. If you know exactly what the new layout is (that is: / is now on /dev/hda2, boot is now on /dev/hda3, etc.), that would help us a lot. If not though, don't sweat it; we can tell you how to determine that info if need be.

[skorchio]

Hi DMR

thanks for reply; I got some help last night to get my windows boot sector restored; as I need this for work, it had to be done. But it has now made Linux partition invisible, as the machine doesn't see the bootloader, it just defaults to Windows. When I get to my Mandradke CDs, I ought to be able to rescue my Linux side of things. I live in hope!!!!

[DMR]

You're welcome.

I haven't used Mandrake in a while, so I can't tell you exactly how you get into rescue mode once you've booted from the CD, but I know the option is there somewhere. Once you do get into rescue mode and get to a command prompt, typing the following command will exxentially switch you from running of the CD to running off the system on your hard drive:

chroot /mnt/sysimage

From there you should at least be able to browse to the direftory where your grub config file lives and view/edit the file.

Keep us posted.