Re: messed up mbr- unable to boot

[Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@asu.edu>]

scripsit Mark Haney:
 
> I haven't tried Knoppix yet, but I messed up my MBR just the other day
> and was able to fix it with the Woody install CD #1, which can also
> serve as a rescue CD. I booted to the CD, and then entered:
> 
> 'rescbf24 root=/dev/hda3'
> 
> at the prompt. This started up the 2.4 kernel (I had trouble trying to
> rescue with the default kernel; don't think it can read Reiserfs) and
> set root to my Woody partition. Then I just edited my menu.lst file for
> grub, reset the MBR with the 'update-grub' command, and rebooted.
> Everything worked fine after that.

I just had to do this recently, too, after I dist-upgraded a box from
Woody to Sarge and forgot to run lilo.  I learned an important lesson,
too-- write down what your partitions are, because going through booting
six partitions to find where you put the root one is a pointless waste
of time.

If you're using lilo, verify that your /etc/lilo.conf points to the
right kernel etc. and run lilo as root.

I also had to use the rescbf24 kernel instead of rescue; I can't say
why, because it's an ext2 filesystem.  Is there some incompatibility
between Sarge's init and the Woody bootfloppies' 2.2 kernel?

-- 
Pax vobiscum; pax cum omnibus.

Thanasis Kinias
tkinias at asu.edu
Doctoral Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.