Grub failing to work

Stephen Liu satimis at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 17 15:21:36 UTC 2006


Hi Bob,

 

--- S.W. Bobcat" <swbobcat at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> http://torrent.linux.duke.edu/	
> 
> 
> 
> >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
> >
> >--
> >fedora-list mailing list
> >fedora-list at redhat.com
> >To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
> 
> 
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