My computer opens at a Grub Rescue prompt?

[Shabakthanai]

I did the following:

grub rescu> ls (hd0,1)/ yielded ./ ../ lost+found/ SG-1/

That is a TB Drive with the Stargate movie backups

Not knowing exactly what I am doing, I tried several other combinations trying to seek one or the other of the SSD’s which contain OS’s, but 'no such partition' is all that came up. Nonetheless, (hd0,1) is definitely one of my HDD’s, a TB @ 3GBs SATA, so I found one of the drives. It only has Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis backups for my collection. If I could figure a way to access that partition for the installation of an Operating System, I could start over.

It took a long time to make the backups, I used Handbrake, but I would rather lose the backups and get a system back than lose entirely.

I wish I knew more, but I just have what I have, although lacking.

[kubicle]

Thanks friend for hanging in there. I thried the commands >ls (hd0,0) through ls (hd6,0) with the error: no such partition

While disk numbers start from 0 (hd0), partition numbering starts from 1 which is the first partition. there is no (hdX,0).

grub rescue>ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos5) (hd2) (hd2,msdos5) (hd2,msdos1) (hd3) (hd3,smdos6) (hd3, mddos5) (hd3,msdos1) (hd4) (hd4,msdos5) (hd4,msdos1) (hd5) (hd5,msdos1)

So the first partitions of your drives are:
(hd0,1), not (hd0,0)
(hd1,1), this seems to be missing on your 'ls' output, is there no primary partition on that drive?
(hd2,1)
(hd3,1)
(hd4,1)
(hd5,1)
Note that logical partitions start from 5 (since first 4 numbers are reserved for primary partitions):
So your logical partitions are:
(hd0,5)
(hd1,5)
(hd2,5)
(hd3,5)
(hd3,6)
(hd4,5)

[Qqmike]

So, now you should try those combinations listed in Post #17.
When you find your broken Kubuntu, you will know your Kubuntu partition (hdx,y), and you then follow Post #14.

(That strategy--using the GRUB rescue prompt--is a good one. Just remember, too, that you can always try Boot-Repair, which requires you make a live CD/USB and that you boot your PC from it. (side note: Boot-Repair can have issues, too, like properly locating the correct partition; and running on automatic pilot to where you're not sure what it has done or not done for you.) I think you said you can't boot from USB? I think you probably can. I mean, your PC can't be THAT broken ... that's a matter of your BIOS/firmware working right, which I'm sure it does. No matter for now! Stay focused on the formula: Post #17, then do Post #14. You are close; you already located some of your data.)

[Shabakthanai]

Dear Qqmike,

I did but nothing really worked. Just one recognition. A harddrive with my Stargate backups. All the rest failed.I am pretty sure about the USB, but there is no reason for my computer to be broken at all. It worked perfectly until I tried to get the recommended drivers to install. I got a couple 3D movies and the 3D features on my video card did not work.

So, now you should try those combinations listed in Post #17.
When you find your broken Kubuntu, you will know your Kubuntu partition (hdx,y), and you then follow Post #14.

(That strategy--using the GRUB rescue prompt--is a good one. Just remember, too, that you can always try Boot-Repair, which requires you make a live CD/USB and that you boot your PC from it. (side note: Boot-Repair can have issues, too, like properly locating the correct partition; and running on automatic pilot to where you're not sure what it has done or not done for you.) I think you said you can't boot from USB? I think you probably can. I mean, your PC can't be THAT broken ... that's a matter of your BIOS/firmware working right, which I'm sure it does. No matter for now! Stay focused on the formula: Post #17, then do Post #14. You are close; you already located some of your data.)

[Qqmike]

I'm not sure what to do next. Don't know anything about graphics drivers. But I do have a curiosity: If you were to run GParted Live CD on that computer, what would it see (in terms of the partitions and drives on it)?

[kubicle]

I did but nothing really worked. Just one recognition.

That sounds really strange, as the basic 'ls' command seems to find all the partitions (you aren't using LVM or something else that would cause complications?)

You could go with the Boot-repair disk option to see if that can fix your boot (just need to make sure your BIOS settings will boot the optical media befor hard disk).

[Shabakthanai]

Dibl was kind enough to visit me at my home. He got my computer working again. I am not able to explain the detail of what he had to do, but it was unusual. Things were different than any in his experience. Nonetheless he was able to get me going again.

