Installed Kubuntu, now computer won't start

[Tucci528]

I was using Ubuntu with GNOME, then installed Kubuntu to try that out. It seemed to work fine, and I used Kubuntu for a little while, then restarted the computer. Now as soon as it starts up I come to a command line. The screen says:

Starting up...
Loading, please wait...
     Check root= bootary cat /proc/cmdline
     or missing modules. devices: cat /proc/modules ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/d6fd5071-9f2f-4f44-bc2a-b6589d0bc05d does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Built-in shell (as)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
(initramfs)

Can someone help?

Thanks

[LFS-NR-3305]

Why did you install Kubuntu completely new, did you wish to get rid of your previous Data or installed software? The difference is just a very small part of the software, to install KDE as an alternative of GNOME.

Anyway, your new Kubuntu is looking for a disk which is not longer there. (K)ubuntu does not used the symbolic names like /dev/sda in the menu.lst, but the Hardware ID, in your case d6fd5071-9f2f-4f44-bc2a-b6589d0bc05d, which does not exist any longer in your system. Don't know how you managed to produce this effect. Check the cabel on the HDD drive.
Maybe it helps to learn a little bit about Linux from a book, insert a live CD (latest (K)ubuntu) and edit menu.list. Changing the uid to /dev/sda or similar does work in (K)ubuntu.

[Tucci528]

I didn't mean to delete anything - I just wanted to try out KDE, so I followed the directions here: http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=1903

I don't entirely understand what you're telling me to do, but I think I get it (except for "Check the cabel on the HDD drive."). I don't have a LiveCD handy, but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks,

[LFS-NR-3305]

Perhaps I mis-understood you and you are not the total beginner I thought you are. Did you make a complete new installation of Kubuntu, not knowing it's the same think as Ubuntu, but with the KDE desktop instead of Gnome, or did you install the KDE desktop on your system in addition to the Gnome one?

The "cable" I mentioned is not so un-important as you could think.

Your new or changed installation does not find the HDD you boot from. The software which is responsible for booting is GRUB. Grub does note down it's data in /boot/grub/menu.lst. More Data will be used, not by grub, but when adding drives, in a later stage of booting from /etc/fstab (file-system table).

But (K)ubuntu has a highly sophisticated system of names for the partitions. Some distributions give them names like hda1, hda5, other give to the same drives the names like sda1, sda5 etc. So, the (K)ubuntu people decided to give them an individual number, which I believe to be coded in the hardware.

This leads me to the idea that your HDD drive is no longer visible to your system. Maybe you did some copying of configuration files you forgot to mention? Maybe lightning in a thunderstorm burnt your hdd in the meantime? Maybe the cable is loose? The thing is very mysterious because the (K)ubuntu hdd names seem to be error-proof.

In any case, the solution to your problem is to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (if your HDD was not *really* hit by a lightning...) and the only way to do this is by using a live CD of some linux system. Good luck, you will need it ... I will keep my fingers crossed :-).

[Tucci528]

I'm not a total newbie, but pretty close. Thanks a lot for your help, I think I get it and will try that. I don't have a install disk handy, but I'm arranging to get one made from a different computers. Thanks