grub 2: "error: You need to load the kernel first"

[Aaron Konstam]

On Sun, 2009-11-01 at 07:16 -0800, Colin Brace wrote: 
> Hi all,
> 
> I've just installed Ubuntu 9.10 along side F11. My disk now looks like this:
> 
> /dev/sda1 F11 boot
> /dev/sda2 F11 root
> /dev/sda3 F11 swap
> /dev/sda5 F11 home
> /dev/sda6 9.10 root
> /dev/sda7 9.10 home
> /dev/sda8 91.0 swap
> 
> When I reboot, I get grub, which has entries listed for both systems, but
> when I try to boot Fedora now, I get an error message: "error: You need to
> load the kernel first". (Ubuntu boots fine).
> 
> I've tried booting manually from the grub command line, but the commands no
> longer appear to be the same, as Ubuntu is now using grub 2. Here are the
> relevant section from grub.cfg (menu.lst is now obsolete):
> 
> ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
> menuentry "Fedora (2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i586) (on /dev/sda2)" {
> 	insmod ext2
> 	set root=(hd0,2)
> 	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a8b0f33-5369-4a45-a501-455ed10f4fa7
> 	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i586 ro
> root=UUID=5a8b0f33-5369-4a45-a501-455ed10f4fa7 rhgb resume=/dev/sda3
> 	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i586.img
> }
> menuentry "Fedora (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586) (on /dev/sda2)" {
> 	insmod ext2
> 	set root=(hd0,2)
> 	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5a8b0f33-5369-4a45-a501-455ed10f4fa7
> 	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586 ro
> root=UUID=5a8b0f33-5369-4a45-a501-455ed10f4fa7 resume=/dev/sda3 rhgb
> 	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586.img
> }
> ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
> 
> The above entries were generated automatically.
> 
> Does anyone know how to fix the error?
> 
> Alternately, is there a way of telling the MBR to boot /dev/sda1 (F11 boot)
> instead of /dev/sda6 (Ubuntu root), which is what is happening now?
> 
I assume we are clear that you are using the Ubuntu grub not the Fedora
grub. What you show as grub.cfg I assume corresponds to Fedora
grub.conf. In Fedora the grub.conf has a line:
boot=/dev/sda
does Ubuntu grub.cfg have an equivalent line. The syntax of your
grub.cfg is so different than grub.conf it is  difficult to match
functionality.
--
=======================================================================
Forms follow function, and often obliterate it.
=======================================================================
Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net