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GRUB will not install in sda6 even when specified


stef_204
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Hi,

 

During Mandriva 2008.0 Free, when I get to the GRUB Install (which I have so far done inside a Virtual Machine to test the install process), even though there is an option to choose the partition and I choose sda6, GRUB ONLY installs to MBR (hd0,0).

 

This is a huge problem as, for hard disk install, my Lenovo T61 ThinkPad cannot have its MBR altered. This is due to oddities specific to ThinkPads having to do with BIOS, Rescue and Recovery partition and the boot process.

 

I am trying to follow advice http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Rescue_and_Recovery and am unable to resolve this crucial issue.

 

I want to stick with Mandriva as a distro but if I cannot resolve this GRUB install issue, I will be forced away to another distro and more problems--again, not what I want.

 

Can anyone help me with this issue?

 

Thanks!

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GRUB must reside on some boot record. If you put it on a partition, that partition must be primary and labeled as boot. You have probably not properly created a separate /boot partition. Check that you created a primary partition and made it a boot partition.

 

This is not a distro problem but a partition problem.

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No, primary is not enough.

Just run "cfdisk /dev/sda" in a root console, and there the option to flag a partition as bootable is readily visible. It won't alter your data in that partition, but have in mind that you can have only one bootable partition per harddisk.

 

Tx for the help but this does not make sense to me.

 

1) I already have primary and boot partition which cannot be touched--the standard C drive under Windows (XP)

2) How can I run "cfdisk /dev/sda" if I cannot boot into Mandriva...?

If I am not able to install GRUB in sda6, and instead it does get installed in MBR, I assume from the ThinkPad link I posted in original post, that I may not be able to boot into anything.

 

So, making bootable either the /root or a separate /boot Linux partition (which IMO does not have to be a primary partition becausei it is my understanding that Linux does not care whether primary or extended) HAS to be done DURING install; not after.

 

Am I missing something? Any chance you can check that link I posted re. ThinkPads and let me know if oyu can see a way around the "MBR" problem specific to ThinkPads?

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I do not think that the article says you can't boot into anything, but rather that the recovery method for windows will be lost. I am assuming that IBM did not supply any disk with the laptop but only supply this hidden partition methodology by which you can recover or reinstall windows. I also see that GRUB can indeed be made to see the partition. What the article says is that the button on the laptop that launches rescue and recovery will stop working if you do anything to the partition other than the IBM setup. Windows and Linux will boot, but the rescue partition, if you ever even use it, might not boot. It is all about the button, nothing more.

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Your're correct, mostly.

 

It does say: "Only tinker with the MBR and the Rescue and Recovery partition if you know what you're doing. Mistakes can leave the system unbootable and can make it very difficult to retrieve the data on the hard disk."

 

One of my friends who owns a ThinkPad totally canned it installing Linux due to this specific Rescue and Recovery partition/boot process and could not recover; until flash BIOS, and clean install of system.

 

He had loads of problems due to it and has made me very wary of tinkering with the ThinkPad's boot process....

 

Which is why I wanted to install GRUB into sda6 or even a separate /boot partition. However, it seems that I would have to make the /boot part a primary partition AND bootable PLUS "de-activate" the C: partition (windows bootable primary part).

 

Supposedly, upon re-boot, GRUB would "see" both Windows XP and Mandriva and would ask me which to boot. But I really have my doubts about that procedure and am not comfortable at all with it, due to my lack of knowledge, experience with MBR and boot and even Linux, GRUB, etc.

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No, primary is not enough.

Just run "cfdisk /dev/sda" in a root console, and there the option to flag a partition as bootable is readily visible. It won't alter your data in that partition, but have in mind that you can have only one bootable partition per harddisk.

 

scarecrow: neither during install of ONE KDE nor Free 2088.0 do I see HOW I can run a Konsole to run cfdisk during install process.... I mean if GRUB is to be installed to either /root or /boot--and if Mandriva is to accept that location during install process--and since Mandriva has so far NOT accepted any other location than MBR for GRUB, if it is because /boot was not flagged as bootable, it seems clear I would need to do it BEFORE coming to the step to install GRUB during installation process....How can I do that during partition creation?

 

I just do not see any options to make it bootable; I see "primary" in 2008.0 (and not in One) but do not see "bootable" or active.

 

Can you please explain?

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I too have the same question. I can't get Mandriva to boot anywhere unless I specifiy to load GRUB into the MBR. Otherwise I get the first "GRUB" screen after the bios post and then it hangs there. I would eventually like to add a Windows XP partition and be able to boot to that as an option, but all the procedures I have read for that say to install GRUB on a partition vice the MBR.

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Clarification: GRUB will boot any operating system which you install. It will also boot as many as you wish to install. Simply install it to the MBR. I have booted Linux and windows with GRUB for years (and lilo as well) by placing GRUB in the MBR. People that claim this hoses windows have usually done something else to do it.In other words, they do not understand and they hosed windows themselves, not GRUB. B)

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Thanks, Ixthusdan! I just moved and haven't my Windows XP key yet, so I haven't tried setting up the dual boot. I know Windows will overwrite the MBR, then I will have to Rescue Grub with the Mandriva CD afterwards. Windows Vista has an entirely new boot loader, does anyone know if Grub has any problems with the Vista boot loader?

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Clarification: GRUB will boot any operating system which you install. It will also boot as many as you wish to install. Simply install it to the MBR. I have booted Linux and windows with GRUB for years (and lilo as well) by placing GRUB in the MBR. People that claim this hoses windows have usually done something else to do it.In other words, they do not understand and they hosed windows themselves, not GRUB. B)

 

Here is a follow-up to this post after what I *think* was relatively successful installation of Mandriva Free 2008.0 with GRUB in separate partition /boot (sda6 on my box).

 

Except...GRUB get stuck in middle of boot process and give a blank screen.....

 

(Let's follow up in new topic posted, if you'd like)

 

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=47569

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