I have made a grave mistake and formatted a partition that held grub info.

I have 2 hard drives. No 1 has Slackware V12. No 2 has #! Ubuntu V?.
Slackware hard drive - hdc1, 2 and 3.
Ubuntu #! - hda1, 2, 5, 6 and 7.

Slackware is my main OS and where I am 95% of the time. All my work,
email etc.

I have recently began exploring Slackware 14 live iso on DVD.
While booted up on the DVD, I wanted to format a flashdrive. I am used
to seeing this flashdrive from Slack12 as 'sda1'. Forgetting where I
was booted I did a 'mkfs /dev/sda1'.

I then wanted to boot up to Slack12 and during the initial boot I got
the following:

GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 15

I then realized my mistake. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrh ..!
And that's where I stand. At this point I don't really care about the
#! Ubuntu. But my whole life resides on Slack12.

I think at this point I would like to boot up the DVD (Slack14) and
install it on the Ubuntu disk. Can I just do so now or is the fact
that GRUB is messed up give me trouble ?

And no, I have no backups to rely on.

TIA

Ima

Hi Ima,

The message "Grub Loading" indicate you didn't format the boot partition.
The 1st step will be to identify which partition has been formated.
I hope this is not the one with your data.

Then the 2nd thing is to clearly identify each partition and especially :
- boot partitions
- system partitions
- data partition
It can be done with the below command launched from a live cd :
> fdisk -l

If you can post the configuration files of your boot loader, it would be great.
For GRUB, it should be in /boot/grub/grub.cfg or /boot/grub/menu.lst.

With these information I can try to help you.

Be careful to be sure which partition you erase if you choose to install a new system.

Regards

1 members found this post helpful.

The information you posted would indicate you formatted sda1 which would be the first partition on the Ubuntu drive and that you were using the Ubuntu Grub2 to boot both Ubuntu and Slackware. You could reinstall Grub2 to the Ubuntu partition where the boot files are. The link below gives methods of reinstalling Grub2 on Ubuntu. You should use the same CD/DVD you used to install Ubuntu as there are minor variations in different versions of Grub2.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing

If you have four partitions on the Ubuntu drive, you will need to ascertain which has the boot files by mounting them from the CD/DVD. If you have a separate boot partition the method will differ a little but that is explained in the link above.

If you don't care about Ubuntu and just want Slackware 14, the only think you need to watch for is that you get the correct drive to install to. From the information you posted, your Slackware install should all still be there.

1 members found this post helpful.

# fdisk -l > fdisk.txt

Disk /dev/sda: 30.8 GB, 30757207552 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3739 cylinders, total 60072671 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0f1ddefa

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 9767519 4883728+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9767520 60067034 25149757+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 55183275 60067034 2441880 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda6 9767646 33206354 11719354+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 33206418 55167209 10980396 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 8455 MB, 8455200768 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1027 cylinders, total 16514064 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa8d2c9aa

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 16498754 8249346 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004f3e0

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 63 160649999 80324968+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 160650000 167075999 3213000 82 Linux swap
/dev/sdc3 167076000 312576704 72750352+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sde: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders, total 31266816 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 32 31266815 15633392 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


I mounted sda1, 6 and 7 ( could not mount 2 - what file system ? ).

did: # find /mnt/sda6 -name "/boot/grub/*" -print on all mounted. No results.

Ima

Could I just wipe out that drive and install Slackware over it and would a new GRUB be
installed ?

A lot of this is over my head ( that's how I got this problem ).

Ima

P.s. I need to leave for an hour but will resume a.s.a.p

Yes, you can install Slack14 on the /dev/sda drive partitions.
You will get a new working GRUB.

To know the filesystem of partitions,
launched parted:
> parted /dev/sda
print the partitions
> print

1 members found this post helpful.

By the way your sda1 partition seems big.
If it is used to store only the boot loader (+ the kernel), you just need few hundred of MB at max.

It's not so much looking for an easier way out of my situation that I would install
the new Slack. I really never used !# much at all. And now that I have experienced
Slack14 live, it would be nice to try it on a faster media ( my machine is too old
to do flashdrive boots - not listed in bios setup ).

So that is what I will do. First I will read up on installing Slack ( it's been a
few years since I've done so ). Once all is said and done I will report back here.

I want to thank all of you for your help in this matter. Hopefully I won't mess up
with the installation.

Ima

Slackware uses lilo not grub by default. If your running 32 bit slackware you can install grub legacy from the extra folder it you want to use grub off the dvd.

That is actually a grub classic message - must have been a pretty old Ubuntu.
And it does look like you trashed the (Ubuntu) boot code. No big deal (for you) apparently. Just go ahead and install Slack on that disk, and it should fix the boot failure by installing lilo to the MBR. Just make sure you hit the correct disk.
Sometimes the install will update the "wrong" MBR - if you finish up with the same message you'll need to wipe the MBR with grub in it. Wait and see.

Take particular note of my sigline before doing anything.

This reply removed by imagoodguy

As the LQ rules state, multi-posting just causes confusion. Ditto for posting across multiple sites - none of us can be sure of what has been recommended elsewhere.
Pick a thread/site and continue your discussion (only) there.

1 members found this post helpful.

These are instructions from http://slack.exton.net

In the example 2 partitions are used. sda6 & sda8

2. Boot up the computer from the Exton-Slack disk and open up a terminal as root
or become root with sudo su.
3. Run the command umount /dev/sda6
4. Run the command mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda6
5. Run the command cd /root/install
6. Run the command ./install.sh /dev/sda6 /dev/sda8 (IMPORTANT: The correct order of
the installation partition and the SWAP partition)
7. If you do not already have a Linux system on your computer and want to use Grub Legacy
as boot loader, you should eventually run the command ./install-boot.sh /dev/sda6 /dev/sda
(Comment: This will install Grub on the install partition and in MBR - /dev/sda).

I prefer 3 partitions:
sda1 - /
sda2 - swap
sda3 - /home

Should my command string read ./install.sh /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 ?

Also, in the example the fs type is ext3. My Slack 12 is ext2. Does this make a difference ?

My apologies . The reference to previously mentioned source has removed .
Ima

I wasn't suggesting we would get confused, but you. Hopefully we can help.

The instructions are somewhat limited, and I've never tried exton, so I'm guessing somewhat.
If you re-partition as /dev/sda{1,2,3} as you want, I'd suggest you use ext4 - ext2 is way too old.
As for the install.sh, I'd say it would only recognise two parameters - just ignore the /home for the install, and add it to /etc/fstab later. In you current non-bootable situation, I'm thinking you'll also have to run that step 7, which the author seems to think will be optional for most people.