Live CD's Grub console can't see my hdd

[supernova123]

I am using an eee pc 900 and so I have two hard drives, /dev/sda (4gb) and /dev/sdb (16gb), as shown below:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 4034 MB, 4034838528 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 490 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8eb98eb9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 489 3927861 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.1 GB, 16139354112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1962 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a4a12

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 51 409626 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 52 1962 15350107+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 1875 1962 706828+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 52 1791 13976487 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 1792 1874 666666 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order


Now, Ubuntu 8.10 was installed on /dev/sdb (sdb6), and I installed another distro on /dev/sda1 (no swap file). The new distro removed the mbr from the /sdb (I think) and installed lilo on /dev/sda1.

Now, whichever hard drive I set as the first in the boot order, Lilo always appears.

I wanted grub back, so I downloaded the latest live CD (lost mine) and tried to install grub on /dev/sda1.



[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For
the first word, TAB lists possible command
completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub

Error 15: File not found

grub> device (hd0) /media/sda1

Error 15: File not found

grub> device (hd0) /dev/sda

Error 15: File not found

grub> device (hd0) /dev/sda1

Error 15: File not found

grub>


But the live cd grub doesn't see my hard drives! The fdisk -l above was taken from the live cd as well - so ubuntu sees them!

My plan is to install grub on /dev/sda1 and be able to boot to both distros by setting the menu.lst file. Is this the right thing to do?

It's just really annoying that I can't get grub to see something that Ubuntu does! I don't understand!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I tried making sure the drives were mounted:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /media/sdb1 && sudo mkdir /media/sdb6 && sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1 && sudo mount /dev/sdb6 /media/sdb6 && sudo mkdir /media/sda1 && sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1
But still no luck :(

[logos34]

they don't need to be mounted to do what you did (counterintuitive though it may seem).

You say you installed another 'distro', yet sda1 filesytstem type shows (windows) NTFS (???)


The new distro removed the mbr from the /sdb (I think) and installed lilo on /dev/sda1.

Did you try booting without sda connected?

[caljohnsmith]

Did you remember to run grub with "sudo grub" and not just "grub"? If you just use "grub", you can get those "file not found" errors when the files actually exist.


grub> find /boot/grub
When you use the "find" command with Grub, you have to give it a file, not a directory, so you should do something like:


sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
How about trying that and posting the results.