Not booting into Linux after install

[AndroNewb]

Hello, I'm trying to install Kubuntu linux on a leftover IDE hd I have.
But after having what seems problem free install this comes up ewry time I try too boot up after a install.

I got a p965 MSI motherboard, a Western Digital 160 gb hd an intel E6600 dual core(2.2ghz) processor.

I figure some ppl out there knows what this error message mean.

edit1: now after I plugged out my dvd/cd/burner from the IDE it show's GRUB error 21 instead, I'm not sure if this was because I unpluged the dvd-rom or not.

edit2: It seem's that it was the unpluging of the dvd-rom that caused GRUB error 21 to show instead.

edit3: I found out that the screenshotted error screen only was because I had my bios to boot my dvd room first. But after I fixed that Grub error 21 showed up again, Basicly showing ewryting thats on my screenshot exept whats under Verifying DMI pool Data........ Has changed to show
"GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 21" Instead. I really hope anyone knows what I need to do. And btw Ive tried installing windows on the same HD today yust to check if it was the HD that was causing it and that worked fine without any probs.

[Qqmike]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Hi AndrewNewb,

Error 21 means that there's a device reference (hdx,y) in your boot menu (i.e., the file /boot/grub/menu.lst) that GRUB does not like – GRUB thinks the hdx doesn't exist.

Can you copy/post that file, /boot/grub/menu.lst?
Also at Konsole run
sudo fdisk -lu
and post that here, too.

(I'll be in and out for awhile, but many others here know this stuff all too well now – we've had so many such error posts But we all need a little more info)


PS -- I doubt that Error 21 is related to the DVD bad cable thing (or whatever it was).

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Yeah, It had nothing to do whith the CD rom, but anyways, How do I get the file /boot/grub/menu.lst when I cant boot up linux? also how do I do the other stuff that you say whithout booting linux?

[mrkennie]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

You can boot from the Kubuntu CD and work from there.

[Qqmike]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Yes, what mrkennie said.

It's also in my how-to @

How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0


Just one thought -- what I said above is true, unless somehow the cable to the hard drive in question got unplugged; or otherwise, BIOS (& thus GRUB) are not getting a good message from the motherboard input-output (southbridge) chip regarding that drive. Doubtful, but since it's IDE and your CD/DVD is probably also PATA/IDE, it's a good idea to make sure all your hard drive data cables are secured well.

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Here is what I have found. Wasn't able to find that file, any ideas how to?

Here is a "screen shot" of the terminal



and @ Qqmike The only reason was that bios was set up to bot the dvd rom.(I think) atleast I'm pretty sure all the cables is plugged in rigth

[Snowhog]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

From the prompt, you type:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

That code dint help me it seems?

[dibl]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

That's kind of interesting! :P

Slightly off topic of the error, but was it intentional that you made the second partition an "extended" type? Because you are permitted up to 4 primary partitions on the hard drive, and I don't see any obvious reason why you wouldn't rather have your Linux and swap partitions both on primary partitions. Also, it looks to me like your swap file is in the range of 6GB in size -- even if you plan to "suspend to RAM" you won't need more than 4GB AFAIK, and if you don't plan to suspend to RAM, you only need probably 0.5GB of swap space.

As to the apparent lack of a /boot/grub/menu.lst file, I can't explain it. But since it's a critical element in a functioning Linux system, I think perhaps you'd better have another go at the installation, maybe after repartitioning as suggested above.

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Well Actually I used the guided mode for the install. So dont blame that on me:P And on the reeinstall Ive alrdy tried installing it 3-4 times and still no luck :S are you sure the file will show up when you do the "cat /boot/grub/menu.lst" in terminal of a live CD?

[Snowhog]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

As to the apparent lack of a /boot/grub/menu.lst file, I can't explain it.

Believe that I can. As AndroNewb isn't actually successfully booting, the boot partition isn't mounted (my guess). So, from the prompt, type:

cd /
sudo mkdir tmp/sda1
sudo mount tmp/sda1
cd tmp/sda1
cd boot/grub
cat menu.lst

[Qqmike]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

Yeah, not kind of interesting, but REALLY interesting. Where is your menu.lst!

GRUB finds stage_1 and stage_1.5 in the MBR (+ 15 sectors following in the first cyclinder), but it can't find stage_2 menu.lst.

What if you type
sudo grub
then type
grub> find /boot/grub/stage2
?

You may have a defective GRUB installation (ie, not all the files were installed correctly -- not your fault, but the fault of the installer).

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

This clearly doesn't show what you want it to but I post it in the hope that you will know what I should type instead :-)

[Snowhog]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

My bad! Syntax error. :P

The mount command is:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 tmp/sda1

then follow with the remaining commands.

[AndroNewb]

Re: Not booting into Linux after install

To mike