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I'm attempting to install SliTaz on my old PC as dual-boot with XP. I ran it from liveCD and used the installer there. As far as I can tell, it installed fine (I can see the files on the partition), but Grub does not seem to have installed correctly. It does not create menu.lst, and when I reboot it simply goes into XP. In fact, I can't find any Grub files, so I don't think it installed properly.
EDIT: I was doing the command wrong. I tried this, but it still didn't work:
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/target /dev/hda
mkdir: cannot create directory '/mnt/target/boot': Permission denied
I've read the documentation more carefully. Grub does appear to be installed under /boot/grub/, and the menu.lst is present. I edited it to include Windows XP. Here is what it looks like:
[c]# /boot/grub/menu.lst: GRUB boot loader configuration.
#
# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0
# Boot automatically after 15 secs.
timeout 15
# Change the colors.
color yellow/brown light-green/black
# For booting SliTaz from : /dev/hda2
#
title Windows XP Pro SP3
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title SliTaz GNU/Linux (cooking) (Kernel vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz root=/dev/hda2[/c]
But the Grub menu still does not appear when I restart.
Then Grub is not installed into the MBR.
There is something wrong in the way you worked with the Grub installation at the final step of the process. You must install Grub to the MBR of the harddrive in this case. If there is, in a prior step, no bootloader Grub there then there cannot be a directory /boot on your slitaz partition hda2.
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/target /dev/hda
This means: place the boot part of the harddrive (where Grub must already be) to /mnt/target. While installing /dev/hda2 is mounted on /mnt/target - it is called like this as long as it installs. When you finish the installation it is unmounted and you will not see any /mnt/target when you write ,,mount" into a root konsole.
So you decide first to let Grub be installed into the MBR of the harddrive: /dev/hda
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There is also the grub install to MBR from the grub prompt with the setup command.
Once you've verified the grub files are in /boot/grub of /dev/hda2
Open xterm,be root
#grub
Grub prompt is displayed:
#grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
Output should be: (hd0,1)
Set (hd0,1) as root so grub knows where to source the install files.
#grub> root (hd0,1)
#grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 15 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0)1+15 p (hd0,1)/boot/grub/stage
2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.
More info here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p15.html
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After the installer finished installing SliTaz, it asked me "Install GRUB on /dev/hda ?" I selected "Yes". After a moment, it said it was finished. The GRUB menu still does not appear when I restart.
So what can I do?
EDIT: I will try your steps mojo and let you know what happens.
What happens after the grub menu doesn't appear?
Does it boot into windows?
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When I attempt find /boot/grub/stage1 I get:
Error 15: file not found
Yes, it boots into Windows.
Open pcmanfm file manager in the left pane you should see a partition the size of hda2
Click to mount,navigate the right pane to /boot/grub do you see file called stage1 ?
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Don't know if this helps, but I read this GRUB page (http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p15.html#Re-install_Grub_with_Live_CD) and tried the following:
[c]root@slitaz:/home/tux# grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk /dev/hda
/usr/sbin/grub-install: line 434: grub-probe: not found
sh: xfs: unknown operand
The file /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.[/c]
Yes, stage1 is there.
[c]root@slitaz:/media/disk/boot/grub# ls
default ffs_stage1_5 minix_stage1_5 ufs2_stage1_5
device.map iso9660_stage1_5 reiserfs_stage1_5 vstafs_stage1_5
e2fs_stage1_5 jfs_stage1_5 stage1 xfs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5 menu.lst stage2[/c]
[c]tux@slitaz:~$ su
Password:
root@slitaz:/home/tux# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10341 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 5168 39070048+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 5169 10341 39107880 1 FAT12
root@slitaz:/home/tux# ls /media/disk/boot/grub/
default e2fs_stage1_5 menu.lst stage1
device.map fat_stage1_5 minix_stage1_5 stage2
device.map~ jfs_stage1_5 reiserfs_stage1_5 xfs_stage1_5
root@slitaz:/home/tux# grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk /dev/hda
/dev/hda does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
root@slitaz:/home/tux# grub-install /dev/hda --recheck
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.[/c]
hda1 is XP. hda2 is still listed as FAT?
Applications/System tools/Gparted Partition Editor
Format slitaz partition /dev/hda2 with ext3 filesystem
You may want to try Manual Installation to reinstall slitaz onto ext3 partition
instead of Slitaz-Installer :
http://doc.slitaz.org/en:handbook:installation
Try to install grub again.
More than once I've had to put a hard drive into another computer to install grub.
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That did it! 
Slitaz works, GRUB appears, and I can boot into it and XP fine. I guess the installer was having a problem reformatting the drive, who knows.
Thank you for all the help. I really appreciate it!
Thank you mojo for your post.
I have a 1997 PC with an i586 processor 200MHz. I just installed Lubuntu 10.04 (last Ubuntu that supports i586). I let GRUB2 install to MBR. The partition I used on the hard drive was beyond 4GB and the BIOS could not reach it, PC could not boot. It's easy to remember limits like those the second time you break them. SuperGrubDisk CD let me boot back to Slitaz and the #grub steps you gave repaired GRUB and I can boot again.
Just a side bar. My fix for the BIOS reach limit of 4GB is to have the first partition be 200MB. There I create directories as needed. Lubuntu in this case is on hda5 but in hda1 I created a directory
/boot/hda5/ and copied in vmlinuz and initrd from hda5's /boot/. Then I create a stanza in Slitaz's menu.lst like this...
title Lubuntu 10.04 on hda5
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/hda5/vmlinuz-xxx root=/dev/sda5
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/hda5/initrd-xxx.img
Boots fine now. I can use hda6, hda7 and hda8 for other OS tests. Slitaz-Cooking will be one.
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