Grub failing to work

Sat Jun 17 06:35:11 UTC 2006

It sounds like GRUB is messed up. Try This:

1) Take your master CD-DVD for the Distro and boot from it.
2) When it comes up Type F5 and then type Linux Rescue
3) Hit [Enter] --> Continue --> /mnt/sysimage
4) Type chroot /mnt/sysimage
5) Type grub-install /dev/sda [in my case -- in your case it may be sdb or 
whatever].

That *should* reinstall GRUB, you may then need to go to /boot/grub and edit 
by hand [or not] menu.lst.

That *should* fix it... but then again, it might not, but at this point it 
does not sound like you have anything to lose by doing a little bit of 
hacking. In the worst case you might need to do a re-install of FC5, in that 
case do this:

Start the Install process, yada, yada, yada, when it get to the point where 
it asks you what type of install you want to do select *custom* --> *manual* 
-->then *edit* your partitions. BUT *DO NOT* FORMAT  / !!! Yada, yada, yada. 
You are now at the package installation: Select *only* the packages for your 
GUIs (Kde, GNOME, etc) , sys admin, and sys tools, unmark all other 
packages, start the install. This will overwite your startup files including 
GRUB, while preserving the data on  / [root] As a word of warning when you 
edit the partitions also make sure you *DO NOT* FORMAT  /home !! If you do 
your toast, unless you have a backup of /home, in which case you would have 
to do a restore of /home ( which can be a pain in the @$$, especially if you 
backed it up with partimage as I sadly found out on kernels above 2.6.10. 
TIP: depending on what you use for your backup, the most reliable is to back 
up using the tar command.

But first start by doing a re-install of GRUB, the take the more drastic 
action if necessary.

Hope this helps.

Bob

>Hi folks,
>
>FedoraCore5_64
>
>Grub on this box did not work ever since running "yum update" updating
>"kernel-2.6.16-1.2133_FC5" a few days ago.  On starting the PC only
>with "GRUB" popup on a black screen without other messages.  Typing
>does not work, keystroke without function.  I have to run a boot floppy
>to start the box/PC.
>
># uname -a
>Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.16-1.2133_FC5 #1 SMP Tue Jun 6 00:51:53
>EDT 2006 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>
># rpm -qa kernel
>kernel-2.6.16-1.2133_FC5
>kernel-2.6.16-1.2122_FC5
>
>The boot floppy was created on this box with
># grub
>grub> root (hda0,0)
>setup (fd0)
>
>
>I tried to fix the problem with the boot floppy without success.  Steps
>performed as follows;
>
># fdisk -l
>Disk /dev/sda: 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/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
>/dev/sda2              14        1734    13823932+  83  Linux
>/dev/sda3            1735        3008    10233405   83  Linux
>/dev/sda4            3009        9729    53986432+   5  Extended
>/dev/sda5            3009        3262     2040223+  82  Linux swap /
>Solaris
>
>HD - SATA interface
>/boot on /dev/sda1
>
>
>After starting the box/PC with the boot floppy
>
>1)
>On Konsole;
>
># grub
>Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
>
>	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> root (hd0,0)
>root (hd0,0)
>  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
>grub> setup (hd0,0)
>
>setup (hd0,0)
>  Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
>  Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
>  Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is not
>fatal)
>  Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is not
>fatal)
>  Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0,0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/grub.conf
>"... succeeded
>Done.
>
>
>Exited grub and rebooted the box/PC.  Still failed to boot the box/PC
>with only "GRUB" displayed on a black screen, no other messages.
>Keystroke did not work.
>
>
>2)
>On Konsole
>
># grub
>Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
>
>	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> root (fd0)
>root (fd0)
>  Filesystem type unknown, using whole disk
>
>grub> setup (hd0,0)
>setup (hd0,0)
>Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition
>
>Failed.  Whether I need to mount the /boot partition (/dev/sda1) first
>before running "grub"?  The HD is working.  Would it make confusion
>resulting in re-installing the complete FC5_64.
>
>
>Besides I can't mount the boot floppy, either as root or as user, to
>copy "grub" from it on /boot
>
>$ cat /etc/fstab
>...
>....
>/dev/fd0    /mnt/floppy		auto	noauto,owner,user,kudzu 0 0
>
>However I can mount a floppy with .txt files on it only by running
>"mount /mnt/floppy"
>
>It looks strange to me.  Would the boot floppy only contain an image.
>
>Please advise.  TIA
>
>B.R.
>SL
>
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