I tried to install Redhat 9.0 (shrike) on a prebuilt Dell PC and dual boot windows 2k. Redhat installed fine but when I rebooted the system after the install, I got a black screen with the word GRUB> and I couldn't type. I rewrote the MBR and Boot Sector, and tried again, but the same thing happened. The GUI for grub itself wouldn't load for some reason. Any suggestions?

It sounds like you installed it correctly (GRUB to the MBR). Though the fact it stops at GRUB seems to indicate that it was not installed correctly. How much manual selection/changing of options did you do?

Also, why RH9 over something more current?

I didn't really change much as far as settings goes. Just a few apps in the installation. There wern't any settings pertaining to GRUB in the installation I don't believe.

I use RH9 becuase 1 I already had it downloaded and on CD's, 2 It has all the apps and system utilites that I need with all the hardware support and such, and 3 I am more familiar with it than any other linux distro. Which doesn't say much cause I am a Linux NOOB.

Well, I do believe that the first CD has a "recovery" mode, which should let you perform a "grub-install". I have not had to do this type of recovery before, so I can't give you a step-by-step on this, but a google should help.

Also, if you are familiar with RedHat, but want something more current, they spun-off the home users to Fedora Core http://fedora.redhat.com

A more recent distro such as the above will do a better job of setting up grub for you. Grub isn't a complicated beast, but if you don't want to spend time messing with it that would be your best option. Just be sure to repair the MPR with 2K before you do. (Grub can be a little persistant).

The only difference beteen newer and later releases from RedHat is that later releases work better and look better. And surely that can't be such a bad thing?

This isn't about Windows - it's not the same as when people argue that 2K was better than XP. You will find few people in the linux world who will argue that RH9 was better than Fedora core 3, or 4, or whatever the most recent release may be. In linux, people are generally thankful of whatever the most recent updates are.

If you are on a slow modem and don't want to download a distro, you can buy them for a couple of $ from www.distrowatch.com - or if you are very broke, Ubutntu will send you CDs for free.

I hope this helps.

GJ

Thanks guys, I think I am going to try the boot recovery with the first CD and if that doesn't work Ill go download the Fedora Core 3 DVD. I have read a little bit about fedora and I think that it sounds pretty good. I feel pretty adventurous so I am always trying new distros. I tried SUSE for a while but I found that the networking was hard to work with. Thanks for the input Ill keep you posted on what happens.

Make sure you have a boot partition, or at least the grub stages on a partition somewhere
You might also want to double check your grub config, make sure it's where and what it should be.