No GRUB entries except for memtest after 8.04 upgrade
 

My laptop has only linux installed, so this is not about booting windows. I think there were only 3 grub entries, the ubuntu 7.10 boot, the 7.10 recovery, and memtest. I updated using the update manager and after reboot, only the memtest entry is present.

I researched using grub commands. First of all, there is no way that I could find to create a new grub entry, only edit the memtest one. And since this laptop has no cd drive, I have limited options for booting.

Second, when I go into command line, and try to find vmlinuz there are none. I discovered that <tab> can list available file names For example:

find /boot/<tab>
has memtest86+.bin and grub

but nothing else.

find /boot/grub/<tab>
does not have the kernel, but it does have the old and new menu.lst

find /initrd/
is empty


Where do I go from here?

Mike

How did you boot into the system?

What do you get when you issue this command:

ls -l /boot

What kernel are you running on? You can find out what kernel you are running on with:

uname -a

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Steve Stites

Can't run Linux commands while in GRUB!
 

I guess you didn't understand that I cannot boot linux at all to run any commands. All I can do is configure the bios, run GRUB commands and run memtest.

I just configured a usb flash drive with syslinux, but I was unable to get my machine to boot from it. The bios does not even list usb as a boot choice. Just IDE and PCI BEV.

I am waiting to borrow an external CD/DVD drive so I can boot from the Ubuntu CD. I have this funny feeling that I won't even be able to boot from there given the bios choices. My mistake was trusting that I could upgrade from the update manager while booted from the older version.

The equivalent of ls -l /boot in GRUB is:
find /boot/<tab>
which returns:
memtest86+.bin grub

If I could run uname -a, it would say that there is no current kernel, there is only the memtest program and no kernel files in the grub folder either.

Right, I misread what you said.

Since you have no system to run on then you should either restore your system from backup or install a new system. How did you install Ubuntu 7.10 the first time?

---------------
Steve Stites

Ubuntu 7.10 and gOs were preinstalled on the Everex Cloudbook. Their only option is to RMA and re-image the disk. I'd much rather reinstall the kernel so I can recover all the tweaking I had done to get it bearable.

Is gOS still on the hard drive? Presumably the Ubuntu update did not mess with the gOS partition. Try telling grub to use the old menu.lst you found. See if you can boot into gOS using the old menu.lst.

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Steve Stites

That's not it. gOS is just a window manager. I think it's just a configuration of GNOME. So there is no separate partition or separate boot for it. Ubuntu launches gOS for the UI. My IT dept is intrigued by my problem and is starting to help me now. I found out that just because the bios doesn't list USB doesn't mean that NO usb devices are supported. It turns out that a real USB hard drive or CD/DVD drive will be recognized. So, I'll wait to borrow the external drive and boot from the distro CD.

Also, the old menu.lst only refers to the vmlinuz that the upgrade deleted. I understand that there may be other copies of the kernel hiding in some other folder, but there does not seem to be a grub command to make a copy.

Anybody out there already have ubuntu 8.10? Do a whereis on vmlinuz and hint me with some path names!

That is seriously ugly. I had similar happen a couple of weeks back (under the Beta) after an ordinary update - but I at least had access to the CD boot. This (obviously) shouldn't happen on a "release" level of software.
Your data should be o.k. - could be difficult to recover the system tho'. I think I had to chroot into the disk system, delete grub and go get the previous kernel (I purged both from the on-disk apt cache). For some reason I couldn't get the current kernel package. Then an apt-get update and upgrade.
IIRC I also had to create my own run-level to ensure I had network access. All round, a serious PITA, especially as I don't know apt.

Best solution is to create a new partition for /home, copy your current stuff across to that, and install clean from the CD when you get that working. If you use the same user/password, the upgrade will recognise that, and everything will "just work". I had to go back-and-forward between 7.10 and the 8.04 (Alpha and Beta) on another system setup that way, and it works fine - going either way.
Re-install seems the best option for Ubuntu - has been true since (at least) Edgy. You may not be surprised to learn I am refusing to update non-test systems to Hardy.

This is a good testimonial to "Why Upgrade" if everything is working right and you can run all the programs?

You assume incorrectly that everything was working right.

1. Could only connect to 1/3 of the open wi-fi's at coffee shops.
2. Attaching an external screen trashed the x config.
3. Several dialog boxes are too tall for the little screen.
4. Audio volume controlling problems.

I could go on.