"Geoff" <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote in message news:<OFELb.109300$BA6.2158669@news20.bellglobal.c om>...
> I have a system that won't boot off the HD - I installed RedHat and chose
> GRUB as the boot loader, but the BIOS comes up and says no OS is found. If
> I boot off floppy it will boot fine.
>
> I have tried running > grub-install /dev/hda
> and
> >grub-install --root-directory=/boot
> /dev/hda
> but neither allowed me to boot from the Harddrive.
>
> Is there a way to see what/where grub is installed and where the bios is
> looking for the os ??
>
> My disk is as follows :
>
> Device boot start end type
> /dev/hda1 * 1 13 Linux
> /dev/hda2 14 2401 Linux
> /dev/hda3 24902 2498 Linux swap
>
> /dev/hda2 /
> /dev/hda1 /boot
> none /dev/shm
>
> Geoff.

[#] grub-install /dev/hda
(should place Stage 1 in MBR)
[#] grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/hda
(makes sure grub knows where Stage 1&2 are located)
should have worked from a command prompt -- you did log in as root?

Did you try:
[#] grub-install '(hd0)'

The info page deprecates this, but I've never heard of a failure. Why
didn't you install grub to MBR when you installed RH? Any other OS on
disk in past -- not that it should make a difference?

Anyway, your BIOS is complaing that there is no boot loader in MBR (or
grub can't find stage 2, but that usually leaves you with the blinking
cursor) and the floppy boot confirms the rest of the install went ok.
Is there a chance you told Anaconda to _not_ install grub to MBR?
That's the default.

As a weird check, try:
[root@pbrain]# cat /boot/grub/device.map
# this device map was generated by anaconda
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda


Still, the commands you tried (as root) should place grub Stage 1 in
MBR. If it doesn't work, read:
[#] info grub

See especially the Installation section
and the
Creating a GRUB boot floppy
Installing GRUB natively
sub-sections in case you need to do this "real manually".

Maybe you have the misfortune to be the first person I've heard of who
had problems installing grub from a Linux shell prompt.

hth,
prg
email above disabled