Grub boot freezes
 

So, I have tried to install Puppy-Linux and everything seemed to go well, I had originally installed Debian with grub on the hard drive, I have used gparted to revert the drive to an empty ext2. The problem I am having is that after rebooting grub throws this error:

GRUB loading stage 1.5

GRUB loading, please wait
Error 15

I have tried to install puppy with it's universal installer trying both a fresh install of grub and updating grub, no luck.

Any thoughts, can I go into a terminal of a cd booted Puppy-Linux and reset the MBR?

edit the boot lines in grub


press e

or use the pupply linux /super grub cd to reinstall grub

I believe here is some good explanations of error 15. If this is a new install it's possible something did not install correctly and there is a file missing, perhaps for example the kernel file is not where it should be. If this is the case and it's an absolutely new install I might advise trying to a re-installation as there maybe further issues. Something appears to be missing, if this is a re-occurring problem it might be advisable to try another/new disc.

Try the recomendations and if they do not work in your next post it we will need to know which version of Puppy and Debian you are using.

Also from terminal as root give us the results of fdisk -l and post them.

Hi, sorry for the late response, I am in the middle of exams, I originally had Debian Lenny installed and everything was fine, because the machine is so old it was suggested that I install Puppy-Linux "Lucid", I used Gparted to format the drive and then I allowed a guided install of Linux-Puppy, everything seemed to go fine until I rebooted. I have tried several times to re-install Puppy using the defaults and then I tried booting into a terminal and using the grub command "root (hd" and the tab key, the auto complete result was the drive listed as (Hd0,0), then using the "setup (Hd0,0)", the CLI listed the rebuilding of the grub fields and non-fatal errors in the grub steps 2-5, after the command completed it appeared to indicate repaired, but on reboot the same fatal error, GRUB loading stage 1.5 GRUB loading, please wait Error 15. I do not understand the meaning of "edit the boot lines in grub press e"

I do not dual boot, and Puppy-Linux "Lucid" is the only installed OS.

Running fdisk -l returns this:

Disk /dev/sda:4871 MB, 4871301120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/tracks 592 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 592 4755208 83 Linux
#

Any help getting me up and running is appreciated.
Dave

bump

Try this from terminal running your puppy live cd
mkdir /mnt/temp
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/temp
chroot /mnt/temp
grub-install /dev/hda
exit
reboot

Hi Larry, after running the "mkdir /mnt/temp and when I run the command "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/temp" I get the error: "mount: /dev/hda1 is not a valid block device"

Any thoughts?

Hi Larry, after running the "mkdir /mnt/temp and when I run the command "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/temp" I get the error: "mount /dev/hda1 is not a valid block device" however after changing the command to "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp" there is no complaints, I did not continue because I do not know what I am doing, would that be the proper designation for the harddrive as I am sure that the Dell has an IDE drive. Although, the drives reported by Linux-Puppy are "fd0, sda1 and sr0".

Any thoughts?

If you have only one hd try dev/sda1. If you have more than one hd or more than two partitions I still need to see the results of fdisk -l

Hi Larry, thanks for getting back to me, the fdisk -l posted from above is:

Running fdisk -l returns this:

Disk /dev/sda:4871 MB, 4871301120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/tracks 592 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 592 4755208 83 Linux
#

As you can see, it does report that the HD is sda although, as I tried again today using the grub command and auto-fill I do rebuild the grub installer at (hd0,0) and I am sure that the drive is IDE. In any case I tried to mount to sda, replacing sda for hda, from grub-install /dev/sda grub "probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a while...

Eventually returned: "Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.", I then tried different combination's of sda and hda. No luck.

It would appear puppy does not have a full install. Which version of puppy are you trying to install? If not to much trouble try and install again and pay close attention to your selections and make sure you do not select fugal install and if it gives you a selection on grub select master boot record or mbr.

Larry, I am trying to install Puppy "Lucid", (5.1). I originally had Debian Lenny installed through a default installation, noticing the resource overhead I used gparted and reverted to an ext2 partition for the whole HD. When I went to install Linux-Puppy, during the install process I choose option 3, write grub to the MBR, (I had assumed that Lenny had written there), I feel this could be the problem and I am considering fixing the MBR with a windows disk and starting again. Is this a viable option, or is there any way to repair with my linux disk or link the grub install and my current OS to the MBR? I have tried several times through a "full" install to fix the error.
Thanks

I do not have a puppy 5.1. Will download today and checkout. Get back as soon as I find more info.

I tried to install puppy 5.1 and had the same problem. I will need more time to figure this problem out. Maybe another member may be able to help.

Hi Larry, thanks for all the help! I am not wedded to Linux-Puppy so any experience with these and any preference as an install?

Xubuntu, Lubuntu,VectorLinux,Dream Linux

No experience with any of those, not able at the moment to do any experimenting. I should have my set backup and running again in about a week.

I have heard good about all of them. Give them a try, the nice thing about linux is all the different flavors to pick from.

hi

since you seem open to other distros.....we can see the size of your hard drive....but can you post the specs of your RAM and do you use wired (ethernet) or wireless to connect to the net?......if wirelesss name your device please.

There a number of live cds....you could try but with a 4.7 G drive I would think tinier and less bloatware is the way to go.

Therefore avoid.....bloatware desktop environments like kde and gnome.....avoid larger software sets like openoffice and choose abiword and gnumeric
and since I am giving advice you are free to ignore....I suggest you look at LXDE and run it on tinycore?

Tinycore is a 11 Meg download but likely to give you issues if you have wireless.....it runs in RAM and you download what extensions you need.
The extensions have the "chaff" removed so man pages are low on detail.

Tinycore is a live cd and install cd. Other bigger live cds that might interest include Mepis and Linuxmint.

Here is my 2G ram system running with most applications available at boot, but I could have some placed "ondemand" if RAM was short

cat /proc/meminfo (with culling)

check out www.distrowatch.com if interested

Aus9, thanks for getting back to me, getting back to you regarding rebuilding Grub, I am under some time constraints with my focus on school, do you have an opinion on rebuilding the MBR through a Windows disk and the fixmbr command, from there I can start installing Linux again.

hi

well there a more than thing to suggest.

1) Do you know if you have a recovery partition?

2) Do you prefer ms to control your bootloading or linux or use a combination...such as ms for hard drive....cd or usb for linux

The reason for that suggestion is that ms ....has a deliberate policy....of not recognising non-ms partitions and likes to always be in control.

3) Generally its agreed that you install ms first and linux second.....and generally....ignoring above issues....let grub be in MBR...which is the fastest way.

When ms decides to overwrite your mbr....redo a live cd and re-install grub back into mbr.

YMMV