Grub and Intrepid

[Fintan]

Okay this is going to seam a bit complicated so please bear with me.

I had a version of Intrepid installed with the following method:
http://www.linuxbasement.com/content...t-burning-a-cd
and while playing with it a bit it started to refuse to upgrade.

So I decided to reinstall it with the same method to the same partition.

I went here to get the needed files:
http://www.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu...nstaller/i386/

Installation went without a problem, except for installing grub. It refused so I went back a step and went through the install grub routine again. This one worked and I could install grub tom second HD partition6 (hd1,5).

Now I booted into my hardy (main) and added these lines to my menu.lst:

title Ubuntu intrepid (development branch), kernel 2.6.26-5-generic
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-5-generic root=UUID=c08eb9e2-776e-4a99-81ba-da5e5936390b ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-5-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu intrepid (development branch), kernel 2.6.26-5-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-5-generic root=UUID=c08eb9e2-776e-4a99-81ba-da5e5936390b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-5-generic

which I had previously copied from the Intrepid menu.lst.

So far so good.

Trying to boot Intrepid gives a "bad file or directory press any key to resume" error.

Now it gets interesting.

I rebooted into HH (main) and did:
sudo grub

root (hd1,5)

setup (hd0)

quit

exit.

upon rebooting I get the intrepid grub splash and can boot into Intrepid.

So, I figured I would "reinstall" my normal grub from Hardy (main). That works fine but Intrepid refuses to boot again.

I am seriously confused.

Edit:
There is also this line in the intrepid menu.lst:

title Ubuntu intrepid (development branch), kernel Last successful boot
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz root=UUID=c08eb9e2-776e-4a99-81ba-da5e5936390b ro quiet splash last-good-boot
initrd /boot/last-good-boot/initrd.img
quiet

I tried that with the same results.

Strangely enough my Intrepid upgraded from Hardy boots fine but has a lot of upgrades help back.
But that is another story.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

I haven't used Intrepid.
And this is a new one:
/boot/last-good-boot/vmlinuz.
That aside, maybe for now you could just re-install GRUB (again) to (hd1,5) (= Intrepid) and edit menu.lst of Intrepid so it boots your main HH?
So HH GRUB doesn't want to boot Intrepid.


btw, on this part:
"So, I figured I would "reinstall" my normal grub from Hardy (main). That works fine but Intrepid refuses to boot again."

what happened when you tried to boot Intrepid? what error # did you get?

[dibl]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Fintan, go ahead and spend the 10 Euro-pennies and get a blank CD and make a normal installation CD!



Seriously, is Intrepid using the new Grub version? Did you install grub-gfxboot? Maybe that has something to do with the booting issues.

[Fintan]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

@qmike: thankx

what happened when you tried to boot Intrepid? what error # did you get?

bad file or directory blah, blah

That aside, maybe for now you could just re-install GRUB (again) to (hd1,5) (= Intrepid) and edit menu.lst of Intrepid so it boots your main HH?
So HH GRUB doesn't want to boot Intrepid.

I don't really want to do that. My HH grub boots the other Intrepid (HH upgraded to Intrepid) fine. so why should there be a difference?

@dible: heh, heh to lazy to burn CD's . Besides it worked fine the last time I used that method.

Seriously, is Intrepid using the new Grub version? Did you install grub-gfxboot? Maybe that has something to do with the booting issues.

I don't know if it is using the new grub version.

no grub-gfxboot. Didn't get that far :P
Edit:
Our did you mean grub-gfxboot on my HH grub?? Yes, it is installed there.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Hmm, I see. I have never used that iso method for installing Kubuntu. (I have accessed a downloaded iso file without burning the CD using the usual loopback (sudo mount -t iso9660 -o loop), but only to grab GRUB files out.)


About this:
what happened when you tried to boot Intrepid? what error # did you get?
=> bad file or directory blah, blah

So, maybe it IS a bad file! Maybe it didn't come down clean. Since you've used this method before (i.e., without burning the CD), and you know it should work, perhaps some file(s) did come down badly.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Just one more thought, Fintan:
“bad file or directory” can sometimes refer to a subtle problem where everything is basically there and OK, but a path may not have been set up.

Example:
/dirA/dirB/myFile

If this should start with /dirZ first, then when you try to get at myFile, you may get “bad directory.”

Or, in /boot/grub, the /boot part is usually necessary (as anyone who's built a GRUB partition or flash drive knows).

So, the right paths must be there and the right paths must be specified. I say this because it's easy to have one of the path's directories omitted or “off.” It can be a subtle thing to troubleshoot.

[Rog131]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

last-good-boot

It is new in the Intrepid:

> Keeping the last successfully booted kernel

> KernelTeam/removing-old-kernels

[Fintan]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Just one more thought, Fintan:
“bad file or directory” can sometimes refer to a subtle problem where everything is basically there and OK, but a path may not have been set up.

