Error when trying to boot from usb

[DiMoNd]

Hi!

A year ago did I a fresh install of ubuntu on my 4gig usb stick. I was able to boot with grub and everything was fine.

Today I tried to boot from my usb and I got an error:


GRUB loading.
error: reloc offset is out of the segment
grub rescue>

I have read some threads but I am not sure on how to fix this problem and I don't want to risk losing all the work I have done until now.

I could use some help!

Thank you in advance!

[oldfred]

Welcome to the forums.

With the USB flash drive plugged in run this:

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum members meierfra & Gert Hulselmans
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste results.txt, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.
Or You can generate the tags first by pressing the # icon in the post's menu and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.

[DiMoNd]

Hi!

Thank you for your quick response!

Here is the results after running the script:


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: Windows Vista
Boot files/dirs: /BOOTMGR /BOOT/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

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:
Mounting failed:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so


sdb2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdb5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc52cf23d

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 63 20,980,889 20,980,827 27 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 20,981,760 312,578,047 291,596,288 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 487 cylinders, total 7831552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00070a44

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 63 7,357,769 7,357,707 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 7,357,770 7,823,654 465,885 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 7,357,833 7,823,654 465,822 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 D868DD9868DD75AA ntfs PQSERVICE
/dev/sda2 C034F2D034F2C904 ntfs OS
/dev/sdb1 1d4c698a-9c9e-42aa-9e0f-c952a5b8807f ext4
/dev/sdb5 359aede7-c9c2-4959-a06e-98ec6c37cf05 swap

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)

[oldfred]

Either from liveCD or another USB flash drive try this. It says it is an ext4 partition.

From liveCD so everything is unmounted,swap off if necessary, change sdb1 to your partition(s)
e2fsck is used to check the ext2/ext3/ext4 family of file systems.
sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sdb1
if errors:
sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb1

An install into a 4GB partition is tight. You can do it but have to regularly houseclean and maybe remove larger apps like Firefox and OpenOffice and use other apps that are not so large.

[DiMoNd]

It seems that after running the commands the usb is not being detected at all.

I think the best is to format it and install ubuntu again, but now I cannot do it.

I connected with my other pc with windows 7, it was found but when I check with right-click -- properties I get 0bytes free space 0 bytes used.

When I run ubuntu livecd I can see that it is mounted but I cannot open it or format it..

Something we can do so that I can format it? Or is it damaged?

thank you!

[oldfred]

Windows will not see an ext4 formated partition, so I would expect windows to report nothing.

What does the liveCD show? Can you see it with gparted.

If teh e2fsck commands did not work.

List backup superblocks:
sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sdb1 | grep -i backup
then use backup superblock, 32768 just an example, try several
sudo fsck -b 32768 /dev/sdb1
One user could not get partition unmounted (may have needed swapoff), but used another live distro

[DiMoNd]

No I cannot see it in gparted. Should I try the comannds you wrote above?

[oldfred]

At this point, it will not hurt to run those commands.

If those do not work then you can try these, but then if that does not work nothing will.
http://linuxexpresso.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/repair-a-broken-ext4-superblock-in-ubuntu/
Last ditch redo superblocks:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1681972&page=5
Worked for this user:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1684746