Grub Screwed up

[ags131]

I installed Fedora on my pc over Ubuntu and now Grub wont go any farther than rescue mode. (Apparently grubs boot folder was on the Ubuntu partition... Now i see why a dedicated boot partition is handy.)

I used VMware to install Fedora as im currently out of CDs. VMware is setup to use the Physical HDD for the primary HDD in the VM. (I made sure VMware disabled access to the windows partitions so the guest couldn't access them.)
Im in Windows 7 at the moment and am avoiding rebooting as that will basically lock me out of the only computer I have access to. I tried running the Ubuntu LiveCD to restore grub but dont know how to mount Fedoras LVM partitions.

What can I do to repair grub or at least install an MBR that is capable of booting windows? I can boot floppies and cds using VMware but am not sure what to use to fix this.

Fedora LiveCD wont mount any of the partitions to install grub,
Ubuntu LiveCD may work if i can mount the LVM partitions.

[YesWeCan]

To restore your MBR so Windows always boots,

sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr (assuming sda is the name of your Windows disk)

I don't know much about booting fedora. I think it installs Grub-legacy if you tell it to. It ought to be possible to boot fedora from the grub rescue> prompt, but I don't have a recipe.

[oldfred]

To understand where everything is installed:

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum members meierfra & Gert Hulselmans
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste contents of results.txt in a New Reply, 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 New Reply Edit toolbar and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.
V60 has improved formating and requires code tags to make it legible. New Version is a zip file that you have to extract to get .sh to run.
Install these before running script:
Is able to search LVM partitions if the LVM2 package is install
# ("apt-get install lvm2" in debian based distros)
# Is able to search Linux Software Raid partitions (MD Raids) if
# the "mdadm" package is installed.
sudo apt-get install mawk

[ags131]

sda1 and sda2 are dell's recovery partitions. sda3 is a NTFS Windows partition. Theyre showing as unknown because i told VMware not to allow access to them to keep the guest from screwing with windows. sda6 is supposed to be the LVM group. Its not being detected even with LVM2 installed. (This is all from a liveCd through Mware)


Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


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

=> Grub2 (v1.97-1.98) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector
1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and
looks in partition 5 for (,msdos5)/boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files: /grub/menu.lst /grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/core.img

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

============================ 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 Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 2,048 206,847 204,800 2d Unknown
/dev/sda2 206,848 30,926,847 30,720,000 2d Unknown
/dev/sda3 30,926,848 384,350,207 353,423,360 2d Unknown
/dev/sda4 384,350,208 488,396,799 104,046,592 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 384,352,256 483,274,751 98,922,496 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 483,276,800 488,396,799 5,120,000 82 Linux swap / Solaris


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda5 5ca59cef-8bb0-4cff-8cd5-eabc26199dc9 ext4

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda5 /media/5ca59cef-8bb0-4cff-8cd5-eabc26199dc9 ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)


============================= sda5/grub/grub.conf: =============================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,4)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora00-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora00-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora00/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_swap rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora00/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686.img
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

183.416007996 = 196.941438976 boot/grub/core.img 1
183.287049294 = 196.802970624 grub/grub.conf 1
183.287049294 = 196.802970624 grub/menu.lst 1
183.281957626 = 196.797503488 grub/stage2 1
183.304249763 = 196.821439488 initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686.img 4
183.292607307 = 196.808938496 vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda4

