11.04 GRUB error

[ryanwolf74]

Hello. Let me say some background.
The PC that is affected by this is an Acer Aspire One AOA150 (codename ZG5), And it had a triple boot with XP Home, JoliOS 1.2, and Kubuntu 10.10 with KDE 4.6.

On the JoliOS partition, I usually try linux distributions on that partition. 11.04 was out so I thought, why not?

So after I booted into the DVD I installed it directly from that selection menu, and the install went kinda well...

Then it was time to reboot, after a nice reboot I was happy and ready to try out Natty, then sadness and anger awaits when I see this screen:

Error: the symbol 'grub_xputs' not found
grub rescue>

I tried using a XP disc to repair the MBR, after all I did backup all settings, files and etc. But turns out the XP disc was scratched, so a required INF file was not found.

I thought reinstalling Natty. But my computer has this weird way of booting into Linux discs.. I usually need to boot into any OS on the computer, restart and the press F12, then it would boot. If I don't do that.. it'd go into the HDD instead with that usual GRUB selection screen. But being unable to boot from any of my OS'es that won't do any good.

I am using an external CD/DVD drive. Any help on how I can fix this even with all these problems?

[Quackers]

Welcome to UF.
Faults like these often occur because grub has not been fully/correctly installed. The normal way to fix it is to purge then re-install grub via the command line.
The guide below gives full details. You will need to know which is your Ubuntu root partition (it will be something like /dev/sda5 for example).
You should scroll down to the CHROOT section of the guide and follow the instructions.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099
If you get stuck anywhere just ask.

[ryanwolf74]

Like I have said I have about 2 linux partitons, /dev/sda5 (was JoliOS now Ubuntu 11.04) and /dev/sda7 (Kubuntu 10.10). What do I do in this case anyone? Also how do I still even boot into the LiveCD from those conditions I said was wrong?

[Quackers]

Have you tried setting your bios to boot from the external cd drive first? It seems that at present you are using a "one time only" key (F12), which needs to be used every time you want to boot from it.

If you get the live cd booted you should mount the partition for the operating system that you want to control grub.

[Tickborn]

Hi,
Just for statistic purpose: getting the same error message here after automatic upgrade from 10.10, 64b version.

[ryanwolf74]

I don't use Automatic upgrades Tickwhatever.. never the right thing, always fresh install

[wcorey]

Ryan whatever, I think you misunderstood. Grub is broken on 11.04 and, I believe on 10.10. I think it is the same grub.

I upgraded a server running 10.10, as it is frontend for my UEC cloud. The in-place upgrade failed (we can discuss the merits of upgrade vs. re-install in another venue). I ended up reinstalling from scratch. The last step of the process is to install grub. This it performed on my machine as I am sure it performed successfully on the other two folks here, one of which actually opened this thread. Grub does NOT work. The server reboots to a fast blinking cursor, interrupts are enabled, caps lock toggles the light as does numlock. In my case it is a DELL XPS 9100 which ran 10.10 UEC frontend just fine, as it will again as soon as I get my install disk back from my office. As a tangential issue, at work I installed 10.10 server on a Dell Power Edge T410 and the identical thing occurs, perfect install, boot to fast blinking cursor. I suspect it is the identical grub and the identical bug.

By a relatively quick check of the forum and google I have found multiple identical issues. I vaguely recall a way to turn a forum question into a bug but it eludes me at the moment. So, for you other guys, it's a bug.

[ryanwolf74]

so corey you are saying.. that it's a bug? never had this on previous versions. and so far from all the reports of natty im seeing this should still be considered a Alpha 1.. gosh this sucks I should not have to go into the BIOS and do all the root stuff just to boot from a computer.. what do they mean stable.. if i don't fix this im considering to go to opensuse but im in the BIOS atm so yeah.. :/

[Quackers]

The symptoms that wcorey is giving suggest a kernel panic. That's nothing to do with grub at all. It is usually a hardware matter.
Grub2 works fine if it installs correctly and in the correct place. Occasionally something will not fully install - that doesn't mean "grub does NOT work", which is what wcorey has said.
Grub works just fine on all of my installations (approximately 15 or 16 of them in the last 6 months - most of them Natty's!).
As I have said, occasionally something will go wrong with its installation, but that is not the norm, it is the exception.

[ryanwolf74]

Ok I changed it to boot from USB CD-ROM, and it failed. Im getting tired of having to put up with a "stable" release like this.. But if I still can't boot from it.. I'll take it to this Computer Shop here then let them reinstall XP on it, and try again...