somehow erased /boot

**eagle416** · November 10th, 2009

So while trying to mount a really stubborn USB device (which only mounts with root from /dev/sdb) I followed online instructions too closely and formatted /dev/sda1 which happens to by my /boot partition.

I formatted it into FAT32 which bothers me, I think my boot partition should at least be ext3

I copied the /boot folder from a neighboring computer onto mine which is like a blood transfusion - it might not work because of hardware differences.

So now I'm scared to turn my computer off because I don't understand grub2 (whether it can run on its own on the MBR), and this isn't an issue of restoring /boot/grub to the MBR, this is an issue of restoring /boot

Where do I start?

**jbrown96** · November 10th, 2009

I'd try to remove grub and your current kernel, then reinstall them. That should create all the necessary files.

1) Delete everything you copied over from the other computer.

Code:

sudo rm -rf /boot

Code:

sudo mkdir /boot

Code:

sudo chmod go+rx /boot

2) uninstall grub

Code:

sudo apt-get remove grub-pc grub-common

3) Remove your kernel

Code:

uname -r

uninstall that version

Code:

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-

press tab twice to get the possible options and complete with your version.
4) Reinstall the kernel, then grub. Run the commands from #2 and #3, but change remove to install.
5) fix grub

Code:

sudo update-grub

Post back here with the status. If everything went well, then you should be able to reboot.

**eagle416** · November 10th, 2009

seemed to work, I think it installed grub-pc with the kernal. It now requires a restart. Wish me luck, if it doesn't work, I can access my files with a livecd.

**eagle416** · November 10th, 2009

I might have forgotten the update-grub bit, because I can only boot with a livecd now. I've followed the directions here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

but when I type "sudo grub" it says "grub: command not found"

perhaps I should make a super grub disk and use that to boot into my native kubuntu??

**jbrown96** · November 10th, 2009

Do you get any kind of grub errors w/o the CD, or is it totally hosed?

that forum thread won't help because it's for grub1. I haven't figured out much about grub2 either.

**eagle416** · November 10th, 2009

I get DELL and the little thing goes across the screen, and then where grub would normally appear the computer stops at a blank screen. So yeah, hosed.

**eagle416** · November 11th, 2009

Correction: Grub loads, it just gives me Error 17 and stops.

**jbrown96** · November 11th, 2009

You can try to update grub from a liveCD.

1) Boot from CD
2) Mount your /.

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/disk && sudo mount /dev/sdaX /media/disk && cd /media/disk

Change X to match the correct partition
3) try to update grub

Code:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o ./boot/grub/grub.cfg

**eagle416** · November 11th, 2009

I ran out of time/patience and ended up just backing up my home directory and doing a fresh install.

In 3 hours I was able to restore my computer to basically the way it was.

Thank you for your help anyway.

**durand** · November 11th, 2009

For future reference, the reason the grub command didn't work was because Karmic uses grub2 rather than grub and it has a totally different configuration method.