Lost system, can't reinstall

pickarooney

I was fiddling about trying to fix a graphics card issue when I suddenly lost X and could no longer boot into a graphical environment. After attempting to fix it in vain, I decided to reinstall Ubuntu (I was planning on doing it soon anyway). The isntallation went without errors but on reboot I got a GRUB screen offering different modes of startup. When I choose my kernel I get an error number 15 file not found in reference to a kernel image at /boot....
Same story with recovery mode.
I then wiped the HD again and installed Kubuntu. After reboot it's the same story, GRUB loader and error 15 file not found each time.
Thank heavens for Live CDs, but I've no idea what to do next.
What does this kind of message mean and how can I boot to my newly isntalled system?

niallb

Hi P,
it means that grub can't find the files at the location pointed
to by menu.lst. It usually means the root line is wrong.

What kind of a drive is it? SATA by any chance?
Can you get to a grub command prompt?

NiallB

pickarooney

niallb wrote:

Hi P,
it means that grub can't find the files at the location pointed
to by menu.lst. It usually means the root line is wrong.

What kind of a drive is it? SATA by any chance?
Can you get to a grub command prompt?

NiallB

I can get to the grub command, and I was looking at the options earlier.
I didn't think to back up the menu.lst file from the previous installation, but the main hard drive is indeed a SATA, on /dev/sda1. Grub detected an old installation on a secondary harddrive and added it to menus.lst, which is probably not really an issue, but it does mention /dev/hda5 in a place where it definitely should not be. Whether I just need to change that to /dev/sda1 or mess with the root and boot entries, I'm not sure. I can't mqke out what is a comment and what isn't in this file.

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=5bec61b0-4e6c-4df2-a10b-896bee3cc2ac ro
# kopt_2_6=root=/dev/sda1 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd2,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=[b]/dev/hda5[/b]
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
quiet
savedefault
boot

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
boot

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda7.
title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-10-386 (on /dev/hda7)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-10-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-10-386
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda7.
title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-10-386 (recovery mode) (on /dev/hda7)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-10-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro single 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-10-386
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda7.
title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386 (on /dev/hda7)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda7.
title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386 (recovery mode) (on /dev/hda7)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro single 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda7.
title		Ubuntu, memtest86+ (on /dev/hda7)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin  
savedefault
boot

pickarooney

fdisk suggests that the bootloader is installed in the wrong partition, on another drive. (hdb1, with the *)
Given that the proper partition is (hd2,2)/sda3 and I have a /boot partition on sda1, what would I need to change to get grub to load properly and boot into the installed linux on sda?

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         127     1020096   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           23948       24321     3004155    5  Extended
/dev/sda3             128        5226    40957717+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4            5227       23947   150376432+  83  Linux
/dev/sda5           23948       24321     3004123+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda2               1        9729    78148161    5  Extended
/dev/hda5             702         732      248976   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6             733        9729    72268371   83  Linux
/dev/hda7               1         701     5630688   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hdb: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1       19193   154167741   83  Linux
/dev/hdb2           19194       24792    44973967+   5  Extended
/dev/hdb5           19194       24792    44973936   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdf: 65 MB, 65536000 bytes
5 heads, 32 sectors/track, 800 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 160 * 512 = 81920 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   *           1         800       63983    6  FAT16
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(1000, 4, 32) logical=(799, 4, 30)

phil

The * just means that that particular partition has the bootable flag set, but it's probably indicative of something wrong alright.

To install grub onto a particular device you need to use:

grub-install <device>

If you follow up any more, you need to tell us:
1. The physical setup of your machine
2. What your BIOS sees

It looks like you have 3 disk drives, is that right? Two IDE based one and one SCSI or S-ATA based drive?

grub-install (hd0) 

That should install grub onto the MBR, but make sure the device mapping is right.

More advice on the grub naming scheme, here:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch07s04.html#sec:grub.devices

Phil.

pickarooney

There are indeed three HDs, on SATA (main system and home, partitioned with /, /home, /boot and swap) and two IDE drives, one for data only (hdb), the other with an old, unused linux partition and some more data on a separate partition(hda). Hda is master of the IDE drives.

The drive that I've partition as / on the SATA disk is root(hd2,2) in grub.
(sudo) grub-install fails when I try it with either (hd0) or (hd2) with File not found errors.

pickarooney

OK, I just needed to switch to root(2,0) to install grub, which then switched the letters around so SDA became hd0.

64-bit Kubuntu kind of blows on first inspection. Lot of missing packages and no performance improvement. Gfx card performance is absolutely dire, just as before. Think I'm cursed in that respect.