On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:05:25 -0700, neuneudr wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm scratching my head on this one...
>
> When I start my computer, I'd like to have the
> grub prompt to show, and that's it.
>
> I don't have a floppy disk installed, so procedure
> to install grub on a floppy disk don't work in my
> case.
>
> I don't care about having a menu allowing to
> choose between different OSes etc.
>
> All I want is the " grub> " prompt.
>
> And this " grub> " prompt should be installed on
> the hard disk's boot sector : that is, I want to
> have this grub prompt appear when I turn the
> computer on.
>
> The thing that really irritates me is that I got it
> working, once... And didn't write down the exact
> steps I took to make it work. Then I did a "fdisk /MBR"
> and erased that prompt. Now I can't manage to
> re-install that grub prompt.

You probably don't want to use the MS-DOS loader to load GNU/Linux. The
above fdisk sequence "broke" the loader.

>
> So here's my question : how can I, from a Knoppix bootable CD (Knoppix
> 4.01), install an "empty" grub on the first IDE hard-drive (/dev/hda) ?
>
> At the knoppix prompt I tried :
>
> # grub-install /dev/hda
>
> and it failed with "could not find device for /boot".
>
>
> Not that I don't want grub to boot from anything, I just want access to
> the " grub > " prompt.
>
> Any idea?
>
> Driss
>
Note: comment inline.

If grub is installed on the hard disk, it should display the menu. If you
don't want any menu, remove the file menu.lst (or grub.conf, depending on
the compile options used when grub was compiled.)

I have limited experience with knoppix- it probably can do what you
want, but I don't know what to do using that tool. But I have my own tool
which is a simple bootable CD which allows the grub loader to be installed
(or reinstalled). I explained where to get it and how to use it here:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp....2040b59e1eac50

The grub iso is less than 1M.

--
Douglas Mayne

> > Not that I don't want grub to boot from anything, I just want access to
> > the " grub > " prompt.
> >
> > Any idea?
> >
> > Driss
> >
> Note: comment inline.
>
> If grub is installed on the hard disk, it should display the menu. If you
> don't want any menu, remove the file menu.lst (or grub.conf, depending on
> the compile options used when grub was compiled.)
>
> I have limited experience with knoppix- it probably can do what you
> want, but I don't know what to do using that tool. But I have my own tool
> which is a simple bootable CD which allows the grub loader to be installed
> (or reinstalled). I explained where to get it and how to use it here:

Hi there,

thanks for your answer.

The thing is : at one point I wanted to install grub though I had a
Linux
system without Grub installed. That system would boot fine *if* Grub
was already on the hard disk.

I managed to do two times what I wanted : just get the grub> prompt,
but I still don't understand very well what I did.

bah... No big deal.

Thanks again,

Driss

On Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:42:15 -0700, neuneudr wrote:

>> > Not that I don't want grub to boot from anything, I just want access to
>> > the " grub > " prompt.
>> >
>> > Any idea?
>> >
>> > Driss
>> >
>> Note: comment inline.
>>
>> If grub is installed on the hard disk, it should display the menu. If you
>> don't want any menu, remove the file menu.lst (or grub.conf, depending on
>> the compile options used when grub was compiled.)
>>
>> I have limited experience with knoppix- it probably can do what you
>> want, but I don't know what to do using that tool. But I have my own tool
>> which is a simple bootable CD which allows the grub loader to be installed
>> (or reinstalled). I explained where to get it and how to use it here:
>
> Hi there,
>
> thanks for your answer.
>
> The thing is : at one point I wanted to install grub though I had a
> Linux
> system without Grub installed. That system would boot fine *if* Grub
> was already on the hard disk.
>
> I managed to do two times what I wanted : just get the grub> prompt,
> but I still don't understand very well what I did.
>
> bah... No big deal.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Driss
>
The boot loader is a fundamental concept of operating systems. The
function that the loader provides may go unnoticed, especially if your
computer arrived with the OS preinstalled, and the boot loader is
functioning correctly. Even when you first install GNU/Linux, you may not
have noticed that the loader was changed. That is because a lot of the new
setup programs hide complexities from the end user in the name of
"user-friendliness." IMO, they may not be doing you any favors. It is
better to understand this concept from the start. That way, if you
"break" the loader, you'll be in a better position to understand what
needs to be done to fix it. The idea behind the loader isn't really that
hard to understand. Take a few minutes to read the documentation. This
looks like a good overview which supplements the official documentation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRand_Unified_Bootloader

Back to your original question...
This screenshot shows the grub boot menu:
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png

If your grub loader is installed correctly, then it should display
something similar for you. Notice the bottom of the screenshot which
states:

"...Press Enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands before
booting, or 'c' for a command-line."

Pressing 'c' will give direct access to the grub shell and its pre-boot
environment. That may be what your original question was driving at.

Also, when the loader cannot find its menu (because it absent), the
default action is to go directly to the grub shell at boot:

grub>

--
Douglas Mayne