Grub Re-install for SUSE Linux

The below steps can be used to fix un-bootable SUSE Linux OS due to Grub corruption or any damage to GRUB boot loader.

Boot to the SLED or SLES 11 DVD (the SP1 DVD is also fine), select "Rescue System" and login as root.  At the command line enter "grub" and follow this example:

******************
linux:~ # grub

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)
 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,0)

grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0xfd

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  18 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+18 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/
grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit
******************

In this example the root partition is (hd0,0) as returned by the "find /boot/grub/stage1" command.  Use the correct root partition for your system as indicated by this command for the two commands that follow the first one.

Reboot the system and GRUB should come up appropriately.

This Doc is for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 but it should work for all SLES and OpenSUSE editons with little and obvious modifications. 

Install linux in a pendrive.

Install Linux in pen drive
Yea guys, this time I will show you how to install a Linux distribution in your pen drive. You can use this how-to install almost all the Linux distributions including Ubuntu, fedora, CentOS, Debian, KNOPPIX and much more.

What you need:

• Universal USB Installer tool.
• Windows XP/Vista/7 to create the USB (Win 98/2K WILL NOT Work! 
• Fat32 Formatted Flash Drive, 
• Your Favourite Linux ISO

And of course a PC supporting USB booting to boot from your pen drive.

You can download the Universal USB Installer tool from this link:

 Download USB Installer.

 

The Universal USB Installer is a Live Linux USB creator which allows you to choose from a list of Linux distributions and install it in your pen drive. It also allows you to download the required Linux distribution.

The process is just a piece of cake, just run the tool, select your distribution, browse to the distribution, select the flash drive and click install.

How to reset root password in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

In this how to we shall discuss how to reset root password in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I guess this howto will be of highly useful if you forgot your root password in Linux servers particularly in debian based systems like Ubuntu.

Single User Mode in Ubuntu 

To reset the root password you have to boot to single user mode. Follow to steps below to boot to the single user mode in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Please note that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS use the GRUB 2 as bootloader. The first boot option will be used by GRUB 2 by default and it will be used for booting without waiting for user input. So you need to interrupt the boot process for getting boot menu.

Install Linux in USB pen drive

Now a days every one have a USB flash drive with them.Now what if a cool small Linux OS is installed on it and booting from the flash drive with the expense of merely a 200 MB space. I think its quiet cool to have a pen drive installed with an operating system. Today I am going to discuss the same thing with you people.

There are a number of Linux distros available for installing in a flash drive. However I think 'Slax' is the coolest one and here I am selecting the same in this post. Slax is actually a customized version of the famous 'Slaxware Linux'. The Slax will give you a full fledged Live OS environment from your pen drive.

Let me give you an intro of the slax distro. As I mentioned earlier, slax is a stripped down version of the Slaxware Linux. It is available in two formats, .iso and .tar. However the contents of both are same. You can convert the iso image to tar and vice verse. Actually the iso is for writing to a compact disk and booting from it. The tar is meant for installing to a flash drive. It can be installed directly to a variety of storage devices like flash key, MP3 player, or even to a hard disk. the slax installer is all set to make the device in which you are installing it bootable and hence it will be like a fully functional operating system. It can be installed on the pen drive using a Windows box of Linux box.

How to install Windows XP in an existing Linux machine.

Intro:
Installing Linux in an existing Windows Machine is not at all a big deal, rather it is quiet straight forward. You just have to leave some hard disk space for Linux and install it on the remaining hard disk space. The Linux boot loader is INTELLIGENT enough to identify that a Windows OS is already installed there and it will automatically adjust the boot loader "GRUB" for dual booting.

However our famous Windows operating systems are not that intelligent but clumsy and it will delete the whole boot loader "GRUB" completely. We will reinstall the GRUB and edit the /etc/grub/grub.conf file to correct it.

I want to go generalized and this how-to is applicable for any version of Linux using GRUB bootloader and windows os. However here I used Ubuntu 9.1 and Windows Server 2003 both 32 bit.