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    #1

    Grub Problem

    I've been running Hardy without problems for a while. The other day I installed a number of packages via the Adept autoupdater. I don't remember all the updates, but on rebooting my machine a few days later, I found I was no longer able to boot up. I thought there was a kernel update in there somewhere. Not sure if my problem is related to those updates or not.

    When I try to boot up now, the screen says that Grub is loading stage 1.5, but then the machine proceeds to reboot and loop through the same sequence over and over. I used the Kubuntu LiveCD to boot my machine and then tried to fix Grub per some other instructions I found. When I restarted the machine after that, I got the same problem I had before, but now I can't even use the LiveCD to boot my machine, it just reboots over and over, once I get past telling it to load Kubuntu without changing my current configuration. So maybe I've hosed my Grub installation up good. I also tried to use the Super Grub disk, before and after this, to start my machine. I can get to the Grub menu, but no joy in actually booting up.

    I'm a newbie, so I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this further. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!
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    #2
    Re: Grub Problem

    You should have more than one kernel choice on your Grub menu to boot from now. First, do you get the Grub menu? If you do, select the previous kernel version to boot into. Then we can start looking at your system and see whats up.
    Windows no longer obstructs my view.
    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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      #3
      Re: Grub Problem

      I'd say read this, down to the section entitled "install or re-install Grub", and follow those instructions:

      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0



      I'll hazard a guess that when the new kernel was installed, you were presented with a dialogue box that asked whether you wanted to "install maintainer's version" or "keep customized version" of Grub, and you chose to "keep customized" -- thus your new kernel did not get added to the boot menu.

      In any event, follow the good guidance of Qqmike and you should be back in business soon.
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        #4
        Re: Grub Problem

        Originally posted by Snowhog
        You should have more than one kernel choice on your Grub menu to boot from now. First, do you get the Grub menu? If you do, select the previous kernel version to boot into. Then we can start looking at your system and see whats up.

        Thanks, Snowhog.

        I can hit the ESC key to get to the Grub menu, and the most recent kernel version I see listed there is: 2.6.24-19-generic.

        I've tried to boot 2.6.24-18-generic, but the same thing happens. Same thing with ... -17-generic and ...-16-generic as well.

        It looks like it goes straight from a "Starting up..." message to a reboot.
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          #5
          Re: Grub Problem

          When at the Grub menu, can you select to boot into recovery mode? Does that still work?
          Windows no longer obstructs my view.
          Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
          "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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            #6
            Re: Grub Problem

            Originally posted by dibl
            I'd say read this, down to the section entitled "install or re-install Grub", and follow those instructions:

            http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

            ...

            In any event, follow the good guidance of Qqmike and you should be back in business soon.
            Thanks for that link. Lot's of good info. there. I tried a number of things, but it turns out it looks like Grub itself wasn't hosed on my machine.

            I happened to see something about "DSDT.aml" when I attempted to boot from a LiveCD, and I dug down this hole a little further.

            I think the exact error was: "ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initramfs... error, file /DSDT.aml not found"

            I happened to find this via Google:

            http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=629707

            Sure enough, I was able to boot by editing the line in Grub where it references the kernel used and adding "acpi=off" to the end. I subsequently edited my menu.lst to have acpi=off and I can boot again. Weird.

            Can anyone explain why this works, and how my menu.lst would have modified with variables which kept it from booting in the first place? Not like I was in there playing around just for the fun of it!

            Thanks all for your help!

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              #7
              Re: Grub Problem

              https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions#Kernel Options
              (Click on Kernel Options -- right side bar)
              There's some insights.

              ACPI, defininitions: see Wikipedia
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...ower_Interface

              Put those two together, and you'll get some intuitive feel for the Why.
              Sometimes, the answer to the Why is empirical: for example, through experience or trial & error it is known to work [sometime].


              BTW: nice work on your part figuring this out.
              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                #8
                Re: Grub Problem

                Thanks for the props, and those links, Qqmike. Thanks also for the write up on GRUB. I learned a lot from your post.

                As best I can figure, some ACPI related change in one of the kernel updates I applied isn't playing nice with my hardware. Or maybe I should say my hardware isn't playing nice with that ACPI related change in the kernel. Sound like an educated guess?

                For what it's worth to other newbies, I found turning off the "quiet" option on boot really helpful in seeing errors once I made it past GRUB, and that ultimately clued me in to a possible issue which could be resolved via that ACPI setting.

                Thanks again to all for your help!
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