I am still not at a point where everything is perfect, but I am able to use my computer again.

You guys are such a benefit to we who are less skilled. I don't know what I would have done without this fix. It was more difficult because those of you who were trying to help me were not aware of the peculiar way my drives appeared. It took direct contact by someone with the technical skills you have to just recognize things were amiss, and then those of you on the forum were expecting something different from what actually existed in my machine. Your resulting advice most probably would have cured a similar sounding problem posted by another user. There is not praise high enough for you who keep us going.

Because this situation looked so very hopeless, and because I am fortunate to live close enough to obtain help from Dibl, an amazing person who helps us lesser capables, and because Dibl has the kindness of most of the forum gurus, I got my computer back. Those of you who rely on you computers understand. Thanks again to all you, who help us out of the kindness of your hearts.

[Qqmike]

Dibl is a good guy!

[dibl]

Thanks Shab.

[Rod J]

I've been following this thread with some interest. There has been some really deep technical advice given. I couldn't offer any help because I have almost no experience with the Grub Rescue mode and I found the process a real mystery. Glad it finally got sorted by a personal visit by a real computer guru!

@Dibl: If possible, could you please explain what the problem with the drives turned out to be? It sounded real odd to me.

It also puzzled me why Shab couldn't get a live USB/CD/DVD session going and then looked at the drives with GParted or KDE Partition Manager?

[dibl]

I can tell what I saw and what I did -- I can't say exactly why it behaves the way it does.

The first thing I did was boot a debian USB stick and use gparted to examine and fsck his ext4 filesystems. He has two hdds and two or three SSDs, with about 10 or 12 partitions in all. Once they fsck'd successfully, I opened a file manager and a terminal, and started mounting the ext4 partitions, one at a time, looking for a /boot/grub with a ubuntu kernel in it. I found that on the drive identified (by the Debian OS) as sdc1. I used blkid to verify the UUID, in case I needed it for /etc/fstab (but I did not).

Upon bringing up his BIOS, I saw that it is an Asus similar to the BIOS on my own Asus Z87 motherboard. It is a complex beast that supports both EFI and legacy booting, and has "advanced" mode to refine overclocking settings as well as boot sequence, modes, and other capabilities. I changed a couple of settings regarding "legacy only" and the sequence of optical, USB, and hard drives, but I don't believe any of those changes were determinative of the fix.

What I discovered is that his BIOS appears to "remember" the last device booted, and when grub starts if it doesn't see the last drive booted, it stops at the prompt because it doesn't see the device that BIOS says is the one. Therefore, when you boot a USB stick, do anything at all with it, and then remove it and reboot, grub fails every time. But if you interrupt the boot and enter BIOS, and use the BIOS "boot device" option to choose the correct hdd, then booting proceeds with a grub menu as expected. I did this three times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding what it was doing, and it is totally repeatable. So, every time he boots a USB stick, his next reboot will fail unless he enters BIOS, presses F8, and cursors down to the third bootable device, which is labeled "P02" in his BIOS.

Even though his BIOS looks very much like mine (I didn't record the version number), I have never seen this kind of problem on mine. And I now wish I had paid more attention to which of his devices has the "boot" flag set on the root partition -- that might be relevant to the issue.

[Rod J]

Thanks for taking the time to explain what you did Dibl.

I know what you mean about the EFI BIOS complexities. Mine is an Asus H97-Plus and it's easy to get lost in the myriad of settings available. It sounds like rEFInd would be a good option for Shab to install, it would make navigating the boot possibilities more understandable. I wish it was easier to get rid of Grub and just use rEFInd but it seems to be somewhat problematic to do that just now.

[Shabakthanai]

The version of the BIOS is 2501.

I don't understand the boot flag terminology, but when opening the BIOS to reveal the boot order, at least in the past, before the problem, I would look at the volume of the drive and select the one that was closest to 128GB for one OS and the one closest to 256GB for the other OS when booting from the BIOS. Those are my SSD's, which only contain Operating Systems.

When partitioning for a new system, I do not remember setting a boot flag, but just putting '/' for the boot partition. I will pay more attention next install.

It sure is nice to have my computer back .

[dibl]

The version of the BIOS is 2501.

My American Megatrends BIOS is ver. 2004, dated 5 JUN 2014, on an Asus Z87-WS motherboard.