Huge Problem in GRUB

So anyways, I was tweaking with Grub after I just deleted 3 entries to make my boot interface tidier. Then after rebooting, I found that I couldn't get into Vista, so I booted into Linux just fine and rebooted again. This time, instead of giving me my choices for booting, Grub became a command interface similar to the terminal in Linux or the command prompt in Vista. So now, I can't boot into either operating system. What should I do to fix Grub? I'm running right now off the Live CD with Ubuntu. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Leon

 

Try Super GRUB, or GAG.

 

Just a tip since I unfortunatly can't help you, but next time you're modding your GRUB COMMENT things out instead of removing them. I believe you just place # in front of the line.

 

Hmm... Can't burn any CD's cause this is the only computer I have and I have the Live CD in it.

 

Your in a fix, install Ubuntu again.

 

There are ways to boot into ubuntu through the grub shell. google is your friend (And My personal enemy. It tried to kill me!) as there are many great guides out there

 

halfhalo's advice is the one I would follow. To help you figure out what commands you need, here's the relevant part of my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Code:

title           Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/mapper/bodhi-hardy--root ro quiet splash
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

The three important lines are those which begin with "root", "kernel" and "initrd". Basically, you need to enter the commands at the grub prompt which will replicate those three lines. I do not know whether the grub prompt accepts the commands in exactly the same syntax as in the menu.lst file or if there are differences. (Google is your friend.)

You definitely need to look at "(hd0,1)" and possibly update it to whichever partition has your /boot directory. The "root=" parameter must be changed to the actual partition which holds your Linux root. (Yours won't look anything like mine: I use LVM and I'm ready to bet that you don't. Your device will look like /dev/hda1 or /dev/sda2 or /dev/sdb5 or something.) I would expect everything else to remain the same.

Edit: Once you get to boot into Ubuntu, you need to find whatever way exists to recreate the menu.lst file so that you can boot into Windows again. I'm sure there's a way but I don't know it. (Again, Google is your friend... but has been looking for more than friendship lately.)

Edit 2: There may be a rescue mode on the boot CD which may be of help? I've never been in this situation so I'm just guessing.

 

If your still on the Live Cd, do the following to reinstall grub:

Open terminal

I have done this many time myself with I used to dual boot with vista and had ubuntu installed first.

 

Yep, GAG is a good CD to have lying around in your collection anyway....

 

Yeah, GAG has quickly solved many such problems. If you use it as a live cd, the "iuninstall" option will clear any bootloader. It also works well as a replacement for grub if you install it.

 

Your already there for fixing grub by having a live boot...
Just ensure you have mounted the Linux partition of the harddrive...
And once you have altered grub, then ensure you write to HD...
ffzero has the information that will get you fixed up, use that and reinstall the grub data you need to...

Grub is as good as any bootloader, it all depends on what your use to and what your prepared to learn, as for GAG, well thats personal choice, i actually prefer lilo, but grub is second for me....

 

So how do i set Vista as the default OS on the 10sec timeout?

I do not wanna delete entrys, I just want vista to be on the top of the options

 

flipfire....the cheap way to do that is to download from Synaptic a program called 'Startup Manager'. Launch it, and set your grub options to your heart's desire. Default OS, timeout, resolution, how many kernels to display for linux, others, etc. You can edit the grub file, but that's not me

 

Yes, im just trying to avoid nasty scenarios like what happened to the OP

thanks +rep

 

Works great.....btw, speaking of 'grubbing', let me know if you get enough coin together for those Karate lessons....

 

easy to alter grub, i just open a terminal,
sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

down arrow to the bottom of the grub file, find you default boot os, that should be at the top of the list, at the bottom of the file...
Type i(for insert), add the windows os options to the start of the list, this way it adds the lines to the top of the list, then down arrow and delete the lines of the win os from the bottom of the list...
Then press esc then type :x this will write the file...
If you press up arrow and hit enter, you can reopen the file and check it, this will confirm your changes for you, this time type :q and hit enter, this exits with no save, as you already have the file changed...
once you've done this once or twice, it wont scare you anymore, it is safe and easy, but remember, the list for boot is actually at the end of the file not the start, you can read all the info tho, it has some good info in the file...