Unable to install GRUB onto / partition.

[ch_123]

Hi all,

I got myself a new laptop (a Thinkpad T61), which in order to preserve its special startup recovery tools requires me to install GRUB onto the Linux partition as opposed to onto the MBR as is usual. Yesterday, I was able to do this successfully with OpenSuse 11. However, when I wanted to put Ubuntu on, I was unable to do this.

At the last stage of the setup, I went into "Advanced Options", and set GRUB to be installed onto "/dev/sda4" (my / partition) and then installed. Towards the end of the installation process (around 97%) I got a "Fatal error" telling me that GRUB was unable to install to this device. I tried replicating this in the terminal by typing "sudo grub-install /dev/sda4" and was told:

"Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device."

Any help folks?

Thanks :)

EDIT:
In case it is relevant, here's my partition scheme -
/dev/sda1 - 120GB, NTFS, Windows XP
/dev/sda4 - 25GB, JFS, Ubuntu
/dev/sda3 - 256MB, Swap Partition
/dev/sda2 - 6GB, FAT32, Recovery Partition

[logos34]

I've never gotten a fatal error installing to jfs, so I doubt that's at issue.

What does

sudo fdisk -l

show?

[ch_123]

Hi,


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xed1f86f7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 15386 123588013+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 18582 19457 7030800 12 Compaq diagnostics
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 18550 18581 257040 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 * 15387 18549 25406797+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

What really bugs me was that OpenSuse was able to do the same thing (or so it seems) yesterday, but Ubuntu cant...

[logos34]

According to fdisk, root is ext3

run a filesystem check:

sudo fsck /dev/sda4

then try reinstalling grub from the live cd. Click on it to mount--it should do so at '/media/disk'.

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk /dev/sda4

[ch_123]

Hello again;

Clicking on the CD Drive icon in Places gives me an error telling me that there is no media in the CD Drive (even though there is). I tried substituting / for /media/disk as the live CD seemed to be mounted as the root filesystem. However, this gave me an error saying that /dev/sda4 was not a block device. The fsck worked fine without errors.

EDIT: I tried manually mounting both CD and the /dev/sda4 partition. So, sub in "/mnt/cd" for "/media/disk" and "/mnt/disk" for "/dev/sda4". Using your command, I tried it again, but it told me that "/mnt/cd" was read only, so I figured the order was wrong, so I swapped the order for disk and CD. This however gave me an error saying that the "Format of install_device not recognized"... God, I had less hassle installing Slackware on my PC ;P

[logos34]

Clicking on the CD Drive icon in Places

no, you click on the root volume/partition


The fsck worked fine without errors.

at least we can rule that out

Either click to mount root, or do this in terminal:

sudo mkdir /media/sda4

sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda4 /media/sda4

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/sda4 /dev/sda4

[ch_123]

Well, I tried that command, and it installed GRUB :) Problem was that it only installed half of it. So when I booted, I would get the GRUB console. To get around this, I installed Ubuntu into a VM on my desktop and copied over the GRUB folder. This was grand, but then Ubuntu just froze up mid loading with some random errors. The great irony of this was that I use Arch on my PC, and I decided to use Ubuntu because I thought it would be less hassle with a laptop and all the complications a laptop brings. However, Im installing Arch now and its working quite alright. Thank you for your assistance though mate xD

[logos34]

Well, I tried that command, and it installed GRUB :) Problem was that it only installed half of it. So when I booted, I would get the GRUB console. To get around this, I installed Ubuntu into a VM on my desktop and copied over the GRUB folder. This was grand, but then Ubuntu just froze up mid loading with some random errors.

There must be some problem with your menu.lst, then, or something else in grub folder.

anyway, have fun with arch (played around with it a little. considering you have to install from scratch, its not all that difficult to get up and running)

[SeePU]

Hi all,

I got myself a new laptop (a Thinkpad T61), which in order to preserve its special startup recovery tools requires me to install GRUB onto the Linux partition as opposed to onto the MBR as is usual. Yesterday, I was able to do this successfully with OpenSuse 11. However, when I wanted to put Ubuntu on, I was unable to do this.

At the last stage of the setup, I went into "Advanced Options", and set GRUB to be installed onto "/dev/sda4" (my / partition) and then installed. Towards the end of the installation process (around 97%) I got a "Fatal error" telling me that GRUB was unable to install to this device. I tried replicating this in the terminal by typing "sudo grub-install /dev/sda4" and was told:

"Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device."

Any help folks?

Thanks :)

EDIT:
In case it is relevant, here's my partition scheme -
/dev/sda1 - 120GB, NTFS, Windows XP
/dev/sda4 - 25GB, JFS, Ubuntu
/dev/sda3 - 256MB, Swap Partition
/dev/sda2 - 6GB, FAT32, Recovery Partition

Maybe there is still something wrong in the syntax? That is, something in your /boot/grub info? I would check your /boot/grub/menu.lst and try to confirm whether the info in there is correct.

I just had to fiddle with mine and with a dual boot even.

[kitchenguy]

Just an idea, but if Open Suse did it ok, why not install Ubuntu first, then open Suse and use the Grub from Open Suse?

When setting up my triple boot - Ubuntu, Mandriva, XP, I found that Ubuntu would recognise Windows and incorporate it into Grub, but the menu.lst entry did not work - however it ignores Mandriva. While Mandriva worked fine with windows, but ignored Ubuntu. So, I loaded XP, then loaded Ubuntu, copied the menu.lst entries for Ubuntu from it's files, then loaded Mandriva and added the Ubuntu entries to the Mandriva menu.lst - (I also liked the Mandriva graphical boot loader a bit more but don't tell anyone!). I'm now going to add 64-Bit Ubuntu, so I'll have a quad boot and if I could get PC Los to deal with my SATA2 disks it'd be there too.

It's probably because I am still a bit new, but I found it really annoying how Hardy, Gutsy and Mandriva completely ignored eachother...maybe Linux snobbery between them?

[logos34]

...I found that Ubuntu would recognise Windows and incorporate it into Grub, but the menu.lst entry did not work - however it ignores Mandriva.

just curious, which ubuntu did you install at this stage--gutsy or hardy?

[kitchenguy]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been a little drunk lately...it was Hardy and the 32 bit version that I installed.

Interestingly, I found that the 64 Bit version of all the distros I use now all saw each other (maybe just a quirk of my rig). I now use Hardy 64 and openSUSE 64 (same as Mandriva, it has a much nicer boot loader)