Hi,

I have just completely reinstalled my laptop after problems with dual booting before (using Norton Partition Magic). I reinstalled XP - after creating 4 partitions on my 40GB laptops drive:

7GB NTFS Windows
5GB EXT2 Linux
500MB SWAP
25GB FAT32 - shared data storage for both OS's

I installed XP, all fine, then installed SuSe 10.1, also all fine.

Booted to both (via the SuSe loader) (Windows is just another option). Updated both, and had bit of play around...didnt change anything thogugh, only really installed a few apps on the windows install.
So, anyway, now when I start the laptop it just comes up with:

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (636k lower / 1039174k upper memory)

[Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the forst word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

And that's it.....now I really have no clue where to go from here>?! I know you can edit the grub config - maybe that;s why it['s not booting the OS....
I didnt use any other boot loader as this did the job fine before...
Any ideas? Even how to check the config?

Thanks in advance.

OK, I've looked into this a bit, and it seems there's some bad config in the grub.conf file.
So, I tried to load the kernel:

root (hd0,6)
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz
boot

And it loads the kernel but it fails to mount the root.

The actual error is:

VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(8,6)
Please appeand a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not suncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unkonwn-block (8,6)

HELP!! (

You have to tell the kernel where the / filesystem is. Also, you may have to load some drivers before "boot". Try something like this:

Code:

root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5
initrd /boot/initrd
boot

OK, will try that. Managed to boot SuSe using the installer DVD, and will try to fix GRUB with that too - I copied out the grub.conf and /boot/grub/ directory. I would like to know what is wrong with the config file - as I didnt change it and it booted fine the first few times to both OS's.

If it's simply a case of misconfiguration then updating/replacing GRUB seems a bit like overkill - and also wont teach me to fix config problems myself...

I dont have the files with me, but when I get home I could post the .conf file if anyone could explain what might bewrong with it+how to fix - that'd be great )

I keep getting an error when I try to reinstall it! (

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist
grub> install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0,6) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,6)/boot/grub/menu.lst

Error 12: Invalid Device requested
grub> install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (/boot) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,6)/boot/grub/menu.lst


Please, please help!

Here is how the config file looks:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Aug 21 20:54:15 BST 2006

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 10
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd0,6)
kernel .boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd


title Windows
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd


If anyone can tell me how this SHOULD look, or what might be wrong, I'd really appreciate it ;o)

It worked, I didnt change anything, I rebooted and then it didnt work!

Basically I just need to know where to put the boot loader (/dev/hda?) or on the Linux partition? And should I replace MBR with generic code and activate partition?

For SUSE it has Image/Device: /boot/vmlinuz (/dev/hda7, root=/dev/hda7)

Could a Windows update have screwed this up??? I saw that SP2 could mess it up on another forum...I cant see it myself, but gotta ask ;p

Just so it's written down here';s the /etc/grub.conf too:

root (hd0,6)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,6) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,6)/boot/grub/menu.lst
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,6)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit

And /boot/grub/device.map:

(hd0) /dev/hda

Reinstalled SuSe - fixed it!

)