Upgrade - grub lost - SOLVED

[nilsA]

A computer that has been just idle for some months was fired up today. After some initial trouble I got HH back (mulit boot with W2000).

Then the large upgrade ... and it will not boot.

OK, into grub, check that (geometry (hd0) (hd1) etc.

hda = hd0 (data area)
sda = hd1 (windows and /swap)
sdb = hd2.

Then I do
grub> root (hd2,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

... and I get:

checking if "/boot/grubstage1" exists ... no
checking if "grub/stage1" exists ... no
Error 15: File not found

This PC will not boot the live CD, so I am a little lost now.

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

Either (hd2,0) is not the Kubuntu partition
or
the GRUB files are not in /boot/grub
(or, stage_1 is missing from /boot/grub).

[cookie77]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

Boot it up, again.
This time, through the BIOS 'set-up'.......(Boot Sequence......with 'Boot Off CD' 1st option.)
Repair 'Grub'..
(Or, re-install whole HH.!)
Your choice.
Reboot. (with BIOS set back to normal.)

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

hmmm ... interesting (?)

[nilsA]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

Boot it up, again.
This time, through the BIOS 'set-up'.......(Boot Sequence......with 'Boot Off CD' 1st option.)
Repair 'Grub'..
(Or, re-install whole HH.!)
Your choice.
Reboot. (with BIOS set back to normal.)

The problem is - it will not boot from the CD

EDIT:

It will not run the Kubuntu install CD.

By playing with the BIOS and SCSI card settings I can:

a) start windows (sdb) - (Boot from EXTERNAL=SCSI and SCSI ID 4)
b) start from diskette, use win98 fdisk and see the disks
c) start from Ultimate Boot CD - (Boot set to CD) and start from HD2 -> Kubuntu but no graphical interface. Looks like I have lost my desktop.

That is, I can list is in /home/nils - but when I try cd /home/nils/Desktop - I get the message

No such file or directory.

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

Good catch, Teunis.
I was also wondering how the root-setup commands were run (in the first post).
As Teunis suggests, you need to burn a new CD (at a slow speed), run MD5 checksum, check CD for defects.

[nilsA]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

Good catch, Teunis.
I was also wondering how the root-setup commands were run (in the first post).
As Teunis suggests, you need to burn a new CD (at a slow speed), run MD5 checksum, check CD for defects.

2 CDs - one new and the latest that have been used with success - both bad. Got it going with Knoppix live, so I probably will have to make a new download and disk as you say.

So what looked like a grub problem may be a file structure problem?

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

"So what looked like a grub problem may be a file structure problem?"

Good question.
Looks like both GRUB and a bad CD.

This is troubling:
checking if "/boot/grubstage1" exists ... no
checking if "grub/stage1" exists ... no
Error 15: File not found

as I mentioned in Reply #1:

Either (hd2,0) is not the Kubuntu partition
or
the GRUB files are not in /boot/grub
(or, stage_1 is missing from /boot/grub).

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

If you are sure about the partition Kubuntu is in, (hd2,0), and since this occurred after an update, if it's just a case that the grub files somehow got lost or not made, you might remember that the main GRUB “image” files should be here:
/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc.
You can get in there, copy (do NOT move them!) those files (under /i386-pc), make a /grub directory (as root) under /boot (so it's /boot/grub), and paste those several GRUB files under /boot/grub (as root). Either at Konsole or GUI (Konqueror) or combinations thereof. Then do your root – setup as you tried to do (when you got Error 15). That just might fix this, or at least get the boot menu back and working.

[nilsA]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost

This will go as strange.

First, I discover that the old motherboard BIOS and the advanced Adaptec SCSI controller does make things that confuse Grub.

After some experimentation, I got back to where I got into Grub and the error 17 message.

Then I find that whatever I do, this PC will not boot the HH CD. I can boot Knoppix andPC Linux. Suse 10.3 Live just stops. And yes, I have tried the CD on another PC, and it is reported as just fine.

What I found hext was that the usual Grub routine did not change menu.lst file. By now I should have hd0,0.

So, using PC Linux, I could change that using a graphical editor, and all is now fine.

Sort of, but that's for another thread.

Thank you both for your patience and suggestions!

[Qqmike]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost - SOLVED

"What I found next was that the usual Grub routine did not change menu.lst file. By now I should have hd0,0."

... so, all along, the device name was wrong (as suggested in Reply #1)? It's not (hd2,0) but rather (hd0,0).

btw, to change menu.lst, you must do as you did manually -- the GRUB routine will not do that part of the work.

[nilsA]

Re: Upgrade - grub lost - SOLVED

... so, all along, the device name was wrong (as suggested in Reply #1)? It's not (hd2,0) but rather (hd0,0).

Not quite. If i play with BIOS and the SCSI card settings, it will change how Grub see them in somewhat confusing ways.

btw, to change menu.lst, you must do as you did manually -- the GRUB routine will not do that part of the work.

Ah so.