00000000 69 74 20 6d 61 69 73 20 72 65 63 65 6e 74 65 00 |it mais recente.|
00000010 6f 20 66 69 63 68 65 69 72 6f 20 60 25 2e 32 35 |o ficheiro `%.25|
00000020 30 73 27 20 6e c3 a3 6f 20 c3 a9 20 75 6d 20 61 |0s' n..o .. um a|
00000030 72 71 75 69 76 6f 20 62 69 6e c3 a1 72 69 6f 20 |rquivo bin..rio |
00000040 64 65 62 69 61 6e 20 28 74 65 6e 74 65 20 64 70 |debian (tente dp|
00000050 6b 67 2d 73 70 6c 69 74 3f 29 00 6f 20 66 69 63 |kg-split?).o fic|
00000060 68 65 69 72 6f 20 60 25 32 35 30 73 27 20 6e c3 |heiro `%250s' n.|
00000070 a3 6f 20 c3 a9 20 75 6d 61 20 70 61 72 74 65 20 |.o .. uma parte |
00000080 64 65 20 61 72 71 75 69 76 6f 00 6f 20 66 69 63 |de arquivo.o fic|
00000090 68 65 69 72 6f 20 60 25 73 27 20 6e c3 a3 6f 20 |heiro `%s' n..o |
000000a0 c3 a9 20 75 6d 61 20 70 61 72 74 65 20 64 65 20 |.. uma parte de |
000000b0 61 72 71 75 69 76 6f 0a 00 63 61 6d 70 6f 20 60 |arquivo..campo `|
000000c0 25 73 27 20 64 65 20 64 65 74 61 6c 68 65 73 20 |%s' de detalhes |
000000d0 64 65 20 66 69 63 68 65 69 72 6f 20 6e c3 a3 6f |de ficheiro n..o|
000000e0 20 c3 a9 20 70 65 72 6d 69 74 69 64 6f 20 6e 6f | .. permitido no|
000000f0 20 66 69 63 68 65 69 72 6f 20 73 74 61 74 75 73 | ficheiro status|
00000100 00 6f 20 66 69 63 68 65 69 72 6f 20 6e c3 a3 6f |.o ficheiro n..o|
00000110 20 70 6f 64 65 20 63 6f 6e 74 65 72 20 71 75 65 | pode conter que|
00000120 62 72 61 73 20 64 65 20 6c 69 6e 68 61 00 6f 20 |bras de linha.o |
00000130 6e 6f 6d 65 20 64 65 20 66 69 63 68 65 69 72 6f |nome de ficheiro|
00000140 20 27 25 2e 35 30 73 2e 2e 2e 27 20 c3 a9 20 64 | '%.50s...' .. d|
00000150 65 6d 61 73 69 61 64 6f 20 67 72 61 6e 64 65 00 |emasiado grande.|
00000160 72 65 67 69 73 74 6f 20 64 65 20 66 69 63 68 65 |registo de fiche|
00000170 69 72 6f 20 64 65 20 27 74 72 69 67 67 65 72 27 |iro de 'trigger'|
00000180 20 6d 65 6e 63 69 6f 6e 61 20 6f 20 6e 6f 6d 65 | menciona o nome|
00000190 20 64 65 20 70 61 63 6f 74 65 20 69 6c 65 67 61 | de pacote ilega|
000001a0 6c 20 60 25 2e 32 35 30 73 27 20 28 70 61 72 61 |l `%.250s' (para|
000001b0 20 6f 20 69 6e 74 65 72 65 73 73 65 20 6e 00 fe | o interesse n..|
000001c0 ff ff 83 fe ff ff 00 08 00 00 00 70 e5 05 00 fe |...........p....|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff 00 78 e5 05 00 28 4e 00 00 00 |.......x...(N...|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

No volume groups found

[YesWeCan]

In the live CD you'll need to install lvm
sudo apt-get install lvm2

And then you'll need to scan for LVM volumes
sudo vgscan

Then they may show up.

When you installed fedora, what choice did you make about the boot code?

[oldfred]

You have grub2 in the MBR, but do not have a grub.cfg in sda5 for it to load??

In sda5 you do have menu.lst which is from old grub and a grub.conf which is from Fedora??

Did you tell Fedora your Ubuntu was the boot partition so it installed its boot files there, then reinstalled grub2 to the MBR? The grub.conf shows hd0,4 as the boot partition which in grub legacy is sda5.

Because Fedora uses the LVM it creates a separate /boot that is not inside the LVM. But script did not show that partition either.

I think the overlapping Fedora boot & Ubuntu has caused problems with both installs. I think you could repair Ubuntu with a chroot and a grub purge & reinstall. Not sure about Fedora.

chroot & grub uninstall & reinstall -drs305
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

Grub2 info & full chroot version - see METHOD 3 - CHROOT:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2#Recover%20Grub%202%20via%20LiveCD

[ags131]

sda5 is the /boot partition. The menu.lst file is symlinked to grub.conf Fedora repartitioned


Did you tell Fedora your Ubuntu was the boot partition so it installed its boot files there, then reinstalled grub2 to the MBR? The grub.conf shows hd0,4 as the boot partition which in grub legacy is sda5.

Yes, it supposedly removed the swap (sda6) and replaced it with LVM

sudo vgscan returns "No volume groups found."

EDIT: Told VMware to use entire harddrive and now Fedora can see the LVM group. Ubuntu LiveCD wont boot with entire harddrive. It crashes the VM when it tries mounting the windows partition.

[YesWeCan]

As oldfred observes, you have got half old and half new Grub.

The thing is, you may not want to mess with your MBR code because it stops Windows booting when grub becomes unavailable. If you have a spare USB stick I'd suggest installing Ubuntu 11.04 to it and make sure it installs its boot code to the stick (the installer tends to default to sda). Then you can use this stick as your boot device and its grub2 to boot everything else.

Grub2 will not auto-detect fedora. I just tried it. But you can manually add the loading instructions to /etc/grub.d/40_custom and run sudo update-grub.

[ags131]

Windows wouldnt boot at the moment anyway if i actually rebooted and tried. Im running the liveCD ISOs in VMWare with access to the physical HDD. When i try booting grub hrough VMWare (Which worked before i screwed it up) grub would show the menu. Now it goes to rescue mode.

[ags131]

Solved! I finally got Fedora LiveCD to install grub and it worked this time. Now all i have to do is add the entries for windows.

[YesWeCan]

This has instructions about how to reinstall fedora's grub.
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Installation_Guide/s1-rescuemode-boot.html