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Posts: 1 Updating grub after XP is re-installed

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:54 pm
by edhe1
I have a dual boot system, with XP on /dev/sda; and Debian-Etch on /dev/sdb; using two SCSI drives; under an Adaptec controller.
I experienced recently a slew of "Delayed Write Failures" on XP. I can no longer boot into it; nor go into SAFE mode. All I get is a quick glimpse of Windows 'Blue screen of death'; followed by a reboot. The XP install disc won't let me reinstall {because of some 'partition error'}; and it will not let me delete the C:/ partition.

I tried to delete C:/ from linux; as root; using cfdisk; but was only given read permission.
My only option now is to use the Adaptec utilities; and try to reformat /dev/sda. I don't want to do this until I am clear on how to get Linux included in the MBR.

PROCEDURE (After XP re-installation; and as I understand it)
Using ETCH, Disk #1, I proceed up to 'partitioning'.
Doing an Alt-F2 I get into BusyBox.
mkdir /target
mount /dev/...../part1 /target {/dev/..../part1 being my linux root partition}
chroot /target
mount -a
grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub

However, in the man for update-grub, it reads:

After update-grub has been run for the first time, the user is required
to edit the generated “menu.lst”. The user must set the “two options”
update-grub uses. Then re-run the update-grub script to update the
menu.lst file using the “defaults” that have been set.

What kind of edit is required on the “menu.lst”?
What are the “two options”?
What are the “defaults”?

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:30 am
by volka
You can copy your current menu.lst or grub.conf to a save location and then (if necessary) copy it back to /boot/grub