grub [version 0.97] does not continue loading suse10.2

saf4 · 12-17-2007, 04:33 AM

Hello,

As of this morning my laptop failed to boot, I have tried several reboots and a full energy drainage... None of these work.

After my bios has started I get the following screen:

Code:

    GNU GRUB version 0.97 (639K lower/ 506816 upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

The laptop is only running suse 10.2. In the installer I let the wizard create the partitions for me which should have created standard partition.

Does anyone know how to solve this, or at least how I can recover my files?

Sincerely,
Frank Stalpers

birchyboy · 12-17-2007, 05:23 AM

Frank

Have you tried the installation disk and choose the Rescue option? If you have let the installer do a full format on the disk again, I suspect your files will be unrecoverable, although I think with a quick format you might be able to get a lot back.

As a matter of interest, why are you using a boot loader at all if you only run SuSE? I run SuSE 10.3 and WinXP Pro, but on two different disks. I select which one to boot at the BIOS screen rather than a Boot Loader, since XP often modifies the Master Boot Record and I lose the grub loader.

I'm very familiar with XP, but I'm a Linux newbie. However, I seem to recall that when I installed my 64-bit SuSE 10.3, there was an option to not use a separate boot loader and just load linux as the OS.

Best I can suggest :-(

saikee · 12-17-2007, 05:49 AM

Actually you are pretty well equipped to boot the system up "manually" because you have a Grub prompt.

AFAIK there is no installed PC system that cannot be booted up by a Grub prompt. So how about

Find out which partition that has Grub's configuration file by command

Code:

find /boot/grub/menu.lst

Grub should report back with an answer like "(hd0,2)" and you can first try to boot the menu.lst up by command

Code:

configfile (hd0,2)/boot/grub/menu.lst

Say the menu.lst is defective but the system boots again then in the next Grub prompt you can restore Grub by command

Code:

root (hd0,2)
setup (hd0)

Adjust the root (hd0,2) to suit your own circumstance.

Suppose the menu.lst is so corrupted that it simply won't boot but diverts you back to a Grub prompt you can then ask Grub to display it by

Code:

cat (hd0,2)/boot/grub/menu.lst

With the menu.lst at the screen you can type in the commands line by line to boot it manually. Only do the first choice and do not type any line starting with "#" as it is not executed by Grub (used only as comments).

You may ask why should you boot a defective menu.lst. The answer is Grub will respond to each line and the one that actrually Grub can execute will then be known. You can then report it and we can advise further.

Post the following if you still have the problem

(1) output of "fdisk -l", say from any booted up Live Linux
(2) /boot/grub/menu.lst of your OpenSuse.
(3) /boot/grub/device.map

saf4 · 12-17-2007, 06:32 AM

The find /boot/grub/menu.lst outputs:

Error 15: File not found

saikee · 12-17-2007, 08:09 AM

Then you will examine the geometry of the hard disks with command

Code:

geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)
geometry (hd2) etc

until all your hard disk, USB disks etc are exhausted.

It is possible that you might have added extra disk (or disks) to your system resulting the disk order no longer matching the original pattern.

Also I suggest you boot up a Live CD and post the output of "fdisk -l" here. The fdisk output should match that from geometry (hd0) etc.

There is a small possibility that your laptop hard disk may be in trouble to the point that its partitions are having a problem of being read correctly, say an earlier hardware fault. This could prevent the access of information inside the partitions.

The fdisk program is the most robust partitioning tool that will still work while other program like cfdisk packs in. You can use a Bash command, off a Live CD, "cfdisk /dev/sda" to see if the hard disk is in trouble. If it is OK and can be mounted then you should be able to see the /boot/grub/menu.lst inside.

A lesser possibility is Grub becomes corrupted. You can restore it by a Live CD using a Grub shell in terminal. The commands are exactly the same I have given to you earlier (ie. root + setup commands)

saf4 · 12-17-2007, 09:20 AM

geometry (hd0) worked and outputted:
grub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 1023/255/63, The number of sectors = 58605120, LBA
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 3, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82

fdisk -l
did nothing

cfdisk /dev/hd0
FATAL_ERROR: Cannot opet disk drive
Press any key to exit cfdisk

I hope this helps

Frank

saf4 · 12-17-2007, 02:45 PM

I have booted a live version of ubuntu. It automatically mounts the partitions which I use in suse. The /home partition is available.

If I open / in the file browser it shows me the folder contents and a message box saying:

Unable to mount the volume.

