[Discuss] Kubuntu reinstall GRUB boot problems

[Murray Strome]

John Blomfield wrote:
> I can't tell from the above what you mean when you say you have 
> installed or re-installed grub?  If you haven't tried this so far, try 
> it now!
I meant that I used the operation "re-install GRUB" from the rescue CD; 
this is one of the options it gave.
>
> 1. boot with a rescue CD to get a command line.
> 2. your rescue CD should tell you where and how to mount your / (root 
> file system)
> 3. then #cd /boot/
> 4. run grub i.e. #grub
> 5.at the grub prompt i.e > find /boot/grub/stage1
>    this should find all you installed versions of Linux and respond 
> something like,
> (hd1,0) which corresponds to sdb1 ( more if there are more installations)
> 6. type still at the grub prompt > root (hd1,0)
> 7.  and then > setup (hd0)
> 8. > quit
> 9. reboot
>
> John Blomfield
Thanks, John;

OK I tried this. I had to mount /usr in order for the grub command to 
work. After doing that, it seemed to work just great (in my case the 
root was detected as (hd0,2) which corresponds to sda3 where the new 
root was installed. After I did all this (i.e. after setup (hd0)), it 
said that it had done it successfully (I forget the exact wording).

However, when I rebooted, it just went back to Windows 98, indicating 
that it didn't REALLY change the MBR.

Any other hints?

I had thought of trying the (very complicated) directions on how to 
replace GRUB with LILO in Ubuntu to see if that would work any better. I 
guess another thing to try would be to put a bigger disk in IDE 0 Master 
and disconnect all the other drives until after doing the install. 
Another thing I might try is disconnecting the drives on the PCI IDE 
controller, trying to run GRUB again in the same way to see if that 
makes any difference.

I would like to understand what is going on. I have often seen an 
install completely mess up the MBR, but never before a case where it 
didn't even touch it! In other installations (even Kubuntu Alternate), I 
was able to install GRUB on a floppy, but so far I haven't gotten it to 
work on this computer.

Murray