Grub 2 Basics

[armandozumpi]

I tried upgrade my karmic to lucid but when I restart the PC appear the following error mensage in a prompt:

GRUB loading.
error: the symbol 'grub_puts_' Not Found
grub rescue>

I already tried many things that saw in many forums, but nothing work. Include somethings of this forum.

An other problem is that I'm not getting to do the boot with the ubuntu 10.04 live cd,to access the terminal.

[Foxcow]

I tried upgrade my karmic to lucid but when I restart the PC appear the following error mensage in a prompt:

GRUB loading.
error: the symbol 'grub_puts_' Not Found
grub rescue>

I already tried many things that saw in many forums, but nothing work. Include somethings of this forum.

An other problem is that I'm not getting to do the boot with the ubuntu 10.04 live cd,to access the terminal.

Do you have dual monitors? If so, you won't be able to boot into live CD with both of them attached.

[mhenriday]

All that business about fools rushing in does seem indeed to be the case ; despite my experience with the difficulties that GRUB2 carries in its train, I took the liberty of reinstalling a (32--bit) Windows Server 2008, from which I had been locked out and for which all attempts to blank/reset the password had failed, on my multi-boot main box which boots to 64-bit Lucid by default. I was, of course, aware that doing so would allow Windows to hijack the MBR so that only the Windows bootloader would be accessible, but I hoped to be able to restore GRUB2 using the same procedures with which I had previously been able to restore legacy GRUB in similar situations. While the documentation hasn't been updated to correspond with Lucid, the situation looked similar enough that I was reasonably sure that using the Lucid[/B] Live CD would work. Here below the results of my attempt to implement the standard solution in a terminal :

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ mount | tail -l
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ubuntu/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ubuntu)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/bc560bbd-c79d-4e82-8dbd-677d3ed7af4a type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls /media/bc560bbd-c79d-4e82-8dbd-677d3ed7af4a/boot
abi-2.6.32-21-generic memtest86+.bin
abi-2.6.32-22-generic System.map-2.6.32-21-generic
config-2.6.32-21-generic System.map-2.6.32-22-generic
config-2.6.32-22-generic vmcoreinfo-2.6.32-21-generic
grub vmcoreinfo-2.6.32-22-generic
initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
initrd.img-2.6.32-22-generic vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/bc560bbd-c79d-4e82-8dbd-677d3ed7af4a /dev/sdb
Installation finished. No error reported.

Not exactly those shown in the documentation, but, I hoped, close enough ! Alas, when I rebooted, GRUB2 still failed to load, leaving only the Windows partitions accessable. I've repeated the procedure several times, hoping against hope, but no joy. Any suggestions as to where I've gone wrong, and more importantly, how I might be able to correct the situation. I'd very much like to avoid having to re-install Lucid !...

Henri

[ranch hand]

How about just trying;

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2#Recove...20via%20LiveCD

Can't hurt.

If that does not work I would chroot in and remove grub-pc and grub-common and then reinstall them. This should install grub on the MBR just as the installation of Ubuntu would do.

I realize it is not elegant. It is fast and easy.

[mhenriday]

Thanks, ranch hand, for your response ! I've tried to follow the instructions to which you refer in a terminal with the following results :

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcab10bee

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 14744 118431148+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 14745 29489 118439212+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 29490 30401 7325640 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x480be465

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 29649 238155561 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 29650 30401 6040440 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 29650 30401 6040408+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /mnt busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt
root@ubuntu:/#

So far so good ! But when I perform 'nano /etc/default/grub', I see the following :

GNU nano 2.2.2 Fil: /etc/default/grub

# This file is sourced by update-grub, and its variables are propagated
# to its children in /etc/grub.d/
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

which unfortunately doesn't give me any idea as to what it is that needs to be edited. Thus, for the moment I'm stuck and don't know quite how to continue. In any event, there's a delicious irony in the whole process - first an upgrade from Karmic to Lucidthat rendered the Windows loader inaccessable, now a re-installation of Windows Server 2008 that makes GRUB2 inaccessible. Revenge ?...

Henri

[ranch hand]

Normally you d onot need to edit that file at all. I would check to make sure that it looks like this;

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

I lest that top line there to show where that is in the file. If that # is not there you will have a hidden menu.

I am hoping that you edited that out of your post. It should be in your /etc/default/grub file either commented (as above) or uncommented.

If it is not there I would put it in and if you have success booting in I would remove grub-pc and grub-common (the real problem here if that is not in there) and then reinstall them.

If the menu does not come up hit the "shift" key and hold it down and the menu should appear.

I never have a problem with grub and MS OS'. I do not have any of that crap on any boxes. It is not permitted in the house.

That said, MS boot loaders have a history of not playing nice with others. I think that the main problem here is the instructions on the istallation of grub. You generally get a box that asks where you want it installed and then are told that if you do not know just install it on all the options. This is bad. The only place you want the bugger is on the drive and not on any of the partitions. By selecting "all" you over write the MS boot loader with rather unwanted effect if you want to boot to it.

Other editing of files can be done easier, if needed, once you are in Ubuntu.

It is the commands "update-grub" and "grub-install /dev/sda" that you need to run to get the thing working. I would also run "grub-mkconfig". Update-grub is being depreciated more with every version of grub in favor of grub-mkconfig. This is a good thing but confusing. Running both gets you in the habit and makes sure that the job is actually done.

It also lets you see exactly what is going on with the grub.cfg file.

[zika]

update-grub is a stub for running grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg to generate a grub2 config file

[clyderino]

Are there any graphical interfaces for Grub 2 available to set various parameters for the menu screen such as background color, OS and kernel choices, menu color, splash screen, without having to modify the appropriate files directly and running update-grub? Thanks!

[ranch hand]

Nope.

You might want to look at burg. It has more themes and icon style menus.

[Cavsfan]

I have my Grub screen looking so good I almost want to restart my PC every once in a while just to look at it!

I have light-cyan as my normal color and white for my highlight color.
And I hadn't noticed that the normal color is what is displayed for the box, etc.

For the picture I have, this is beautiful and shows very cleanly!
I have noticed that different pictures need different normal and highlight colors.

Windows 7, etc. could not touch the bootup screen I have on my PC!
PS I am soooo sick of hearing those commercials "I'm a PC and windows 7 was my idea" that I am talking to Ralf about buying a Buick!