5.9 GRUB help?

[rebbi]

Hi,

I am new to Vector (but not to Linux) and when I tried to install 5.9 Gold onto my system, I ran into trouble with the LILO stage. 

I have Vista plus 3 Linux distros on my laptop, each distro with a separate root and /home partition. When I got to the LILO stage of installation, I opted to install LILO to the root partition but not to MBR, figuring I could add a GRUB entry for Vector later on. After rebooting, I was left with a GRUB menu that wouldn't load... it gave me an error number (13? 17? I can't remember...) and I reinstalled Mepis just to get a working GRUB back.

So.... can somebody post a walk-through on how to install Vecor 5.9 on a system with multiple distros and GRUB installed?

Thanks in advance!

SF

[kidd]

If you have a working grub, you can just edit menu.lst wherever it is, to add VL.

I've always installed lilo in the MBR, so I cannot help you in installing it in the root partition.

Welcome to Vector linux!

[toothandnail]

If you already have a working copy of Grub, skip the Lilo installation in Vector. Then go to your (Mepis?) /boot/grub and edit menu.lst

I currently have two copies of Zenwalk plus one copy of Vector 5.9 on my laptop. The menu entry I use for booting Vector is as below:

Code:

title Vector Linux 5.9
root (hd0,11)
kernel (hd0,11)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.14 root=/dev/hda12 vga=791 splash=silent ro
initrd (hd0,11)/boot/initrd
boot

There shouldn't really be any need to repeat the (hd0,11) section, but I've always found that a bit more reliable. Equally, the initrd is only to load the Vector splash screen on boot, so it can safely be left out. I use vga=791 on the laptop and vga=794 (1280x1024) on my desktop machines.

Its one of the nice things about Vector and some of the other Slackware-derived distros - they all allow you to skip installing the boot loader, unlike other "friendlier" distros....

paul.

[Masta]

if you selected to install lilo to the root partition, it shouldn't have touched any existing mbr record (any existing Grub or Lilo, or whatever ..). It sounds to me that it's an issue with the existing version of Grub.
I've done a similar setup with a Suse installed Grub, after installing vl's lilo into the root,during it's installation. When I rebooted I didn't have an issue. Although I have no Windows type of partitions.

 Is it possible that you could duplicate this again?
Don't bother if it's a system with data you'd like to keep.

[GrannyGeek]

Its one of the nice things about Vector and some of the other Slackware-derived distros - they all allow you to skip installing the boot loader, unlike other "friendlier" distros....

Amen to that! Nothing irritates me more than to have a Linux distro install a boot loader in the MBR without asking me, or do it in such a sneaky fashion that I don't realize what's happening.

They all should work like VL and let you start the distro with the installation CD, if that's your choice.
--GrannyGeek

[rebbi]

if you selected to install lilo to the root partition, it shouldn't have touched any existing mbr record (any existing Grub or Lilo, or whatever ..). It sounds to me that it's an issue with the existing version of Grub.
I've done a similar setup with a Suse installed Grub, after installing vl's lilo into the root,during it's installation. When I rebooted I didn't have an issue. Although I have no Windows type of partitions.

 Is it possible that you could duplicate this again?
Don't bother if it's a system with data you'd like to keep.

Yeah, I couldn't figure out how installing Vector with LILO on the boot partition could've hosed GRUB on my MBR, either!

Okay, this was one of those really silly errors on my part that kind of makes me smack myself on the head and say "Duh!"   

I installed Vector over my Mepis partitions, but I forgot that the GRUB install had been done by Mepis!     So of course, GRUB couldn't find /etc/boot/menu.lst and errored out. This is sorted out now and I'm up and running. Thanks to the poster who supplied the sample GRUB entry!  Now I just need to get my wireless issues figured out!!   

SF