moonsnow
December 28th, 2010, 06:34 PM
Hello everyone,
I am a newbie have recently decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop. I installed it on a new empty 640 GB external hard drive and let Ubuntu set up a 160 GB filesystem on it so my Windows installation would remain safe no matter what. During installation, it was listed as "sdb" and the boot loader was also installed on it. The installation went fine. However, when I tried to boot Ubuntu, the screen was black and said "unknown filesystem" followed by the GRUB rescue prompt on the following line. I have tried to do this several times in the past and each time I run into this same problem. I have looked around on this forum, and have tried several suggested solutions, but they do not fix my problem, such as running the following commands in the terminal:
sudo fdisk -l
sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1/ /dev/sdb
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdbThat did not fix my problem. I also noticed that there can be problems with booting from certain distances from the front or the end of a drive and the Boot Info Script seems to be very beneficial to solving boot problems so here are the results:
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010
============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in
partition #1 for /boot/grub.
sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
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: /bootmgr /boot/bcd
sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe
sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img
sdb2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sdb5: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdb5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:
sdb6: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 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 17,299,455 17,297,408 27 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 17,299,456 488,395,119 471,095,664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 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 937,428,992 1,250,263,039 312,834,048 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 * 16,126 937,428,991 937,412,866 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 16,128 924,108,408 924,092,281 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 924,108,800 937,428,991 13,320,192 82 Linux swap / Solaris
blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 6A02839A02836A41 ntfs Recovery
/dev/sda2 AC1C474E1C4712AE ntfs
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ext4
/dev/sdb2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb5 2BBE654529E33D97 ntfs FreeAgent Drive
/dev/sdb6 3bda01b2-9e55-4d7f-8314-fa5a648affee swap
/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/19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb5 /media/FreeAgent Drive fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_ permissions)
=========================== sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}
function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-24-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6a02839a02836a41
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ac1c474e1c4712ae
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
=============================== sdb1/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/sdb1 during installation
UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=3bda01b2-9e55-4d7f-8314-fa5a648affee none swap sw 0 0
=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================
512.4GB: boot/grub/core.img
523.0GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
512.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
512.4GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
512.4GB: initrd.img
512.4GB: vmlinuz
So far, all my knowledge on Linux has mostly come from books, and I have not read one that addressed this problem. Let me know if more information is needed.
Sincerely,
moonsnow
I am a newbie have recently decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop. I installed it on a new empty 640 GB external hard drive and let Ubuntu set up a 160 GB filesystem on it so my Windows installation would remain safe no matter what. During installation, it was listed as "sdb" and the boot loader was also installed on it. The installation went fine. However, when I tried to boot Ubuntu, the screen was black and said "unknown filesystem" followed by the GRUB rescue prompt on the following line. I have tried to do this several times in the past and each time I run into this same problem. I have looked around on this forum, and have tried several suggested solutions, but they do not fix my problem, such as running the following commands in the terminal:
sudo fdisk -l
sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1/ /dev/sdb
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdbThat did not fix my problem. I also noticed that there can be problems with booting from certain distances from the front or the end of a drive and the Boot Info Script seems to be very beneficial to solving boot problems so here are the results:
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010
============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in
partition #1 for /boot/grub.
sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
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: /bootmgr /boot/bcd
sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe
sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img
sdb2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sdb5: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdb5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:
sdb6: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 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 17,299,455 17,297,408 27 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 17,299,456 488,395,119 471,095,664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 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 937,428,992 1,250,263,039 312,834,048 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 * 16,126 937,428,991 937,412,866 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 16,128 924,108,408 924,092,281 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 924,108,800 937,428,991 13,320,192 82 Linux swap / Solaris
blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 6A02839A02836A41 ntfs Recovery
/dev/sda2 AC1C474E1C4712AE ntfs
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ext4
/dev/sdb2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb5 2BBE654529E33D97 ntfs FreeAgent Drive
/dev/sdb6 3bda01b2-9e55-4d7f-8314-fa5a648affee swap
/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/19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb5 /media/FreeAgent Drive fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_ permissions)
=========================== sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}
function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-24-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6a02839a02836a41
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ac1c474e1c4712ae
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
=============================== sdb1/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/sdb1 during installation
UUID=19fd2248-be65-4a33-9c84-29aadf0f380b / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=3bda01b2-9e55-4d7f-8314-fa5a648affee none swap sw 0 0
=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================
512.4GB: boot/grub/core.img
523.0GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
512.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
512.4GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
512.4GB: initrd.img
512.4GB: vmlinuz
So far, all my knowledge on Linux has mostly come from books, and I have not read one that addressed this problem. Let me know if more information is needed.
Sincerely,
moonsnow