Install Breaks MBR?

[joeyknuccione]

I did a clean install of Jaunty on my partitioned hard drive, and now I get the "no operating system" error, or the "error 15" error. My SuperGrub disk can't even fix it. The only way I can work now is through the live CD.

Some info:

sudo fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003c5c0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        6223    49986216    5  Extended
/dev/sda3            6224       18900   101828002+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4           18901       19457     4474102+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5   *           1        6223    49986184+  83  Linux

and:

grub> find /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

^ That was after I followed another thread about restoring grub. I did the setup and used (hd0) with the other part as (hd0,4), per a previous grub request that said grub was on hd0,4.

[merlinus]

What is on sda3?

[joeyknuccione]

What is on sda3?

Thanks for your reply.

sda3 is my "storage" drive. Here's what GParted says:

/dev/sda1 extend 47.67GiB
   /dev/sda5 ext3 /media/disk 47.67 GiB <this should be my Jaunty install
/dev/sda3 ext3 <this is my "storage"
/dev/sda4 linux-swap <obviously my swap, but I think this is where my grub got installed from a previous manual attempt

[merlinus]

If sda5 is your 9.04 install, then the mountpoint should be /, not /media/disk. From what I see, you do not have a / directory, so I wonder how you managed to install without it?

Unless you have manually mounted the partition, of course!

What were the exact grub commands you tried?

[joeyknuccione]

If sda5 is your 9.04 install, then the mountpoint should be /, not /media/disk. From what I see, you do not have a / directory, so I wonder how you managed to install without it?

Unless you have manually mounted the partition, of course!

What were the exact grub commands you tried?

I followed the directions here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...rror+15&page=2

see post 11

[merlinus]

So you entered

sudo grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit

[joeyknuccione]

So you entered

sudo grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit

Correct. Of course I had doubts about that "4", because I thought that was my swap space, but I did as the commands told me.

I had previously setup hda5 with the / folder.

[merlinus]

Numbering for these things starts at 0 (zero), so sda5 translates to (hd0,4). The grub commands you entered are correct, given your setup, but perhaps the problems lie in that the first partition on your hdd is extended, with / within that, and the rest are primaries, but occur later on the disk.

In general, primaries come first, then an extended containing logicals.

With your / partition mounted, post

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

You may have to use

cat /media/disk/boot/grub/menu.lst

[joeyknuccione]

Numbering for these things starts at 0 (zero), so sda5 translates to (hd0,4). The grub commands you entered are correct, given your setup, but perhaps the problems lie in that the first partition on your hdd is extended, with / within that, and the rest are primaries, but occur later on the disk.

In general, primaries come first, then an extended containing logicals.

With your / partition mounted, post

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

You may have to use

cat /media/disk/boot/grub/menu.lst

Sorry if this is too much info, but here's what I get with ../media/disk...

[code]
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /media/disk/boot/grub/menu.lst
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
## indomU=true
## indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 2b3acc87-f2be-4a5c-be4a-e5de21313b48
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
[/quote]

[merlinus]

Post results of

sudo blkid
df -h