8.04 lts hangs on boot with GRUB

[redester]

'Sorry for a long post....

I have used ubuntu 6.04 upped to 7.10 for a couple of years with 3 OS', DR-DOS, WINXP and Linux in the following partitions reported by fdisk -l;

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 979 250608 6 FAT16

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffb36be2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 94 755023+ 6 FAT16
/dev/sdb2 * 95 21405 171180607+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 38908 38911 32130 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4 21406 38907 140584815 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

---------------------------------------

A friend talked me into upgrading to 8.04 lts and GRUB fails to run but produces an error no.

I CAN boot to DOS with a boot floppy, but have no means to check Windows except to view the contents here while running with the live CD.

I have never had a problem with any Linux distro before this. :confused:


Menu.lst

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd1,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=e6fa60c7-c5b1-4ac2-87a6-0b3600286744 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=e6fa60c7-c5b1-4ac2-87a6-0b3600286744 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd1,3)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdb2
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd1,1)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

----------------------------------------
All looks well as far as I can tell... It skipped the first partition, but the would be easily fixed......

Any help will be appreciated.

Tks.

[cocokiwi]

GRUB fix


TO all ,

GRUB is an OLD program and as such is a little BEHIND in some newer item's...HARD DRIVES have gone from VERY small to VERY BIG and the way they are setup has changed also,hence the Dreaded ERROR 17 _ PARTITION found but cannot find file!

AH! the problem is!:popcorn:

80 gig hard drive listed in AUTO CYL =38309 head = 16

80 gig hard drive listed in LARGE CYL =2553 head = 240


and you wonder WHY it don't work right!(grin) AUTO starts the drive at a higher Cylinder location than LARGE do so,GRUB is looking for it down in the LARGE area 2553,it can see the file but cannot find it! (fix change GRUB software to scan BOTH locations):biggrin:


SET the Hard drive you are using to LARGE instead of AUTO.:lolflag:

[redester]

I fixed it finally.

For some dumb reason the installer *** umed the target drive to be the slave. So, it wrote menu.lst that way!!!

Changing references from hdb to hda and it booted properly. Further, I had to add the 1st partion which it had bypassed....

Ray

[tropdoug]

I have the same problem, Redester could you post your fix, so others can perhaps use or learn from it,. and cocokiwi what the heck is all that jibber jabber, as a newbie I would certainly appreciate the information that you obviously posess, rather than statements.

Would it be posible for you to expand please

Thanks

[Rallg]

Recently (using someone else's computer) I discovered that GRUB may hang (error 17) but only sometimes, when booting from USB. It seems that when the boot is directly from the power off state, the BIOS doesn't locate things the way GRUB would like them. But if it is a restart from a previously on machine, no problem.

I don't have enough technical knowledge to tell you more. All I can say is that if you find intermittent problems booting from GRUB, it might help to do a dummy boot to something else, then come back and reboot.

[Felipejane]

I think my problem might be related, although the GRUB error I see is Error 5 (not 17), and I'm running 8.10. Since I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 (on 31 October), I find that only every other time I boot, GRUB runs properly and I can run Linux. So I have a productive session and shut down the machine. Next day, when I boot, I can't get past GRUB Error 5. But if I insert the 8.04 LTS ISO CD and boot from that, and then restart without the CD, I get to the GRUB boot menu and all is well.

Not clear on what it is I need to check and modify to straighten this out. Is there a better (i.e., newer) multi-boot program than GRUB that I should look into?

Setup: Dell Dimension 8250; internal HD has Windows XP on it, but I can no longer boot in Windows because I somehow hosed the MBR. Ubuntu 8.10 is installed on an external HD (USB-connected), which boots fine (except as noted above). I can still see the files on the Windows drive, and read and write to them, but can't actually run Windows. Still a few things I need to be able to do there. But first I want to get the Linux side booting reliably every time.

All guidance appreciated.