The Grub boot loop

[spaulding]

Re: The Grub boot loop

Well I think I did a bad update and that my vmlinuz is corrupted with the whole wrong magic number reason I'm having to boot the .old.

Btw you can't go to the partition with a Wubi installed because it is just a single file.

Tried all the ls stuff already and figured out the TAB thing a bit ago. I have (loop0) (hd0) (hd0,1) (hd1) (hd1,1) (hd2) (hd2,1) I think 2,1 at least. Also Kubuntu is loop0 and nothing else, I tried all of them funny how my spare HD is 2 of them also (guess the whole 2 platter thing maybe dunno).

Supposably a reinstall doesn't fix the problem from what I've read online. Plus it seems pointless to do a reinstall because everything can be fixed (even Windows can be fixed when it BSOD during a Windows update, done it).

I have 24 hr duty in a lil over an hour so I won't be able to try anything right now but I'll be able to continue to look for answers. First I'll probably try the mod thing tomorrow.

[Qqmike]

Re: The Grub boot loop: Wubi help?

I think Vinny's right that Windows bootloader passes control to GRUB 2.
If Kubuntu is at (loop0), and if (loop0) has been set as the loopback device already, maybe try (before linux and initrd)

set root=(loop0)
linux etc
initrd etc
boot


(Usually, before the set root line, you'd have something like
loopback loop0 (hdx,y)/name_of_file
where name_of_file is the path/filename, and (hdx,y) is the Linux device where the file is located (and where the file is being made a device by the loopback statement).

[spaulding]

Re: The Grub boot loop

Yea I've tried with set root=(loop0) and with out ever doing set root=X. Also if I set the root as something else I of course can't do anything because it's in Windows or my other HDD.

I believe my vmlinuz file is corrupted since it give the Wrong Magic Number error. Is there some way to edit this and anyone know what it should actually say?

[vinnywright]

Re: The Grub boot loop

hear chek this.......

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Wh...%20bootloader?

among other things it discribs how to mount the root.disk to manipulate the files on it

VINNY

[spaulding]

Re: The Grub boot loop

Now the question is... :P

Are the vmlinuz and initrd.img files specific to your computer or are they interchangable? They are linked together I've noticed because I have to run .old on both to prevent conflicts.

If anything else it looks like I can do a backup of all the files. Uninstall then reinstall Kubuntu. Copy the vmlinuz and initrd.img files out. Then move the root.disk back in place and hope for the best (last option type deal though).

BTW there is a boot file located in <volume:>/ubuntu/<something> (starting to get tired and brain not functioning) that makes the whole thing work. Basically just makes things dual boot using that OS's stuff.

As I said though I think it was a bunk update (I need to redo that whole update thing to get stable crap) and gotta find a way to roll back since loading .old ain't working atm. I had updated grub a while back too when I installed my nVidia drivers from the official site so I think it has to do with something else.

[spaulding]

Re: The Grub boot loop

I don't know, why not try your first command to be
grub>insmod /boot/grub/_linux.mod
to load Linux modules. See if that makes any difference as you continue to try
linux /vmlinuz
etc

I can't remember what to try at the Busybox prompt (you can google it). I have some on it in my notes here but can't find them at the moment.
The Wubi deal seems to change this picture. Maybe GRUB 2 doesn't get along well with it either, I don't know.

There is no .mod file in /boot/grub and also can't find any BusyBox commands for issues like this. Kind of sucks. Plus I can't access the root.disk file with those programs from the Wubi help. Kind of getting pissed off now at all of this.

[Qqmike]

Re: The Grub boot loop: Wubi?

.mod files are in the new GRUB 2 /boot/grub. Not so for GRUB legacy.

But more importantly, as I said, I have no experience with Wubi, and I think that's where the action is at here. (In fact, I'm not batting very good helping with just plain straight GRUB 2 this morning.) I thought we had active proponents of Wubi around here, but guess not. Sorry.

[spaulding]

Re: The Grub boot loop

Yea I noticed something interesting which I think is the reason I'm not booting. The location it is looking to boot from is (hd0,0) but it doesn't exist. Instead it boots into (loop0) with (hd0,0) not listed, only ones listed are (loop0) (hd0) (hd0,1) (hd1) (hd1,1) (hd2) (hd2,1). Loop is Kubuntu, hd0, hd1, and hd2 are unknown and nothing on them, hd0,1 is Vista, hd1,1 and hd2,1 are both my storage drive (same exact drive).

Is there a way to add hd0,0 or to put Kubuntu onto a differnt partition command wise?

[Qqmike]

Re: The Grub boot loop

Keep in mind that in GRUB 2, (hd0,0) does not exist. That would be the first HD, the first partition. In GRUB legacy where partitions start at zero, (hd0,0) makes sense. But in GRUB 2, that partition is denoted (hd0,1)--partitions start at 1. But then since you have no mod files, it doesn't look like you have GRUB 2 either.