where grub files go?

[Wu, Qishi]

Dear sir/madam,

 

I installed a new linux kernel 2.4.21 for my redhat 9.0 (with a kernel 2.4.20) and patched web100 to it. Everything went just normally when I compiled and installed the new kernel. However, after I patched the web100 and recompiled the 2.4.21-web100 kernel, I found that all the contents under /boot are gone except one file kernel.h, which is claimed to be automatically generated at boot time. When I restart the computer, the grub is still loading the previous boot menu interface and the system is still able to boot from one of those kernels I installed (2.4.20, 2.4.21, and 2.4.21-web100).

 

I'd really appreciate it if you can clue me on the following questions:

 

1) Who deleted the contents under /boot, web100 or grub? Is it a mistake or a new booting mechanism? I guess maybe those files are not deleted at all. They just can’t be seen by the system.

 

2) Why is the system still able to boot without grub.conf and any image files under /boot? Where do those files go?

 

Thanks a lot!!

 

Qishi