Re: Recovering from _misinstall_ of GRUB 1.98

[Isaac Dupree]

On 02/15/2012 11:34 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> N.B. - The misinstallation was result of multiple human error, not GRUB
> itself ;/
>
> What I attempted/desired was create a "full" install of Ubuntu 10.10 on
> a USB stick so I could run either my desktop machine or my laptop from
> identical configuration - especially including all emails.

It sounds like you succeeded at that?

> What I got was GRUB installed on my hard drive and Ubuntu installed on
> the USB stick.
> Technically it works, menu comes up and OS may be chosen.
> Operationally *NOT* acceptable:
> 1. defaults to "wrong" OS.

Which one is the "right" OS to default to?

> 2. can not boot at all if USB stick not plugged in. Resulting error message
> error: no such device: ....
> grub rescue>_

What would it boot?  You haven't mentioned wanting (or having) any other 
OSes installed anywhere but Ubuntu-on-USB-stick.  (And indeed booting 
*anything* without the USB stick plugged in would mean not sharing 
configuration with the USB stick for the duration.)

> 3. Can not boot from USB stick when installed on other machine

You mean - plugging the USB stick in the other machine doesn't let you 
boot from it?  Did you check that machine's boot order in its BIOS (or 
hold the Option key while booting if it's a Mac, etc.)?

You noticed that you may not have done anything to write a boot-record 
onto your USB stick. (but you also might have.)

As far as I'm aware, GRUB2 and SYSLINUX are the two good bootloaders 
these days.  You'll want to make sure that at least one of them is on 
the USB stick..  What's its partition layout currently?

Do you have a Linux boot-CD you can use?  I recommend burning a 
SystemRescueCD http://www.sysresccd.org/ and keeping it always, "just in 
case".  It has all the tools I've needed, and I believe[*] has dial-up 
software.  From there you should have Linux+Internet.  [*]based on 
http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list

I think most of the people on this list know Linux better than Windows.

There are some possibilities to suggest for your permanent layout once 
we hear what you want.  For example: "I have two ordinary Windows boxes. 
 I want each to automatically boot from my Linux-USB when the USB is 
plugged in and to boot from internal Windows when it's not plugged in." 
(Or any other combination of OSes, manual menus, and/or automatic things.)

-Isaac