9.10 / Newbie requesting help. Clean install, problem after restart!

[LucyInTheSky]

I installed Karmic on a computer that was previously running WinXP, clean install, no problems whatsoever, but after restarting I got the following error:


error: no such device: (followed by a series of numbers and letters)
Failed to boot default entries.
Press any key to continue...
I figured I'd just try to reinstall, but got the same error for the 2nd and 3rd try. CD is working 100%, tested it and even burned a second one to be sure. Can anyone help? I don't really know much about Ubuntu this is all new to me, so bear with me ;)

Thanks!

[ibuclaw]

OK, here goes again.


Generally routine to take:


Boot into Karmic LiveCD
Mount the filesystem that you installed Ubuntu on.
ie:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sda1 may be slightly different, depending on where you installed it. If you aren't sure, sudo fdisk -l will show you a list of all partitions.
Then run the following once mounted correctly:


sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo chroot /mnt
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
update-grub
grub-install /dev/sda
exit

Then reboot the system.


Regards
Iain

[LucyInTheSky]

Generally routine to take:


Boot into Karmic LiveCD
Mount the filesystem that you installed Ubuntu on.
ie:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mntsda1 may be slightly different, depending on where you installed it. If you aren't sure, sudo fdisk -l will show you a list of all partitions.

Thank you for your help, i appreciate it!

sda1 seems to be already mounted and sudo fdisk -l shows me sda1 (Linux); sda2 (Extended); sda5 (Linux swap /solaris). Should i proceed as described or..? I'm just confused as sda1 is already mounted. Let me know if you need more information.

[axel_2078]

This is exactly the same problem I'm having. All of the commands worked fine until I got to the mounting portion to /pts. I got the following error:

mount: mount point /pts does not exist

Do I need to create a directory called pts first? Also, when I tried the grub-install command, I got the following:

install_device not specified.
Usage: grub-install [OPTION] install_device
Install GRUB on your drive.

-h, --help print this message and exit
-v, --version print the version information and exit
--modules=MODULES pre-load specified modules MODULES
--root-directory=DIR install GRUB images under the directory DIR
instead of the root directory
--grub-setup=FILE use FILE as grub-setup
--grub-mkimage=FILE use FILE as grub-mkimage
--grub-mkdevicemap=FILE use FILE as grub-mkdevicemap
--grub-probe=FILE use FILE as grub-probe
--no-floppy do not probe any floppy drive
--recheck probe a device map even if it already exists
--force install even if problems are detected
--disk-module=MODULE disk module to use

INSTALL_DEVICE can be a GRUB device name or a system device filename.

grub-install copies GRUB images into the DIR/boot directory specified by
--root-directory, and uses grub-setup to install grub into the boot
sector.


I'm guessing I need to specify sda1 as the system device?

[Sealbhach]

I'm guessing I need to specify sda1 as the system device?

It should be wherever your Linux root filesystem is on.

.

[axel_2078]

It should be wherever your Linux root filesystem is on.

.

I just tried the same command, this time specifying /dev/sda1 and it seemed to work. It said grub intalled OK, but then when I rebooted, I have the same freakin' problem. No boot. This is so frustrating!!

[Sealbhach]

I just tried the same command, this time specifying /dev/sda1 and it seemed to work. It said grub intalled OK, but then when I rebooted, I have the same freakin' problem. No boot. This is so frustrating!!

Hi, this is the method I have used, it worked successfully for me:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

.

[skyydiver]

Hi, this is the method I have used, it worked successfully for me:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

.

Nothing for me. Reinstalled grub per the same instructions (was getting file not found then a GRUB rescue prompt) and now it boots to a sh grub> prompt instead. This was from a clean live cd install with home partition and new formatting. My newer box did fine with an upgrade, but since this one didn't I figured a clean install was the way to go. Not the case. I'm tired of dorking with grub, think I'll try something else until the live CD is ready to just work. FYI, after getting this grub issue, I even tried a clean install of 8.10 from live CD to walk up an upgrade, but after that install (choosing all defaults other than /home partition) I got the same grub rescue prompt. Ha! 9.10 did a number on me. I'm no guru, and don't want to be right now, but as I said, I did reinstall grub just to get different problems.

[axel_2078]

This is what I get when I do the grub-install portion:

root@ubuntu:/# sudo grub-install /dev/sda1
sudo: unable to resolve host ubuntu
grub-setup: warn: Attempting to install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. This is a BAD idea.
grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and its use is discouraged.
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0) /dev/sda


Am I supposed to be getting this?

