Restore Grub

[Vrekk]

Recently I had a windows melt down on my dual boot so I had to reinstall windows. Windows overwrote the MBR, which was expteced. How ever when I folowed the instuctions from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351 , i get an error message saying this
grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,5)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed

Error 12: Invalid device requested

Any ideas?

[combatwombat_nz]

Check out this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351
It explains reinstalling Grub from a live cd.

[Vrekk]

Check out this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351
It explains reinstalling Grub from a live cd.

"How ever when I folowed the instuctions from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351 , i get an error message"

Might want to re-read my message there

[meierfra.]

Sounds like your partition table is slightly corrupt. Boot from the LiveCD and post the output of


sudo fdisk -lu
sudo sfdisk -d

[Vrekk]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7d8c7d8c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 2104514 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 2104515 10120949 4008217+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 10120950 976751999 483315525 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 * 488119023 976751999 244316488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 10121076 475973819 232926372 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 475973883 488118959 6072538+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -d
# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 63, size= 2104452, Id=82
/dev/sda2 : start= 2104515, size= 8016435, Id=83
/dev/sda3 : start= 10120950, size=966631050, Id= f
/dev/sda4 : start=488119023, size=488632977, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda5 : start= 10121076, size=465852744, Id=83
/dev/sda6 : start=475973883, size= 12145077, Id=82
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[meierfra.]

empty partition (5)

That's your problem. To fix it, boot from the LiveCD, download the attached file "PT.txt" to your Desktop and open a terminal. Rewrite your partition table via




sudo sfdisk -f --no-reread -O ~/Desktop/OldPT.save /dev/sda < ~/Desktop/PT.txt

Post the output of that commmand.
Just as a precaution, copy the file OldPT.save to a save place outside your hard drive (Flashdrive, online storage..)

You should now be able to reinstall grub:


sudo grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit

Reboot and you should get the Grub menu.

If "setup (hd0)" gave you an error message, reboot to the LiveCD and try reinstalling grub again.
If after rebooting "setup (hd0)" still gives you an error messages post the output of that "setup (hd0)" command and also the output of


sudo fdisk -lu
sudo sfdisk -d
sudo parted /dev/sda print

[Vrekk]

That's your problem. To fix it, boot from the LiveCD, download the attached file "PT.txt" to your Desktop and open a terminal. Rewrite your partition table via




sudo sfdisk -f --no-read -O ~/Desktop/OldPT.save /dev/sda < ~/Desktop/PT.txt

Post the output of that commmand.



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -f --no-read -O ~/Desktop/OldPT.save /dev/sda < ~/Desktop/PT.txt
sfdisk: unrecognized option '--no-read'
sfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.14)Usage: sfdisk [options] device ...
device: something like /dev/hda or /dev/sda
useful options:
-s [or --show-size]: list size of a partition
-c [or --id]: print or change partition Id
-l [or --list]: list partitions of each device
-d [or --dump]: idem, but in a format suitable for later input
-i [or --increment]: number cylinders etc. from 1 instead of from 0
-uS, -uB, -uC, -uM: accept/report in units of sectors/blocks/cylinders/MB
-T [or --list-types]:list the known partition types
-D [or --DOS]: for DOS-compatibility: waste a little space
-R [or --re-read]: make kernel reread partition table
-N# : change only the partition with number #
-n : do not actually write to disk
-O file : save the sectors that will be overwritten to file
-I file : restore these sectors again
-v [or --version]: print version
-? [or --help]: print this message
dangerous options:
-g [or --show-geometry]: print the kernel's idea of the geometry
-G [or --show-pt-geometry]: print geometry guessed from the partition table
-x [or --show-extended]: also list extended partitions on output
or expect descriptors for them on input
-L [or --Linux]: do not complain about things irrelevant for Linux
-q [or --quiet]: suppress warning messages
You can override the detected geometry using:
-C# [or --cylinders #]:set the number of cylinders to use
-H# [or --heads #]: set the number of heads to use
-S# [or --sectors #]: set the number of sectors to use
You can disable all consistency checking with:
-f [or --force]: do what I say, even if it is stupid
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[meierfra.]

