On Monday 22 March 2010 13:04:51 Nadeem M. Khan wrote: > > 1. One machine has existing windows. It had ubuntu 8.04 . I > > deleted the partition so I could install ubuntu 9.10 . Now the > > machine refuses to recognise usb stick, usb CDROM so I cannt even > > boot from them. > > Boot from the windows CD using the conventional optical drive and > enter recovery console. type "fixboot /mbr". Reboot.
> > 2. Other laptop : i thought I will not touch the system that is > > working fine( ubuntu 9.04) So I used USB CDROM and ubuntu 9.10 > > disc on it to create a usb stick for 9.10. I did boot from USB CD > > and chose the stick to install and chose not to install grub as I > > wanted only one OS on the stick and thought grub will be > > redundant. (While installing it had asked location of grub on > > HD(0) etc and that was not relevant . I thought). So I happily > > ended the process disconnected USB CD ROM drive and restarted the > > laptop and again I got the sacry 'grub rescue >' prompt > > Boot from Ubuntu, enter rescue mode, type grub-install /dev/hda > (or sda or XXX depending on your partition layout.) http://download.berlios.de/supergrub/sgd_cdrom_1.30.iso Download this. Most useful for recovery and mbr related stuff. boot from the cd. get to a grub shell by pressing c root (hd0,1) setup (hd0) where hdx,y is the disk number starting from 0 and y is the partition where your grub stage 1 and 2 are stored, usually the boot directory of the root partition /boot , but sometimes on a separate boot partition. Actually you can use and grub bootable media. I have a lenny on a pen drive. -- Rgds JTD -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
