[ltp] Help Needed

[U Kuehn]

Hi David,

skipper wrote:
> Chopped off the contents ..................... I screwed up my grub
> menu.lst file in /boot/grub - this is after getting Linspire up and
> running on a fresh install - BUT I killed it on going to CNR which after
> installing an update of the CNR programme killed my keyboard, mouse,
> nic. Oh well UBUNTU here I come!
> 
> What I need to do is create a bootable linux floppy - that will read my
> hard disk - I then need to have a very small editor on it so I can edit
> my menu.lst file. I downloaded debian and created two floppies - ash and
> nano could not access (mount) hard disk. I have also got a grub boot
> floppy but there's nothing to edit menu.lst with ........................
> 
> So, is it possible to create a bootable linux floppy via dos with an
> editor? If so how?
> 
It is actually much easier than this: take any linux live cd, like
knoppix, boot it, mount the partition and edit the file. Did this a lot
of times with good success.

Further, in case you also damaged your mbr, the following will help to
install grub again into the MBR:
mount the root partition, say, as /newroot (possibly after creating the
mount point). Then mount the boot partition (if you have one) under
/newroot/boot, same with the usr partition. Then copy the contents of
/dev to /newroot/dev.
Do a chroot /newroot, followed by a mount /proc and mount /sys.
Then run your grub installer like normal. Reboot, and the system shall
be alive again.

However, one word of warning: While I succeeded with this several times,
I certainly cannot guarantee success. Fiddling with the mbr is always a
 bit risky.

Better have a tested backup of your data ready.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

U.