[SOLVED] I messed up GRUB.

[jingo811]

I installed Windows XP and tried to restore GRUB again. I usually follow a procedure for Debian but this time I wanted to see if the Ubuntu method would work. (using Gutsy LiveCD)
It worked after some trial and error. GRUB reappeared again but I couldn't boot any of my Linux distros like Ubuntu, Debian or SuSE only Windows XP.
Then I tried to save GRUB by using my Debian procedure GRUB appeared again but still only Windows XP will boot not the other Linux distros.

I think I messed up GRUB someway. Because when I try to install a Linux distro from scratch. The partition manager says there't nothing there But I know there are at least 4 Operating systems in /hda

How can I solve this?

[sandysandy]

u will have to update menu.lst file to list ur other linux distros.

code for opening menu.lst file is : gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

be careful and take BACKUP of menu.lst file


regards

[bumanie]

Post the output of

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[sandysandy]

have a look at this thread also for updating GRUB

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

regards

[Bucky Ball]

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

All the advice sounds good. You could make a supergrub disk cd and boot from that. If there are OSs on there, it should find them.

[caljohnsmith]

jingo811, I just wanted to add that the reason that gparted thinks that hda is unallocated might be because you have one or more of the partitions mounted. Make sure everything on hda is unmounted before using gparted.

[jingo811]

Well I managed to log into Ubuntu again by modifying it's partition numbers during the GRUB menu. Finding out how to modify Debian's and SuSE's kernel lines will be difficult since they add so much cryptic serial number stuff.

The weird thing is I've kept over 10 menu.lst backups in total for both Ubuntu and Debian. But none of the partition numbers checks with the current hard drive setup It's like everytime you do a new grub restore be it from Ubuntu or Debian the numbers for the partition table changes.

I've discovered previously that Ubuntu lists my Linux distros one way, Debian lists the distros in another order, and SuSE lists the distros in yet another order. It's a mess managing multi boots.

I think I have to study GRUB deeper to understand what's going on.
Best would be to just have Windows XP and 1 other Linux distro going on less headaches that way.

[Bucky Ball]

I think studying up on grub is a great idea, but as I mentioned in my last post, if you are really in trouble for the moment and don't want to lose all those installs you already have there, burn off a copy of supergrubdisk and boot from that. It will probably get you through a tight spot for now and you can work things out then. Just an XP and Ubuntu rig would leave you in the same position if the grub goes awry.

Your problem probably is this; *******! Don't mean that in a bad way, but when it writes the MBR, it always reconfigures itself as drive 1 (or sda1/hda1). Always. Makes itself the first partition or disk or wherever it is, regardless of what your grub might be saying. Therefore your grub may have had one of your other drives as numero uno, therefore you are booting and finding ******* there instead and the grub is trying to boot an ext3 ubuntu install! Non comprende, says the grub.

Run this command in a terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

That should tell you where ******* is cos it is probably on the NTFS drive. Good luck, and I would say before dumping all that hard work or installing and setting up, probe further my friend. Last resort.

Update: ah, yes. Sorry, my oversight. In your gparted screenshot, it clearly shows ******* as being on /dev/hda1, exactly what I meant. That can screw up the grub bad (well, doesn't change anything there, just puts unexpected OS in the wrong place). The convention and easiest is to install ******* first, then our exotic blends! The purpose of this is only to make MS happy of course, as it will always claim that spot regardless, as mentioned. I have had some really strange things happen with this! Linux is fine going anywhere as you would know. I could be off the mark here, but I am guessing this could be the original cause of your problems.

ps: nice pic! Took awhile to make the connection , lol

[jingo811]

Well actually my Windows XP partition is the only thing that is certain for both myself and GRUB. I always keep it in /dev/hda1 at all times even when there's no Windows present.

The trouble makers so far has been all the Linux partitions that follows. I've recently resized a logical partition and re-installed 1 distro. That seems to have rearranged a lot of Linux partition numbers somehow.

If things could only be absolute and not relatively ordered then this kind of mess wouldn't come up every time you change your partition sizes.

[Bucky Ball]

Damn! Yo kidding jingo811? That sounds odd. I'll re-read and have more of a think. What distro did you install last? Was it 8.04, cos that usually manages to take care of the grub where as Gutsy didn't seem to at all (in my experience). I ran supergrubdisk or tinkered around then.