10.10 install problem, missing boot loader - manual install brings me to GRUB CLI

[jbyron]

Hello,

I am a brand new Ubuntu user that just tried to install on an old PC using the 10.10 desktop edition. During installation, I hit an error that the bootloader could not install, and after reading about it on the forums, opted to attempt to install it manually after.

I have followed the tutorial located here,

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20GRUB%202

on reinstalling GRUB2 from the liveCD, which I assume means to boot with the installation CD and select try Ubuntu (given the only other option is install, which I have tried twice) everything up to step 5 in that tutorial seems to run successfully, and I am given a message it is installed, but then when I reboot the system it does not open the GRUB2 menu, rather the CLI interface, which suggests there is no grub.cfg

So I am unable to refresh at the GRUB menu because that command is not recognized by the CLI (and it may not help if I am missing files, so I might have screwed up reinstalling them in step 5, or maybe the "Try Ubuntu" terminal doesn't alter the computer like I thought?)

Anyhow, been stuck on this problem for hours and would appreciate any help.

[Quackers]

Welcome to UF
Please boot from the Ubuntu Live cd/usb and select "try ubuntu" then when the desktop is loaded make sure you have an internet connection and go to the site below and download the boot script to your DESKTOP and then open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > terminal) and run


sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will produce a results.txt file on your desktop. Please copy the contents of that file and paste them in your next post between CODE tags. For CODE tags click on New Reply (not quick reply)and then click on the # symbol in the toolbar.
This will give a full overview of your current system.
Thanks.

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

[jbyron]

Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

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

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #1 for (,msdos1)/boot/grub.
=> No boot loader? is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== 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
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 2,048 150,675,455 150,673,408 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 150,677,502 156,301,311 5,623,810 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 150,677,504 156,301,311 5,623,808 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
45 heads, 45 sectors/track, 7734 cylinders, total 15663104 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 8,064 15,663,103 15,655,040 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 1f2bcb94-3dcc-4eec-9be3-fa87c311b260 ext4
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 66a02094-0ddd-46c1-a10d-104524917fc6 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 A06289DA6289B616 ntfs MALFI
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /media/MALFI fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_ permissions)


=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=1f2bcb94-3dcc-4eec-9be3-fa87c311b260 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=66a02094-0ddd-46c1-a10d-104524917fc6 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

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


47.4GB: boot/grub/core.img
38.9GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
47.4GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
38.9GB: initrd.img
47.4GB: vmlinuz


Thanks for the reply.

[Quackers]

For some reason /boot/grub/grub.cfg has not installed - as you suspected.
I don't believe that the short way of re-installing grub will work in this case.
You will need to follow drs305's excellent guide to purge and re-install grub2 using the chroot method - scroll down a little way in the link below.
Please note that the partition you want to mount is sda1 and that grub should be installed to sda (note no number in the last bit).

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

[jbyron]

Hello. Thank you for working with me, I was able to resolve the problem with your help.

I spent a lot of the day trying to figure out how to make the internet work on the computer, but finally found a method that did not ask for the internet located here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20GRUB%202

The chroot method, as per your suggestion, worked like a charm.

I wasn't able to access chroot using the link you provided but that was certainly my fault, just glad to try again and get it working.

[Quackers]

Ah that's good then :-)
Did you miss out this command by any chance?

for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt/temp$i; done

[ScienTux]

Worked perfectly, now I have a 10 yr old system (that was good only for trash, so I thought) up and running. That's the beauty of Linux. Kudos for the forum and the poster of this solution !!!!