[ibuclaw]

This is what I get when I do the grub-install portion:

root@ubuntu:/# sudo grub-install /dev/sda1
sudo: unable to resolve host ubuntu
grub-setup: warn: Attempting to install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. This is a BAD idea.
grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and its use is discouraged.
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0) /dev/sda


Am I supposed to be getting this?


You are already root, no need to use sudo when inside the chroot.
It's /dev/pts, not /pts.
Sorry, I seem to have missed out the argument for grub-install in the original post (corrected for reference sakes).
What you should do is:

grub-install /dev/sda


Regards
Iain

[axel_2078]

Below is what I've done and as far as I can see, I've done everything right. I didn't get any error messages, as you can see, but it still won't boot after I restart. I still get the same error as the original poster. I don't get it....

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t proc proc /proc
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
root@ubuntu:/# update-grub
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done
root@ubuntu:/# grub-install /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0) /dev/sda
root@ubuntu:/#

[axel_2078]

Since there seems to be no clear solution to this and EVERYTHING I have tried up till now has failed, I'm going to reinstall 9.04 and then do a dist-upgrade and see if that works.

[LucyInTheSky]

Since there seems to be no clear solution to this and EVERYTHING I have tried up till now has failed, I'm going to reinstall 9.04 and then do a dist-upgrade and see if that works.

Can you post your results? I've been thinking about the same thing, but I don't have 9.04 on CD yet, so this might take a while for me.

[axel_2078]

Can you post your results? I've been thinking about the same thing, but I don't have 9.04 on CD yet, so this might take a while for me.

Here's the scoop:

The upgrade seemed to go flawlessly. I didn't get any errors from the upgrade and now it boots successfully once restarted. I haven't spent much time in 9.10 yet, but I haven't noticed any major problems. Sound and wireless still work great. The only annoyance that I have right now is that my desktop is black and I can't seem to change it, nor can I open anything in full screen because of it. I opened a separate thread about it here. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309418) Other than that annoyance, everything seems to be working.

[portabill]

I'm no expert, but here is my two cents on how I got it to work.

PC: Dell Latitude D505 laptop
HDD: Brand-new Western Digital 250 GB, Ubuntu 9.10 was the first OS installed, 9x ;)

I did the standard install and received the same error "No such device <uuid>"

I pieced together instructions from this thread (thanks tinivole!) and from Launchpad at https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/grub2/+bug/403408 in comment #10.


I held down the shift key to get to the Grub menu
Selected "e" to edit.
Deleted the entire line beginning with "search --nofloppy..." (comment 15)
Hit ctrl-x to boot
Followed comment #10 to edit /usr/lib/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib and remove
if fs_uuid="`${grub_probe} --device ${device} --target=fs_uuid 2> /dev/null`" ; then
echo "search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ${fs_uuid}"
fi
Issued "sudo update-grub"
Rebooted and it works


Comment #10 is from one of the Grub developers and said that this change would get lost with an update to grub-common package.

This seems to be working for me. An expert may correct me, and that is fine. This is just my $0.02.

Hope this helps. Be careful out there.

[Joe91]

I had the 'error: no such device' when I did a clean install of 9.10 on a Dell Inspiron 500m with a new Samsung 160gb drive. I tried a number of the solutions suggested but none worked. Then I tried Iain's suggestion in #2 above and that seemed to do the trick. First reboot I got the GRUB menu but the second time it seemed to sail right through. Many thanks
Joe

[Shreesh Taskar]

I had the same exact error that the original poster (LucyInTheSky) had. I followed the instructions outlined by Iain in post #2 and now I get only the "error: no such device: (long string of numbers and letters).

Ubuntu still does not boot.

I am trying this on a Dell Inspiron I6000, clean install without windows.

[Shreesh Taskar]

I had the same exact error that the original poster (LucyInTheSky) had. I followed the instructions outlined by Iain in post #2 and now I get only the "error: no such device: (long string of numbers and letters).

Ubuntu still does not boot.

I am trying this on a Dell Inspiron I6000, clean install without windows.

I reinstalled Ubuntu 9.10 for the 3rd time, this time using the ext3 option for the filesystem instead of ext4 and it works!

[Joe91]

I spoke too soon.
3rd reboot brought back the problem so now it's back to the drawing board.
Joe