Making GRUB bootable floppy for emergency and hence then booting up your Debian System... Useful in emergency

[Pabla,Balbir [Ontario]]

Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me. Thanks every body
for input especially
Mike McCarty.
Here are the complete instructions for Debian 3.1 with 2.4.27-2-386
kernel:
1. Create a floppy disk so that you can boot into the grub environment
by following :
- insert floppy
- cd /lib/grub/i386-pc
- dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
- dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1
2. Now insert above mentioned floppy, change your BIOS so that so that
your first bootable media is floppy. Now turn the power on , you will
see GRUB> prompt. Once you are
In GRUB environment, type in the sequence of commands, which is in
/boot/grub/menu.lst e.g in my case ..
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-2-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.4.27-2-386
boot

.... Now your system will be booted.

Balbir Pabla

[Sumo Wrestler (or just ate too much)]

Pabla,Balbir [Ontario] wrote:
> Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me.

Thanks, I saved your message in case I ever need a grub boot floppy, but
I think that you'll find syslinux and LILO more suited to the task.

Syslinux is much easier to set up, and although LILO is hard to set up,
you can configure it so that you don't have to type as much when booting.

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[Mike McCarty]

Sumo Wrestler (or just ate too much) wrote:
> Pabla,Balbir [Ontario] wrote:
>
>> Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me.
>
>
> Thanks, I saved your message in case I ever need a grub boot floppy, but
> I think that you'll find syslinux and LILO more suited to the task.

To what task? His question related to changing his current GRUB
setup to be able to boot multiple OS and versions thereof. I suggested
that he do that by making a boot floppy, and fiddling the configuration
on the floppy before comitting changes to disc, so he wouldn't risk
his current setup. How would using LILO be a better way to figure out
what his disk configuration for GRUB should be?

> Syslinux is much easier to set up, and although LILO is hard to set up,
> you can configure it so that you don't have to type as much when booting.

LILO is a big pain in the butt, and I am glad that Red Hat has
abandoned it. I don't know much about Syslinux.

Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!

[Felipe Sateler]

Pabla,Balbir [Ontario] wrote:
> Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me.

I find it easier using grub-floppy (which comes with grub). From it's man
page:

grub-floppy - program to do build a generic grub boot disc
DESCRIPTION
grub-floppy is a program to build a generic grub boot disc. The boot disc
when booted provides the grub command line (also referred to as the grub
shell).

This tool basically does what you did, so they are pretty much equivalent.
Still, it is useful to know this command.

--

Felipe Sateler

[Mike McCarty]

Felipe Sateler wrote:
> Pabla,Balbir [Ontario] wrote:
>
>>Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me.
>
> I find it easier using grub-floppy (which comes with grub). From it's man
> page:
>
> grub-floppy - program to do build a generic grub boot disc
> DESCRIPTION
> grub-floppy is a program to build a generic grub boot disc. The boot disc
> when booted provides the grub command line (also referred to as the grub
> shell).
>
> This tool basically does what you did, so they are pretty much equivalent.
> Still, it is useful to know this command.

Hmmm, that's not on my machine, and not in the man page...

Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!

[Mike McCarty]

Pabla,Balbir [Ontario] wrote:
> Herby I am posting the solution, which worked for me. Thanks every body
> for input especially
> Mike McCarty.
> Here are the complete instructions for Debian 3.1 with 2.4.27-2-386
> kernel:
> 1. Create a floppy disk so that you can boot into the grub environment

[snip]

> .... Now your system will be booted.
>

Now copy from /boot/grub/grub.conf to /floppy/mount/point/grub/grub.conf
and the splash file to the same directory, and it should look just
like you booted from your current hard disc (except for the time
it takes, of course). Then edit /floppy/mount/point/grub/grub.conf
to your heart's content. When you get it working the way you want,
copy /boot/grub/grub.conf to /boot/grub/grub.conf.bak and copy
/floppy/mount/point/grub/grub.conf to /boot.conf, and reboot
from hard disc. It should just work. If not, then you can either
enter the grub boot command line or use a rescue CDROM to
restore from the backup.

[Sumo Wrestler (or just ate too much)]

Mike McCarty wrote:
> Sumo Wrestler (or just ate too much) wrote:

>> [...]

>> Thanks, I saved your message in case I ever need a grub boot floppy,
>> but I think that you'll find syslinux and LILO more suited to the task.
>

> To what task? [...]

Oops, I should'be read the OP more closely :)