Grub error 15 after reinstall of 8.04.2

[vanhelmont]

I tried to install 8.04.2 on a system that was working with 8.10.
/boot is /dev/sda1
/home is /dev/sda2
/ is /dev/sda3
I didn't let it reformat /home
After installing from a cd and rebooting, i got "error 15"

Some of what I would expect to find in /boot isn't there:

~$ sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 bootpart

~$ ls -l bootpart

total 3607

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 420395 2008-11-27 20:56 abi-2.6.24-23-generic

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 74166 2008-11-27 20:56 config-2.6.24-23-generic

drwx------ 2 root root 12288 2009-02-03 15:04 lost+found

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103204 2007-09-28 11:03 memtest86+.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1153225 2008-11-27 20:56 System.map-2.6.24-23-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1907096 2008-11-27 20:56 vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic


so I tried to reinstall grub, but it doesn't think I have the partition /boot is on:
~$ grub

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.



[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For

the first word, TAB lists possible command

completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible

completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> root (hd0,0)

root (hd0,0)



Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> quit

quit


I ran a couple of diagnostic things somebody had suggested for a similar problem:

~$ sudo fdisk -lu



Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0xab0a1495



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 208844 104391 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 208845 82124279 40957717+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda3 82124280 102607154 10241437+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda4 102607155 135363689 16378267+ 5 Extended

/dev/sda5 102607218 112840559 5116671 83 Linux

/dev/sda6 112840623 114880814 1020096 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda7 114880878 135363689 10241406 83 Linux


~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"

GRUB


~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda bs=1 skip=1049 count=2 2>/dev/null | hexdump | awk '{print $2}'

ff00



Any advice would be appreciated!

[caljohnsmith]

So it looks like for some reason Grub was not installed when you installed 8.04.2; any idea why? Did you change any of the settings under the "Advanced" button in the final stage of installation? It's possible to install Grub manually afterwards, but it is usually more trouble than it is worth if you can instead get Grub to install properly when you install Ubuntu. Also, did you get any errors during or after the installation was completed?

[vanhelmont]

Yes, from everything I can tell, grub did not install:(

and I have no idea why. The only nonstandard thing I did was manual partitioning. It formatted /boot and / partitions. I checked the disk, and it has no errors. I redid the install with exactly the same results. I've tried to install grub from the live cd, and even when I mount and chroot to the hd grub can't find the hd (even though mount, fdisk, etc can).

There were no errors during the install, and the only errors afterward are the grub errors.

[caljohnsmith]

Before we try the manual method of installing Grub, I think it would help to get more info about your system, so how about downloading the Boot Info Script (https://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/) to your Ubuntu Live CD desktop and do:

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh
That will create a "RESULTS.txt" file in the same directory from where the script is run, namely your desktop; please copy/paste the contents of that file to your next post, highlight the copied text, and click the pound sign # graphic in the Ubuntu forum message box so that the text will get "code" tags put around it. The results of that script will help clarify your setup and give us some idea if manually installing Grub will make sense at this point.

[vanhelmont]

Here are the contents of RESULTS.txt:


============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub0.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive
in partition #1 for /grub/stage2 and /grub/menu.lst.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 8.04.2
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Fedora Core release 2
(Tettnang) Kernel on an
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive sda: __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xab0a1495

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 208,844 208,782 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 208,845 82,124,279 81,915,435 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 82,124,280 102,607,154 20,482,875 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 102,607,155 135,363,689 32,756,535 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 102,607,218 112,840,559 10,233,342 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 112,840,623 114,880,814 2,040,192 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 114,880,878 135,363,689 20,482,812 83 Linux


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

/dev/sda1: UUID="a8fa4d7c-9536-484c-809a-02f24a4cc85c" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="/home" UUID="945b0a1d-86f8-4d92-b247-f46fd5a71915" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: UUID="6354ec54-c649-4355-b54f-c8bcc833c25c" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda5: UUID="d9841b02-ee6e-4070-895e-c52499ea11dc" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda6: TYPE="swap" UUID="360dcd62-d970-4477-ae97-2ff2d317f2c8"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="/1" UUID="1a4c7a5b-ee44-4f35-94a7-b65bacedc3ee" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"

=============================== "mount" output: ===============================

proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ubuntu/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ubuntu)
/dev/sda1 on /home/ubuntu/bootpart type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda3 on /mnt/root type ext3 (rw)
none on /mnt/root/proc type proc (rw)
/dev on /mnt/root/dev type none (rw,bind)

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic

=============================== sda3/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=6354ec54-c649-4355-b54f-c8bcc833c25c / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=a8fa4d7c-9536-484c-809a-02f24a4cc85c /boot ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda2
UUID=945b0a1d-86f8-4d92-b247-f46fd5a71915 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda5
UUID=d9841b02-ee6e-4070-895e-c52499ea11dc /usr/local ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda6
UUID=360dcd62-d970-4477-ae97-2ff2d317f2c8 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=============================== sda7/etc/fstab: ===============================

LABEL=/1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
none /var/lib/jack/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

sed: can't read sda5/etc/issue: No such file or directory

Thanks!

[caljohnsmith]

From the script results and also from your first post, it looks like you are also missing an initrd-2.6.24-23-generic image to go with your vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic kernel. So I think there could have been more that went wrong with your install than just not having Grub installed. Do you have to have a boot partition? I think you might have better luck if you install without a boot partition. Or maybe it would help to try installing with the Alternate 8.04.2 CD instead.

[vanhelmont]

Thanks, it works now, but I don't know why!

I deleted my old sda7 partition, made a new partition from that plus the extra space at the end of the disk, and installed on that without /boot or /home partitions.

Some Linux book I read several years ago talked about partitioning, and suggested a /boot partition, but I don't recall any reason. I will try again later with my /home partition, just to see if it works.

[caljohnsmith]

Glad to hear you finally have a successful install. Let me know if you are successful installing with a home partition too, I would be interested.