Grub stage 1.5

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Morning everyone

He is the current status of my problem

I have reformatted the computer as nfts and as ext3 and I have tried all the suggestions about.
Then i tried to reinstall Kubuntu and i get the same grub error. Reformated and tried Ubuntu and same error
I can run the live version of bouth on the computer and connect to the net and everything else works.

Reformated and tried to install Fedora 9 and this time i made some progress I was getting a Grub 2.0 error
Found something called super grub repair and that did not work
Tried the repair option in Fedora 9 and followed instructions from that forum and no luck

I have downloaded and burned about 20 disk all from differant locations and check the cd's. Tossed 2 or 3 because they did not pass the checks. I am using g part live for the formating. At the point I think I am going to reinstall Windows XP and see about working from there. I wanted only Linux on this machine but for now that does not seem to be in the picture.

I know that the wubi version works as well as the live version. So I think the next step after reinstalling windows is to format the computer from there and reinstall Kubuntu or Fedora 9 Or dig out that old DOS 6.2 on floppy and install that and see what happens. Any ideas are welcome

Tom

[toad]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Hi,

first off, what is a KVM switch?

It seems that grub cannot point the system in the right direction because the drive order has changed.

Also, after you switch on the machine, could you get into the grub command line - I think you have to type ESC to get grub up, type "c" to get to the grub command line, select your kernel and type "e" to edit that line. No go to the back of the line and delete the last two words (quiet splash). Press enter followed by "b" to boot that kernel.

You should now see the computer coming up properly, i.e. without all the fancy graphics. Please report the lines where it gets stuck. With any luck a simple "CTRL+D" will sort you out...

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

The switch is so you can have 2 computers and use only 1 screen and mouse and keyboard. On some switches you can hook up external usb devices to be used by both machines

Tom

[toad]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Thanks Tom. I take it you don't have, purely as a precaution, hooked up any USB devices

Looking forward to your observations - please ask if I didn't make myself clear or there are other issues...

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

toad

The only things hooked to the switch are the screen the mouse and the keyboard and speakers. I just remembered that an external dvd player and external hard drive are hooked to the computer. I did not think it would cause any issues because the dvd is turned off and the hard drive is not connect.

i will keep posting till i figure it out

Tom

[Snowhog]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

If the external HD was connected at the time you installed Kubuntu, and then after installation you disconnected the external HD and did a shutdown, the next time you reboot, the external HD must be connected or you are going to have boot problems.

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

The external hard drive has been disconnected from the beginning. When I first tried to install it wanted to format that as well and i quickly pulled the plug on that drive. So only the internet 30 gb hard drive is there

[toad]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Right, no problems on that front then - please adjust the grub command line (or has Qqmike asked you to do that already) and boot without graphics.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

OK, so you cleaned up everything:
One hard drive.
You used GParted Live CD to make new partitions and reformat.
New Kubuntu CD – MD5 sum is OK; “Check this CD for Defects” yields “OK.”
Then, you used the CD to install Kubuntu on one of those new partitions you made using GParted Live CD.

So, back to what you did before:

From a Kubuntu Live CD,
open Konsole
sudo fdisk -lu

That will show you the partitions on your drive
Post that result here for us to see.

Then you can try to re-install GRUB to the Master Boot Record of the drive using the GRUB files located in your Kubuntu partition:

Live CD
Open Konsole
sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(that should tell you where the Kubuntu partition is: it will be some (hdx,y), and put that in this next step
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
and re-boot to test it.
(*** btw: no errors when doing that, right?)

It has to work!
Unless there's some variable here that you haven't told us about ...

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Ok well the longer it takes and the harder it gets the less i am going to give up
today i reinstalled a copy of win xp (a bad graphics copy) and then set up to install kubuntu.
and in the end i have the same error and if i use the super grub disk the error just goes to stage 2.0

Over the week end i reformated and tried to install both kubuntu and fedora 9 no luck
i was using g part 0.3.7.7 live
here is the current reading from konsole


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbce1bce1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 11245499 5622718+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 11245500 78156224 33455362+ 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 74862963 78156224 1646631 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 11245626 72147914 30451144+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 72147978 74862899 1357461 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

as far as i know you know as much as i do but from live version i have internet access so i can copy and paste anything you want

i am now going to try and re-install the grub and see what happens

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

more info
grub>
find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,5)
for some reason that does not look right but going to try and see what happens or be back on live

[niteowl69]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

followed instructions but have to reboot but this is what happened
grub>
root (hdo,5)

Error 23: Error while parsing number

grub>
root (hd0,5)

grub>
setup (hdo)

Error 23: Error while parsing number

grub>
setup (hd5)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd5)"... failed (this is not fatal
)
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,5)"... failed (this is not fat
al)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd5) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/m
enu.lst "... failed

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Your “new” partitioning scheme looks as bad as the old one.
Technically, I suppose there's nothing wrong with it:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 11245499 5622718+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 11245500 78156224 33455362+ 5 Extended
>>>>>Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 74862963 78156224 1646631 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 11245626 72147914 30451144+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 72147978 74862899 1357461 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>>>>>Partition table entries are not in disk order.

... But it sure makes it hard to read, and I hope it doesn't confuse the Kubuntu installer.

Let's set that aside for a second.

Next:

grub> root (hdo,5)
Error 23: Error while parsing number
grub> root (hd0,5)
grub> setup (hdo)
Error 23: Error while parsing number
grub> setup (hd5)

I hope you got all the typos corrected!

This is all you need:
grub> root (hd0,5)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

hd0 is with a zero (“0”), not an “oh” (“o”).
Setup is in hd0, not hd5.

>>> Try that first.


As for partitions:
I don't know how GParted would not end the Extended on a cylinder boundary—how could that happen if it is a fresh do-over? That probably doesn't matter, though.

sda1 Windows ( HPFS/NTFS )
sda2 Extended
sda5 swap
sda6 Linux (root or “/” partition) – ext3 format

That's all you need, minimally (using your scheme of sda2 = Extended).
Optionally:
sda7 /home partition for Kubuntu (I.e., a separate /home partition).

[Snowhog]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Why are you creating two swap partitions? You only need one, if at all. If one has ample RAM, a swap partition isn't really required. But two??

[toad]

Re: Grub stage 1.5

Congrats for sticking to it!

Snowhog is right, you only need one swap.

Another thing I noticed is that your linux partition (sda6) is not set as bootable - you will most certainly need to make it bootable for anything to work. And who knows, it just might...

Shame you didn't try the thing with the grub command line for error checking, but this way we will get you up and running, too