Ubuntu Won't Boot

[vipes27]

Maybe this isn't a problem, but I'm a complete Ubuntu newb and am having trouble getting it to boot. I previously had Ubuntu 9.10 installed but had a HD failure, so after using an old hard drive and installing Ubuntu, it doesn't seem to boot up. During the boot process a screen comes up that says, "GNU Grub 1.97 beta." It lists 4 options, I apologize for not writing them down, but each one I select, it says something to the effect of, "No boot device." Again, sorry for not writing that down, but I was hoping someone would be able to figure it out. If you need more information, I can copy it down tonight. I guess I'm just not sure what to do next. When I previously installed Ubuntu, it just went straight to the desktop.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

[darkod]

If you are using only ubuntu, grub2 doesn't need to use the boot flag to boot. So it doesn't set a boot flag on any partition. But some BIOS might refuse to continue the startup process if you have no boot flag, even if grub2 doesn't need it.

Boot with the ubuntu cd in live mode, open Gparted in System-Administration, and right click the root partition for example and set a boot flag on it. Try to boot again without the cd.

[vipes27]

Thanks, darkod. Yes, it only has Ubuntu on it, I got rid of Windows. I'll give that a shot tonight and hopefully will be up and running.

Thanks again.

[vipes27]

Sorry, meant to post this in the last reply, but just to make sure; in Gparted, I just have to right-click on the partition and there will be an option for, "Set Boot Flag," or something similar? Sorry, still trying to figure all of this out.

[darkod]

I'm actually not sure right now, with the right click in the menu that open I think there will be Flags option, and when you move the pointer over it it will expand with the flag options and there should be boot there.

[oldfred]

When you right click on the partition, one of the choices is manage flags. Select boot flag.

You can use gparted, right click on partition & manage flags, Disk Utility, or command line:
set boot flag on for sda2 (off on others)
sudo sfdisk -A2 /dev/sda

[vipes27]

Okay, I'm on my Ubuntu machine with the live CD. I opened Gparted and it showed the following partitions:

/dev/dsa1 ext4 147GB
/dev/dsa2 extended 1.42GB

It showed dsa1 marked with Boot, so I unchecked it and checked it again. I rebooted and took out the CD, but I still got the following screen:

Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic
Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)
Memory Test (memtest86+)
Memory Test (memtest86+, serial console 115200

No matter which option I choose it gives me the error, "error: no such device."

I still don't know what the problem is. Am I doing something wrong? I've never had a problem installing/running Ubuntu. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[darkod]

1. If you are running only ubuntu it shouldn't show you a boot menu at all. Did you set it up to show?

2. "error: no such device" is not the same as "no boot device" :)

Follow the boot info script link in my signature, run it and post the content of the results file as explained. You can do all that from live mode.

[vipes27]

I only have Ubuntu on here. When doing the install I chose to use the entire disk, writing over the copy of XP. Here are the results of the script.


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4b36bdea

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 309,588,614 309,588,552 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 309,588,615 312,576,704 2,988,090 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 309,588,678 312,576,704 2,988,027 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/ramzswap0 swap
/dev/sda1 c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45 ext4
/dev/sda5 2975bbf5-c8e5-4ea9-b6ac-5a0876c0e298 swap

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=c0337bdf-9e32-4620-bfac-d10091aeea45 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=2975bbf5-c8e5-4ea9-b6ac-5a0876c0e298 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.2GB: boot/grub/core.img
.2GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
.2GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
.1GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
.2GB: initrd.img
.1GB: vmlinuz

[darkod]

Try this: start the computer but in the boot menu don't hit Enter, just highlight the ubuntu normal mode entry. Then hit 'e'. It will show you the boot lines.
Delete the line starting with search.
Hit Ctrl+X to boot. If that helps we can make the fix permanent.

[oldfred]

UUIDs look correct.

Try deleting the search line per this link:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/bootinfoscript/index.php?title=Boot_Problems:search

Sometimes just reinstalling grub after you have booted it fixes it.

If you can boot then run this:

reinstall from working (not liveCD) system - first find Ubuntu drive:
sudo fdisk -l
if it's "/dev/sda" then just run:
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
If that returns any errors run:
sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
Then:
sudo update-grub

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
spacebar to choose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions

[vipes27]

Thanks darkod, taking out the search line allowed it to boot. How do I make that change permanent, or is it?

Thanks again.

[darkod]

This time it was only temporary. The first link oldfred provided in his last post is the solution to make it permanent. Because we already located the problem, start from Step 4, the first steps are to search for the problem.

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/bootinfoscript/index.php?title=Boot_Problems:search

[vipes27]

Thanks to the both of you, it's now booting up to the desktop. Thanks again for your help.

[vipes27]

Thanks to the both of you, it's now booting to the desktop. Thanks again for your help.