I can't seem to install GRUB

[Citizen Bleys]

First of all, a little info about the system:

Pentium 4 1.6 GHz, 256 MB RAM, generic video card
It's a shared workstation; There are three Windows partitions (fat32, NTFS,fat32) that the afternoon people use, and I can't touch those; I also have to stay out of the MBR, because the school requires BootMagic to be installed on the MBR of every workstation (including non-dual-boot configurations!)

Previously, my machine had Red Hat 9 (upgraded from Red Hat 8) in two partitions; a 15 GB / partition (/dev/hda5) and a 512 MB swap partition (/dev/hda6); However, I made the mistake of trying to upgrade to kernel 2.6.0-test9 using a kernel RPM and, for want of a better term, pooched my whole flaming system. I tried a clean re-install of RH9 (formatting hda5 and 6), and it came up pooched, too, so I decided that I'd had enough of that mess, and would install Gentoo instead, since I'd be able to update the kernel without going through depencency hell AND winding up with a pooched system.

The install went *really* smoothly; I couldn't believe how easily everything worked (I installed vi and lynx before installing the kernel, and the buggers worked, and surfed the 'net while my kernel was compiling)...up until I tried to install GRUB.

emerge -k grub worked fine (this is a GRP install of Gentoo 1.4, if it matters), but then following the instructions failed me.

It looked like it was going to work out nice, because the example showed installing GRUB on (hd0,4), which happens to be the precise GRUB path to my root partition on /dev/hda5. So I typed in the example exactly as it appeared, and was told that it couldn't locate /boot/grub/stage1. I exit out and look for stage1, and it's there. I even copy it to /grub/stage1 just to be sure. No dice. I tried hoping that the error message was non-critical, so I made a grub.conf anyways and rebooted. No such luck. Rebooted with the CD, mounted hda5 and proc, activated swap, chrooted to /mnt/gentoo, and tried to install LILO. Well, LILO worked, if by "worked" you means "writes LI 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99.... all over my screen". I'm glad I didn't install *that* to the MBR.

I booted from the CD and re-mounted hda5 again, and this time installed grub without the -k (so it would download the latest version)...still no dice, so I tried using install instead of setup.

Now, GRUB is there, but it just gives me a prompt that says grub>.

Now...*maybe* my grub.conf was deleted when I went with LILO, but still, I figure I should still be able to boot my system from the GRUB prompt by manually entering the commands that would normally be stored in grub.conf. I tried the command "kernel (hd0,4)/boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-rc6" (the name of my genkernel-generated kernel), but it claims that that's a bad filesystem type or something (I can't remember the exact error); if I go as far as typing (hd0,4) and hit TAB, my filesystem DOES come up, byt if I go to (hd0,4)/boot/, I get the same error message.

I know that this is a valid path, because that's how I installed the bootloader in the first place: install (hd0,4)/boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,4) (hd0,4)/boot/grub/stage2, IIRC.

I can't boot in with a GRUB boot disk, either. The only way I can get into my system is by booting from the CD and chrooting, and according to the docs, I can't install KDE that way, which I'll need for Friday.
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You're either an eagle, or an earthworm

[jtp755]

when at grub> type root (hdx,x) and press enter. then type setup (hd0) and press enter (NOTICE:this will install grub to the MBR).

Make sure that root (hdx,x) points to your boot partition not your root.

Check out this link. It explains bootloader configuration.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml#doc_chap23
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www.EternalFireProof.com
Registered Linux User #334610

[Citizen Bleys]

My boot partition *is* my root partition, and I can't install on the MBR, because that would pooch the BootMagic loader that the afternoon people use.

I've already read over the install docs in detail for a good four hours, too

I'd rather solve my own problems than run straight to a message board for help, but I am up against a deadline here--I *have* to get this machine bootable tomorrow morning between 8 AM and 12PM.
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You're either an eagle, or an earthworm