Re: win98 doesn't boot after Gnome install!!!

["Jesse D . Sightler" <jsight pair com>]

On Sat, 13 Mar 1999 20:00:42 Tom Barraza wrote:
> I can't boot from a DOS floppy, so I guess I have bigger
> problems than I hoped for ...
> 
> At this point, I guess I'll have to reinstall everything and
> not install GNOME until most of the bugs have been worked out
> of it, at least until the bugs that trash my MBR have been
> identified and fixed.
> 
> Looks like it's back to AfterStep for me ...

Um, Gnome does absolutely nothing to the MBR on your hard drive.  :)
There is absolutely, 100% NO CONNECTION between installing Gnome
and having your MBR corrupted.  Get a valid DOS floppy and boot
with no autoexec and do the old fdisk /mbr thing.  :)

Really, it sounds much more like there is something fundamentally
wrong with the way you have LBA set up on your system than anything else.

> 
> 
> "Jesse D . Sightler" wrote:
> > 
> > Boot from a DOS floppy and run "fdisk /mbr"
> > If dos floppies won't boot, then you have some problem
> > other than just your mbr.  :)
> > 
> > On Sat, 13 Mar 1999 18:23:48 Tom Barraza wrote:
> > > Sorry, I mispoke in my last email.  I AM able to boot using the
> > > Redhat boot floppy, so it is able to get to /dev/hda10 O.K.,
> > > it's just Win98(DOS) boot floppies that hang forever (seems
> > > they can't access the first partition, e.g. /dev/hda1).
> > > Any pointers would be appreciated to try to restore the MBR
> > > without trashing any data contained within /dev/hda1 ...
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Tom
> > >
> > > Tom Barraza wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I also can't even boot with a floppy (DOS,Win98,Redhat,etc.)
> > > > now that the MBR of the hard drive is thrashed! SOS!!
> > > >
> > > > Tom Barraza wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Please help!!!
> > > > >
> > > > > After installing Gnome 1.0, my machine no longer boots
> > > > > into Windoze 98! I have a triple boot machine, that
> > > > > I installed in the following order: Win98, NT 4.0, Redhat 5.2.
> > > > > I use NT's boot loader to determine which OS to boot (from
> > > > > the mini-howto), which worked just fine until after I
> > > > > installed GNOME.  Previously, I installed an earlier release
> > > > > of GNOME, and was not able to boot into RedHat Linux.  The
> > > > > screen just hung with the following message at the top
> > > > > of the screen: LIL-
> > > > > I fixed this problem by booting from floppy into linux,
> > > > > and redoing the bootsect.lnx file (from the mini-howto).
> > > > > When I did this and transferred this file back to the
> > > > > C: drive, everything worked fine again.
> > > > >
> > > > > This time, I decided to do a clean reinstall of RedHat 5.2
> > > > > before installing Gnome 1.0, so I did so, applied all relevant
> > > > > updates to the 5.2 distribution, upon which I was still able
> > > > > to triple-boot.  I then followed the directions on the GNOME
> > > > > website to install for a RedHat 5.2 rpm install, and besides
> > > > > getting messages about failed dependencies when installing
> > > > > the glib & gtk+ packages (which I got around by doing an
> > > > > rpm -ivh <pkg> --force), everything went fairly smoothly.
> > > > > However, upon rebooting into Win98, the screen just hangs
> > > > > with a solitary flashing '_' at the top left of a blank
> > > > > screen.  I suspect that my MBR (master boot record) has
> > > > > been trounced.  Windoze NT & linux still boot properly,
> > > > > however.  Since something similar happened to me before,
> > > > > I am starting to see a cause and effect by installing
> > > > > GNOME.  If anyone has any possible solutions (besides
> > > > > reinstalling Windoze 98), please let me know.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Tom
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >         FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions at http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq
> > >          To unsubscribe: mail gnome-list-request@gnome.org with
> > >                        "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
> > >
> > 
> > ---------------
> > Jesse D. Sightler
> > http://www3.pair.com/jsight/
> > 
> > "An honest answer can get you into a lot of trouble."
> >          - Anonymous
> > 
> > --
> >         FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions at http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq
> >          To unsubscribe: mail gnome-list-request@gnome.org with
> >                        "unsubscribe" as the Subject.

---------------
Jesse D. Sightler
http://www3.pair.com/jsight/

"An honest answer can get you into a lot of trouble." 
         - Anonymous