Example:
/dirA/dirB/myFile

If this should start with /dirZ first, then when you try to get at myFile, you may get “bad directory.”

Or, in /boot/grub, the /boot part is usually necessary (as anyone who's built a GRUB partition or flash drive knows).

So, the right paths must be there and the right paths must be specified. I say this because it's easy to have one of the path's directories omitted or “off.” It can be a subtle thing to troubleshoot.

Thankx mike. I can follow that logic. What I can't put my mind around it why does it boot when the Intrepid grub is on hd0 and not when my HH grub is on hd0.

The only difference between the two is:
HH grub=grub-gfxboot

II grub=grub

But then again if grub-gfxboot is the problem then why does my other Intrepid boot? Because it is an dist-upgrade from HH?
Is there that much difference between a dist-upgrade from a previous version and a "virgin" installation?

[dibl]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

I just noticed in my Intrepid package list, there is grub (0.97-29ubuntu33), grub2 (1.96+20080512-1ununtu2)("dummy package"), and grub-gfxboot (0.97-11). Obviously when I installed Intrepid Alpha 3, I had grub (0.97-29, I assume). But, since I installed grub-gfxboot, the original grub was removed, so now I only have grub-gfxboot installed.

Don't know if that adds anything, but I thought I'd share the information. I know there is a "new" grub that requires a matching filesystem, due to some issue with inode size. In my sidux installation, which is a distribution of Debian "Sid", the new grub is installed (in the root partition, not my mbr). I have read some cautions about using the new grub as the "real" grub, in mbr, and then trying to boot other Linux distributions that filesystems with an "old" inode size -- apparently bad things can happen.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463123

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236

http://sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-10382.html

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Thanks to Rog131 for reply #6.

dibl's last post is of interest. With new versions like this, you can never really tell what's going on sometimes, as we all know.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you did as dibl suggests and do it again, this time using the burned CD way ... (but if you are obsessive like me, that may be out of the question).

As for "new GRUBs," I'm lost there. My brief experience with GRUB2 several months ago was a disaster. They really need to work on that -- and I hope to hell someone thinks to write some very good and clear documentation on it.

As for GRUB, you know what I know, Fintan, and it looks like you've done the standard stuff -- re-installing GRUB being the main tool here. (root--setup--quit).

I'll be curious to see where this goes ... sorry I can't be of more help.

[Fintan]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

I just reinstalled intrepid from the CD (thankx Dible, I had 10 cents to spare )

Same problem. I even tried replacing the uuid with /dev/sda12.

No difference.

[Fintan]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Okay I am going to rant a bit.

Over the weekend I tried three different ways to install Intrepid alpha 4 since I couldn't get the grub issue solved:

Netinstall: All goes fine until a message comes up telling there is a problem with getting packages and I can go back to the installation list and choose...........

Alternate CD: See above

Upgrade Hardy to Interpid: replaced hardy with Intrepid in sources.lst on a fresh hardy 3.5.9 installation. No previous upgrades.

Do:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

everything is cool until I get this:

Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
/var/cache/apt/archives/kdebase-workspace-wallpapers_4%3a4.1.0-0ubuntu8_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
fintan1@fintansw2:~$

Upon reboot I get This:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown - block (0,0)

Does anyone have an idea?

Update (downgrade :P) :
I just tried to install with the live II alpha4 cd (again):

All went well until reboot:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz..........
Error2: bad file or directory press any key to resume (again )

So now I do:

sudo grub

and get:

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 (hd0,11)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no

Error 2: Bad file or directory type

grub> quit

I installed to sda12 this time.

I tried with the super grub cd and get the same s...t

Anyone??

[Rog131]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Maybe this works also with Hardy -> Intrepid. It is vintage but the error message is same > [SOLVED] kernel panic : not syncing; VFS; Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

“Update (downgrade) :
I just tried to install with the live II alpha4 cd (again)...”

Then comes this:
grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no

And you also got this previously:
All went well until reboot:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz..........
Error2: bad file or directory

(and, before this, strangely, you also got that kernel panic when you used the upgrade method of install).

Files are bad, corrupted, maybe not even present. From the rror messages, looks like two levels of files/directories are affected:
/boot (= the kernel files; e.g., kernel /boot/vmlinuz Error 2: bad file or directory)
and
/boot/grub files (= the GRUB files; e.g., /boot/grub/stage1 does not exist)

So, something could be wrong with either or both the kernel files and the grub files.
Bad CD, maybe?


(I'll have a look at what ROG131 posted, too.)

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub and Intrepid

Rog131 reference: to upgrade the initrd-tools.
I have also seen that before, as has toad. Somewhere on the forum here we have one or more posts about doing that, using chroot. I had mixed experience with it, but it has solved the kernel panic at times. I'll poke around and see if I can find those details, or you might try what they did in ROg131 link if you see how.