[nmglug] Argghhh!!! I hosed my MBR

[Tim Emerick]

thanks jason.

I ended up fixing it with some help from Gary Sandine.  The key point that I
was missing was chroot.  I didn't know what it was and I was getting very
confused trying to mount my /dev/hda1 onto the knoppix ramdisk tree.

I thought the day was a total loss....then I learned something.

Tim

--- "js at jasonschaefer.com" <js at jasonschaefer.com> wrote:

> If you don't want to change to grub, boot up with knoppix or similar.
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 (give the full /dev path since you need it to 
> be writable, knoppix defaults to ro)
> chroot /mnt/hda1
> edit (emacs/vi) /etc/lilo.conf (make appropriate changes)
> lilo -v (installs lilo verbosely, check for errors)
> exit (from chroot)
> reboot
> 
> 
> 
> Tim Emerick wrote:
> 
> >I updated my Win98 partition on my dual boot debian/Windows machine to
> >Windows XP.  I expected XP to take over the MBR but didn't realize how
> >difficult it was to have LILO take it all back.  I'm now stuck with a dead
> >machine.
> >
> >Partititions are all intact, checked them with knoppix.
> >
> >I tried booting knoppix and following some directions on restoring the MBR
> so
> >that LILO could handle the bootup.  Got lost since most of the directions
> I
> >could find were redhat related and I'm running debian.  I also got lost
> since
> >everytime I tried to run lilo it was looking at the knoppix generated
> >/etc/lilo.conf that resided on the ram disk.
> >
> >Found some generic linux instructions on running lilo from a virtual
> terminal
> >using the install CD (I used my Debian/Testing netinst CD).  Couldn't get
> >lilo to run.
> >
> >I also tried popping in the Debian install disk and typing linux
> >root=/dev/hda1 and root=/dev/hda3.  Bounced back an error about not being
> >able to mount the root.
> >
> >So, I'm pretty much at a loss.  My lack of technical expertise is surely
> >hindering my efforts at getting this box back up and running.
> >
> >I've looked at some doc's that showed how to edit Windows XP's boot.ini
> file
> >to boot the linux partition but I prefer the lilo setup I had.
> >
> >With all that said.....HELP!!!!!!  I really need either dummy's approach
> or a
> >link to a dummy's approach.
> >
> >Here's my Partition info.
> >/dev/hda1 - 10MB  - ext3 - /boot
> >/dev/hda2 - 256MB - swap
> >/dev/hda3 - 8GB   - ext3 - /
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >
> >Tim Emerick
> >/dev/hda4 - 70GB  - vfat - /c (windows XP fat32 partition)
> >
> >
> >		
> >__________________________________ 
> >Do you Yahoo!? 
> >Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. 
> >http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo 
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >nmglug mailing list
> >nmglug at nmglug.org
> >http://www.nmglug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmglug
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nmglug mailing list
> nmglug at nmglug.org
> http://www.nmglug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmglug
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com