May bad. it should say "--no-reread" in the first command. (I fixed my post)

[Vrekk]

Though it might be a simple typo, im just not smart enough to figure out what is was. Here is the new output

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -f --no-reread -O ~/Desktop/OldPT.save /dev/sda < ~/Desktop/PT.txt

Disk /dev/sda: 60801 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Old situation:
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 0+ 130 131- 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 131 629 499 4008217+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 630 60799 60170 483315525 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 * 30384+ 60799 30416- 244316488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
/dev/sda5 630+ 29627 28998- 232926372 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 29628+ 30383 756- 6072538+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 63 2104514 2104452 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 2104515 10120949 8016435 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 10120950 488118959 477998010 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 * 488119023 976751999 488632977 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 10121076 475973819 465852744 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 475973883 488118959 12145077 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Warning: partition 4 does not start at a cylinder boundary
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...
BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
The command to re-read the partition table failed
Reboot your system now, before using mkfs

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[meierfra.]

That looks good. So follow the rest of the instruction, that is: reinstall grub.

[Vrekk]

Ok now Grub is installed and I can boot into ubuntu, I cant ;however, boot into Xp. I get error 13. Also i get an error about a file system check failed when i boot into ubuntu. It says that the check failed then leaves me with a root terminal. I can only get a GUI if i type reboot in the root terminal it gives me.

[meierfra.]

I can boot into ubuntu,
Great. Did reinstalling grub work the first time or did you had to reboot first?



boot into Xp. I get error 13 i think?


Sounds like, you need to edit menu.lst. Open a terminal in Ubuntu and open the file menu.lst via


gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and change your windows item to

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,3)
chainloader +1

Save the file and reboot.


If this did not let you boot into XP:

In order to get a clearer picture of your setup, I suggest to boot into Ubuntu and download the Boot Info Script to your desktop:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Then open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type:


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 the RESULTS.txt file to your next post, highlight the copied text, and click the pound/hash sign "#" graphic button 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 hopefully what the solution to your booting problem might be.

[Vrekk]

Great. Did reinstalling grub work the first time or did you had to reboot first?
First Time


So now xp starts up just fine, but i get an error booting ubutnu about a failed file system check. It saved a log that i attached. Then i get a root termnail (root@brett-desktop:~# ) There i have to type in reboot in order to get to a GUI.

[meierfra.]

Sounds like /etc/fstab needs to be edited. Post the output of


cat /etc/fstab

and


sudo blkid -c /dev/null

[Vrekk]

brett@brett-desktop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda6
UUID=d89990a7-2081-49ad-b5d5-b02b8f2604a1 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda7
UUID=a3d52c7e-4aca-413b-82e0-bdc30393de91 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sda5 /media/sda5 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
brett@brett-desktop:~$ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
[sudo] password for brett:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for brett:
/dev/sda1: UUID="8f2e69c4-bc45-4343-83d0-fb847ef35a41" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda2: UUID="506fb74e-fb38-4418-aaf1-c04fd0eb16e5" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda4: UUID="9AC4BF54C4BF30FD" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="d89990a7-2081-49ad-b5d5-b02b8f2604a1" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda6: UUID="a3d52c7e-4aca-413b-82e0-bdc30393de91" TYPE="swap"
brett@brett-desktop:~$

[Vrekk]

Yes i got it! I edited the /ect/fstab and removed

/dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2
line and changed

/dev/sda5 /media/sda5 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0

to

/dev/sda4 /media/Xp ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0

now my system is back to the way i had it before!
Thanks for everthing!

[meierfra.]

Yes i got it.
Great.



I removed

/dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2


What is on /dev/sda2? (your 4GB ext3 partition). If you want to mount it automatically, rename /media/sda3 via


sudo mv /media/sda3 /media/sda2

and at


/dev/sda2 /media/sda2 ext3 defaults 0 2

to fstab.



Thanks for everthing!
You are welcome. Have fun with XP and Ubuntu.