Replace Lubuntu with LuPu without breaking Grub? [Solved]

[John_H]

Hi everyone.

I regularly use Scrivener on my desktop Mac, and wanted to try using it on a laptop. But the only laptop I own is an old Toshiba Satellite 4030CDT (300MHz Celeron, 192Mb max, 4Gb HDD) running Windows 98.

Scrivener for Windows does exist, but it won't run on any version before XP, and my old Tosh probably couldn't handle that. However, Scrivener for Linux is also available as a ".deb" file. So all I needed to do was find a kind of Debian Linux that would run on my laptop.....

(I won't bore you with how many distros I've downloaded, burned to CD, failed to install and thrown into the bin. Suffice to say, much time has been spent and many swear-words have been shouted.)

The Lubuntu 10.04 live CD ran well enough for me to install it to the HDD. But I soon found that it wasn't very responsive and would only give me a desktop measuring 800x600. After my best attempts to resize it to 1024x768 didn't work, I decided to try something else.

By comparison, Lucid Puppy 5.25 was a breath of fresh air; super-responsive even when running from CD, screen res settings which offered me a 1024x768 desktop, lots of programs, friendly user interface... I loved it.

However, in my haste and ignorance, I formatted the HDD and installed LuPu without realising that I was messing up the Grub 2 bootloader. When I tried to re-boot the machine from the HDD, all I got was "grub rescue>". I downloaded grub repair utilities from the net, but they couldn't find the "core.img" and "grub.cfg" files and I didn't know what to do. I even installed MS-DOS 6 hoping that it would wipe Grub from the MBR and let me boot from the HDD -- but it didn't.

The only OS that I knew could straighten out Grub 2 was Lubuntu. So I've re-installed that onto the Tosh, and now it boots from the HDD.

So I've come here in the hope that someone can tell me: What are the correct steps to take to replace Lubuntu 10.04 with Lucid Puppy 5.25, so that it boots from the HDD? Do I use LuPu's live CD to alter Lubuntu's Grub installation before I try to install LuPu? Or would those alterations be wiped as soon as Lubuntu is over-written?

I did find another thread on this forum in which the OP was in an almost identical situation to me, and it was suggested that he used "Grub4Dos". Is that what I should use? If so, at what stage would I install that?

If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it.

[Galbi]

Hi and welcome

The first time you've installed Lupu, don't you remember if it asked something about installing a bootloader or Grub4dos or something like that?

In the process of installing newer (than 5.25) Puppies, it does. Just answer yes to installing it in the MBR.

Saludos.

[don570]

If you can install grub4dos on the machine ---> by booting up with
a CD version of Puppy linux and then running grub4dos from the start menu


Then when you boot up next time you will see a 'Advanced menu' option
near bottom of menu.lst list.

It allows you to choose 'Find grub2'. I believe it searchs inside /boot for info
about a previous Ubuntu install and boots up the machine using that info.

I used this method to boot up an old Ubuntu Lucid partition that I thought
was impossible to boot from.

I wrote about another situation where I had cloned an Ubuntu partition
and wanted to boot it up properly.
SEE HERE

__________________________________________

[John_H]

@Galbi: Hello and thank you for replying! After I installed Lubuntu (and discovered that it was not suitable for my under-powered computer), I formatted the Linux partition and then installed LuPu. I tried to configure the bootloader using Puppy's Grub set-up utility, but when I re-booted from the HDD, I only saw "grub rescue>".

However, I have now discovered 3 ways to uninstall or remove Grub...
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-how- ... tall-grub/

@Don570: Thanks also to you for replying! So you think that I should...

1) Boot up from the Puppy live CD and run Grub4Dos.
2) Install Puppy.
3) Re-boot the machine and choose "Advanced Menu" when Grub puts menu.lst on the screen. (Is that right?)
4) Choose "Find grub2" which will search inside Puppy's /boot directory for info about the previous Ubuntu install.

And this will connect Lubunu's Grub2 bootloader with the installation of LuPu on the HDD. Have I understood this correctly?

[don570]

Step 2 isn't necessary i.e. there is no need to install a version of puppy linux on your hard drive.

I suggested that you boot with a burnt CD of puppy linux because I find
that the easiest method of installing grub4dos. The app to do this is
located in the start menu. I think it's in the utilities or system section.

Hopefully when grub4dos is installed it will properly recognize lubuntu
and put the name in the menu.lst file, but if it doesn't then my method will definitely work.

______________________________________________________

[wimpy]

@don570 I can confirm that grubudos will find the lubuntu. I've installed Lubuntu 14.04 a few times after puppy. Each time it asks where you want to put the bootloader. I always point it at the USB stick and subsequently delete anything it puts there. Running grub4dos from puppy CD or frugal install will automatically make the necessary alterations to menu.lst - or you can edit menu.lst if you have it already installed. This is the menu.lst entry for one of my old PCs.

Code: Select all

#Full installed Linux
title Lubuntu 14.04 LTS (sda2)
  uuid c516c610-83f5-4772-80f1-d95c0cc5d862
  kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet splash
  initrd /initrd.img

[Latitude]

@John_H
If you haven't done so already, you should set up a Swap File or Swap Partition of 2 X RAM, or approx 400 MB.

Setting up a Swap File:
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SwapFile

Setting up a Swap Partition:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 01&start=4

[bigpup]

After you install Puppy.

While still running from the Puppy live CD or
boot with the Puppy live CD.
Go to menu->system->Grub4dos Bootloader Config
Run this program and just select the default settings.
(it will install to the hard drive first partition and MBR)
It should setup the menu.lst and give you a working boot menu.
Remove the Puppy live CD.
Reboot.
Because you where running with the live CD it may ask if you want to make a save file.
Answer no.
Should see a working boot menu on reboot.

Grub4dos bootloader config will find any operating systems, that are on the hard drive, and make a boot menu entry for them.

If you want to know more about Grub4dos.
Read the help, in the program, when you run it.

[John_H]

Hi there guys. Sorry for the long delay in replying; I put the laptop away when I wasn't making much progress, and only dragged it out again during the recent Christmas holidays.

In summary, I've successfully installed Lucid Puppy 5.25 to the HDD...

1. I went online to look for the Linux command for wiping a HDD's master boot record, and found it here:

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1

2. I booted from the LuPu Live CD, opened up a terminal window and entered the command above.
3. I started Puppy's partitioning and formatting tool, and used it to prepare the HDD.
4. Once the changes had been made, I started the install process.
5. Near the end of that process, I got the opportunity to install Puppy's version of Grub.
6. At first, I installed it to Puppy's ext3 partition (sda1?), but on rebooting, found that it didn't work. So I tried again, placed it in the MBR, and now it works perfectly.

So that's that! Thanks to everyone who offered some advice -- I really appreciate it when people take the time to help out.