Code:

Details
mount:wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3,    missing codepage or other error    In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so

the result of this command (whilst using the live cd)

Code:

[19382.792000] EXT3-fs: group descriptors corrupted!
[19472.280000] EXT3-fs error (device sda3): ext3_check_descriptors: Block bitmap for group 0 not in group (block 3925999616)!
[19472.280000] EXT3-fs: group descriptors corrupted!
[19484.484000] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
[19484.484000] EXT3 FS on sda4, internal journal
[19484.484000] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[20121.180000] EXT3-fs error (device sda3): ext3_check_descriptors: Block bitmap for group 0 not in group (block 3925999616)!
[20121.228000] EXT3-fs: group descriptors corrupted!
[20194.376000] EXT3-fs error (device sda3): ext3_check_descriptors: Block bitmap for group 0 not in group (block 3925999616)!
[20194.388000] EXT3-fs: group descriptors corrupted!

saikee · 12-17-2007, 06:13 PM

The "fdisk -l" is a Linux command (not a Grub command) and should be issued at a Linux terminal.

Grub is not Linux and calls the 1st disk (hd0), 2nd disk (hd1). The same disks in Linux are called sda and sdb.

fdisk and cfdisk programs have to operate on the system and you have to be a root user in order to be able to use them.

If you run

Code:

cfdisk /dev/sda

It may report to you any reading problem with the disk sda.

It appear your partition sda3, (hd0,2) in Grub term, has errors and cannot be mounted. The bad superblock means the filing indexing system has errors resulting the operating system unable to find the files.

You have also done something unusual to sda in that partition 0 and 4 are both type 82 (or swap). Only one swap is needed if you have 300 Linux distros.

saf4 · 12-18-2007, 01:32 AM

cfdisk /dev/sda returns to following:

cfdisk 2.12r

Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 30005821440 bytes, 30.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 3648

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Primary Linux swap / Solaris 493.52
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 11581.20
sda4 Primary Linux ext3 17207.29
sda5 Logical Linux swap / Solaris 723.83

[Bootable] [ Delete ] [ Help ] [Maximize] [ Print ]
[ Quit ] [ Type ] [ Units ] [ Write ]

Toggle bootable flag of the current partition

fdisk -l returned this:
Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 60 481918+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 3561 3648 706860 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 * 61 1468 11309760 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 1469 3560 16803990 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 3561 3648 706828+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

saikee · 12-18-2007, 02:21 AM

Your partition table appears normal except it has two swap partition.

Corruption to the files may be just inside the partition.

It is highly unlikely that a Linux installer would set up the first primary as a swap and the size would indicated may it was a /boot partition before.

I got a feeling you have done something to the Linux.

Can you show us the /etc/fstab? It should be in sda3 or sda4.

If you can't then show us then mount sda3 and sda4 and show us their directory/file names. The status of your Linux is currently no error in the partition table and the Live CD Linux can read it. sda3 appears to have a file corruption problem and may not be mountable.

As the owner of the Linux may be you can tell us what are the different partitions are for and why you want two swaps, to assist us to formulate a solution.

saf4 · 12-18-2007, 07:04 AM

sda1 Primary Linux swap / Solaris 493.52 -- swap
sda3 Boot Primary Linux ext3 11581.20 -- / root partition
sda4 Primary Linux ext3 17207.29 -- /home home folder
sda5 Logical Linux swap / Solaris 723.83 -- swap

I truly don't know why I have 2 swap partitions, neither do I know what went wrong. The last thing I did was looking through some photos in my home directory.

About the contents of /etc/fstab:

I am not certain wether these are of the live system, or my installed system... Both are exactly the same so I reckon it took the live version when I tried opening the installed version.

unionfs / unionfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

saikee · 12-18-2007, 08:08 AM

The information is a live system from your Live CD because the root filing system has been obtained from unionfs and not from a partition.

You need to get into root console or in a terminal by typing

Code:

sudo su

which will instruct the Live CD to give you root access temporarily. You are already in root if the command has no response.

You can then manually mount sda3 and sda4 by

Code:

mkdir /mnt/sda3
mkdir /mnt/sda4
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda4

The content of the files inside the partition can be revealed by command

Code:

ls /mnt/sda3
ls /mnt/sda4

If there is say a /etc in sda3 then this command will list out the content of fstab

Code:

cat /mnt/sda3/etc/fstab

saf4 · 12-18-2007, 12:05 PM

sda3 cannot be mounted, due to a bad superblock

saikee · 12-18-2007, 04:14 PM

I didn't expect your sda3 to be mountable but what about the information in sda4?

You can try to fsck the filing system of sada3. You should now establish if the hard disk has developed a hardware fault or not and salvage as much information as possible.

A hard disk is a precision instrument and the vibration and disturbance of the laptop is not good for longevity. Even in a perfect condition a hard disk is a consumable because it has a finite number of spinning cycles in its working life.

saf4 · 12-18-2007, 05:02 PM

I have performed the fsck, I have now been able to mount the disk and I am currently backing up the most important files. Afterwards I'll go for a reboot to see whether it will boot.