10.10 Upgrade Grub Problem

[mikeody]

Just upgraded from 10.04 to 10.10 online via Update Manager.
All seemed to go OK until reboot.
I now have message :

error: the symbol 'grub_xputs' not found
grub rescue>

Can anyone help please ?

[Quackers]

Have a look at this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1580752

[Dutch70]

Just upgraded from 10.04 to 10.10 online via Update Manager.
All seemed to go OK until reboot.
I now have message :

error: the symbol 'grub_xputs' not found
grub rescue>

Can anyone help please ?

It's easy to reinstall Grub...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

[Rubi1200]

The error message about 'grub_xputs' not found often relates to missing or corrupt GRUB files.

You can try the methods already suggested, but you may have to purge and reinstall GRUB from the LiveCD if that does not work:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

[mikeody]

Thanks Everyone,
Still not there though !

sudo fdisk -l confirms that my boot partition is /dev/sda1

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt returns OK
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda returns all the right messages.

Unfortunately though, after I exit the Live CD and reboot the PC without it, I now get a blank screen which just hangs there.

Any more thoughts please ?

[Quackers]

What was (or is) in sda1?
It is likely that a bare grub-install will not be enough. You will need to purge-re-install grub.

[mikeody]

Thanks Quackers

The full response to sudo fdisk -l was :

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB,80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065*512=8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00028ed4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9356 75149312 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9356 9730 2999297 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9356 9730 2999296 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I started on the chroot option but when I input :
apt-get update it returned :
Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
Unable to lock the list directory

Let me know if you want me to try anything else - am on here for a while.

[Dutch70]

Permission denied? You have to use the sudo command.

If you did, then it's probably because you have another synaptic running.

Also, sounds like you need to choose "nomodeset" to fix the black screen.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1631503

[Quackers]

Thanks Quackers

The full response to sudo fdisk -l was :

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB,80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065*512=8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00028ed4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9356 75149312 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9356 9730 2999297 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9356 9730 2999296 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I started on the chroot option but when I input :
apt-get update it returned :
Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
Unable to lock the list directory

Let me know if you want me to try anything else - am on here for a while.
When you got that error had your terminal prompt changed from ubuntu@ubuntu to root@ubuntu? If it hadn't something went wrong with the chroot

[mikeody]

No, still showed ubuntu@ubuntu
My input was :

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt && sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev && sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt

response was :
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Then apt-get update generated the error message.
Am connected to internet OK

[Quackers]

sda5 is your swap partition. It will do no good mounting that first.
I would suggest that you type exit and press enter. Then do
sudo umount /dev/sda5 /mnt&& sudo umount --bind /dev /mnt/dev && sudo umount --bind /proc /mnt
and hit enter, then start again following the instructions in the guide that rubi1200 linked to, here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099
and follow the instructions in the "Why chroot" section, (it's a little bit shorter).
Important!!!
You do not have a separate boot partition, so ignore those bits.
The partition to mount is your root partition, which appears to be /dev/sda1

Any problems get back.

[mikeody]

Thanks Quackers and everyone for all your help.
Have failed though to fix things.
But no matter, have restored back to my [wisely taken] image from just before I 'upgraded'. Clonezilla really does the job !
I will probably wait a while then do a clean install of 10.10.
Thanks again.
Have marked thread as 'solved'.

[Quackers]

Well that's good......sort of :-)
Not ideal, but certainly one way out of it.