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Thread: Please help - System won't boot

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Please help - System won't boot

    Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit.
    I have increased my boot sector using Gparted which appeared to work correctly.
    System now starts to GNU GRUB version 2.00 version 2.00-7ubuntu11

    GRUB> prompt

    I assumed I would have to do a boot repair but having downloaded and created a boot repair stick I can not get it to work.

    The recommended repair asks me to purge GRUB2 and to type or cut and paste some commands into a terminal.

    The first of these commands fails as it can not find the specified directory.

    Create a bootinfo summary produces this link

    http://paste.ubuntu.com/5786419/

    Can I fix this system?

    Thanks Kieran
    Last edited by KieranFitzgerald; June 26th, 2013 at 05:24 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    88

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    More info in the hope that I can revive this system.

    Boot sector is /dev/sda1/ ext2

    ubuntu on extended sda2 as sda5 lvm2 pv
    I moved this "up" the disk to increase the boot sector because I had problems with upgrades reporting lack of disk space.

    Gparted has always worked well for me and I expected to have to repair the boot mechanism.

    Please, some guidance.

    Thanks Kieran

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    London, England
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    7,699

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    If you are able to download and burn a copy of SystemRescueCd http://www.sysresccd.org/‎ this has an option to boot the first Linux it can find on the hard disk. You can then run the commands:
    Code:
    sudo update-grub
    sudo grub-install /dev/sda
    which should do the trick. I have used this in the past after restoring a Linux partition image to a new disk that doesn't have a bootloader at all.

  4. #4
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    Oct 2012
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    88

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Thanks for the suggestion.
    It can't find Linux, perhaps the lvm2 format for the partition is a problem.
    Show all partitions does not report /dev/sda5 which exists.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Ooh. That's nasty. SystemRescueCD also has gparted - does that show the existence of sda5?

    If not then maybe the previous use of gparted went horribly wrong somehow, and you lost the partition entry. testdisk is also on the system rescue cd, and claims to be able to find and recover partitons that have been removed from the partition table.

  6. #6
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    Oct 2012
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    88

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Gparted shows both the boot (SDA1) and main partition (SDA5)

    If I had known lvm2 was such a major hurdle I would have much more careful during the initial installation. LVM2 is the default!.

    There must be someone who can help with this. My knowledge of the inner workings of linux and its boot mechanism is very limited.

    Sorry to gripe but I'm desperate, Please help.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    7,256

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Quote Originally Posted by KieranFitzgerald View Post
    The recommended repair asks me to purge GRUB2 and to type or cut and paste some commands into a terminal.

    The first of these commands fails as it can not find the specified directory.
    Do you remember what commands? what directory? that may give us some clues (I don't see that information in your pastebin - just that it will "reinstall the grub2 of mapper/ubuntu-root into the MBR of sda")

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    88

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Sorry I can't remember the commands but it appears that these repair/recovery utilities don't support lvm2. Probably boot or root on the lvm2 sector are not visible. If you feel exact details would help i'll set up the boot repair stick and try again.
    Other threads suggest that the process of reinstalling grub2 must be done manually but I can't find a definitive set of instructions.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    3rd Rock from the Sun
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    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Post the output of the 'BootInfo Summary' which 'Boot-Repair' generates. You can boot Ubuntu live DVD/USB, right?
    "Evolution is Nature's way of issuing upgrades."


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    88

    Re: Please help - System won't boot

    Done, see original post.

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