12.2 Install Boot Failure with Grub File Not Found Error
 

OpenSuse 12.2 is failing to boot here, displaying the following error:

"error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found"

I installed off a Gnome LiveCD on a 64-bit machine . The error initially appeared after the first reboot during the install process.

The system does boot from the install CD via the "Boot From Hard Disk" Option.

/dev/sda is the root drive -- in its entirety -- so /dev/sda1 should be the location of the boot loader. I noticed during the install that I was not asked anything about configuring the boot loader.

Via Yast, I determined that both /dev/sda and /dev/sdf where marked as bootable. /dev/sdf is a drive that contains the swap area. (I reported the same problem here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ot-4175426712/. OpenSuse marks the /dev/sdf as a boot partition and it also marks, correctly, /dev/sda, as a boot drive. No other Linux I've used has done this. (And 12.2 does it after I manually remove the boot flag and reformat the drive.)

I have removed the boot flag from /dev/sdf and reconfigured grub using Yast.

However, boot still fails, dropping to the error shown above.

One obvious question: 12.2 uses grub2. Why am I getting grub error messages?

"/dev/sda is the root drive -- in its entirety -- so /dev/sda1 should be the location of the boot loader."

Re-do the install but make at least a single /boot partition.

I mean when it creates the file system you tell it to make maybe a 240mb or so partition and mount it as /boot. The rest you can use for everything else.

Makes no difference, and the separate /boot partition should not be needed.


I did reinstall successfully: The install routine sees a nonexistent MBR on /dev/sdf, and, hence, the Grub2 configuration is incorrectly set to put the boot loader there. Even though the installer offered no way to opt out of automatic configuration, I was able to override it and correct the boot loader location to /dev/sda.

I still don't know why I was getting Grub errors on the failed boots.

For the record, I've installed multiple versions of Linux on machines with multiple physical drives. All of those install routines are error-prone and/or broken. Linux is easy to install on a single drive if you are willing to give up creating your own partitions. It's a pain in the neck to install on more than one drive.