[vox-tech] Help - Grub error 21

[Jonathan Stickel]

Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> My computer at work is a WinXP system.  Yesterday I used a Debian Sarge
> official installer to make the system into a dual boot system.  Everything
> went fine until the reboot.  When the system reboots, I see:
> 
>    Grub loading stage 1.5
>    Grub loading, please wait...
>    Error 21
> 
> The system doesn't boot at all.
> 

My guess is the grub install got messed up.  You can try re-installing 
grub from a linux self-boot CD.  I've done this a couple times using 
Knoppix, so I know it works.  Once Knoppix boots up, get a terminal, 
become root, and run "grub".  Then do something like (pasted from gentoo 
install manual):

grub> root (hd0,0)          (Specify where your /boot partition resides)
grub> setup (hd0)           (Install GRUB in the MBR)
grub> quit                  (Exit the GRUB shell)

You can do tab completion for the "hdx,x" part to see if everything is 
detected properly.  I /think/ grub uses BIOS info for this (but I could 
be wrong).

Grub will also fail very early if it can't find your /boot/grub/menu.1st 
file.  I would double check that it exists and looks correct.

HTH,
Jonathan