Installing grub using windows xp and no media (not dual boot)

[GarethMarsh]

Hey there
How do I install grub using windows xp? I don't want to use any media, it's to an ext3 partition and I don't want to dual boot.

I'm attempting a medialess install and am having trouble installing grub (using wingrub). I get an error message saying that grbldr can not be found. Also i notice that when I do install grub using wingrub I'm missing grub.conf.

Gareth.

[bob]

Gareth, welcome to the Forum. I'm afraid we may point you back to the wingrub folks for help though as it's not really connected to Fedora or how we'd set things up. Let's wait a bit and see if others have some expertise with it though.

[GarethMarsh]

I forgot to mention that the ext3 partition is on a seperate hardrive to my xp installation. I plan on keeping both installations seperate from one another (at least for now) and using the "boot list" feature of my mobo to boot each os.

[GarethMarsh]

Thank you for the welcome bob
All of the examples using wingrub I've read thus far seem to use the windows bootloader to load grub so wingrub may not be the solution i'm after.

[bob]

Okay, here's my usual solution to keeping things pure (using grub, not wingrub though): http://www.jplawrence.us/mywiki/DualBootLinux

[GarethMarsh]

See the problem is that I need to install grub using xp for now (from my windows hdd). Would an ext3 partition boot if I simply copied the grub files to it and if not why?

[bob]

In linux, grub's a two-part system. It installs onto the mbr, but it is tied to the grub.conf or grub menu.lst in the linux boot partition. So, without the linux distro, I don't see how 'our' grub could possibly function.

However, searching the Forum for 'wingrub', I do see 18 entries. Maybe those will give you some information or perhaps one of our members that's looking in can give more details. Other than that, I've got to turn you over to our friends at Google.

[GarethMarsh]

Sorry bob. I did perform one search but for grub not wingrub (read through 20 pages of posts). I'm finding google a pain atm since it's so full of crap and it doesn't even know what exactly you're searching for. Will search the forum again, thanks.

[bob]

BTW, if you do go through the advanced Google options, you can set up google to only search FedoraForum.org. It's really very effective.

[GarethMarsh]

Search didn't turn up anything I could use so I'm gonna hit up google and try and find an answer. Any suggestions in the meantime more than welcome

[GarethMarsh]

Originally Posted by bob

BTW, if you do go through the advanced Google options, you can set up google to only search FedoraForum.org. It's really very effective.

Wow! I didn't know that. That's a pretty nifty feature. Any other sites you recommend searching aswell?

[bob]

All I can suggest from here is to try various combinations of words in Google and hope for the best. There is a Forum for Wingrub here: https://gna.org/projects/grub4dos/ as well as a contact point. They may give you your best options. If you find your solution, please be sure to post it back here so it's on file. Good luck!

[CoHPhasor]

Gareth, let me pose the question;
Why are you trying so desperately to install GRUB from inside of Windows? Are you afraid of not being able to boot Windows after your F8 install?

The reason I ask is because if you are installing directly to a second drive there is nothing to worry about.
What would (possibly) temporarily break your install would be GRUB getting installed directly to your MBR (Master Boot Record) on the first drive.

The simple solution to this would be to check advanced Boot Loader configuration during install and install GRUB not to the MBR, but to your /boot partition and then point the Windows NTBootloader to grub.

If you choose to do this I have a few links for you. (This is what I did.)

This post was in reference to someone else's problem, but with the amount of context I included it should easily explain the general problem.
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...3&postcount=22

As I note in that post I got EVERYTHING installed, and Windows' NTLoader still allowed me to boot into Windows no problem, but GRUB did not finish booting.
Stoat was nice enough to figure out what was not going correctly, which is that you cannot us KNOPPIX to do the "dd" command needed. You MUST instead boot using the Fedora 8 install DVD and run the command as Stoat points out here;

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...1&postcount=30

After this the Fedora 8 install boots perfectly.


I apologize if this isn't something you wanted to explore right now, it only seemed logical given your comments though. In any case, good luck.

ps, if you only want the GRUB installed you could of course so the entire install then delete everything except the boot partition.