Upgraded to 11.04 but during Grub need to boot into Other Ubuntu installation

leupi · 05-03-2011, 05:31 PM

I just upgraded to 11.04 from 10.10 and am having a bit of a boot issue. If I let the machine automatically run through Grub in seems to hang at the Ubuntu screen. If I choose 'Other Ubuntu Installations' (don't remember exactly what the actual wording was) I can then choose the Linux Kernel 2.6.38-8-general and the system boots fine. It's not killing me but it is a bit of an inconvenience to have to do that. Any thoughts on way it won't boot cleanly?

I have a Dell E6410.

Thanks

TobiSGD · 05-03-2011, 05:39 PM

You can try to let grub generate a new config file. To do that you have to launch this command:

Code:

sudo update-grub

leupi · 05-03-2011, 06:56 PM

Sounded good but it didn't do the trick. I rebooted and walked away for about 30 mins and it was still stuck on the Ubuntu screen. If I hit the power button the indicator under the word Ubuntu starts rolling and then it shuts down.

TobiSGD · 05-03-2011, 07:06 PM

Okay, the it has serious problems to boot up. This is the downside of Ubuntu's splash screen, you can't see what's going wrong.
When in Grub, try to edit the boot entry for that Ubuntu and remove the splash from the kernel line. This way I hope we can see what happens.

leupi · 05-03-2011, 08:02 PM

I did that and it seemed to be hanging because there were some mount points in /etc/fstab that it could not find. Those are shared drives at my office that never caused an issue with 10.10. Ubuntu is doing this whether I am in the office (and they are accessible) or at home (where they are not). Once it booted at the office I could access the drives. Anyway, I commented those mount points out in my fstab file. I then rebooted and it hung again.

I then edited out the splash screen again and it now seems to be hanging on:

Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation... [OK]

and then nothing happens after that.

Getting closer I guess

widget · 05-03-2011, 08:21 PM

I really think that you should run;
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
and post the results here.

This is a handy tool to use. I have a multi boot system that ranges from 5 or 6 up to 26 installs. I run that bugger every once in a while just to find out where I am and what my box is doing.

leupi · 05-04-2011, 07:02 AM

I did what you suggested and here are the results. I looked through them but didn't see anything obvious and I really don't know enough to dig deeper. Thanks for your help.

Code:

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks for b2can.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Dell Utility: Fat16
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   /COMMAND.COM

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   /bootmgr /Boot/BCD

sda3: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 7
    Boot files/dirs:   /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda4: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 11.04
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda6: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1                  63        80,324        80,262  de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2    *         81,920    16,707,583    16,625,664   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3          16,707,584   212,020,083   195,312,500   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4         212,021,246   488,396,799   276,375,554   5 Extended
/dev/sda5         212,021,248   482,537,471   270,516,224  83 Linux
/dev/sda6         482,539,520   488,396,799     5,857,280  82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda1        3030-3030                              vfat       DellUtility                   
/dev/sda2        86B45B95B45B8719                       ntfs       RECOVERY                      
/dev/sda3        E4725E4A725E219A                       ntfs       OS                            
/dev/sda4: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sda5        ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c   ext4                                     
/dev/sda6        f35aab86-0618-4c04-b733-37d1f291edc9   swap                                     
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos" 

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/sda5        /                        ext4       (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)


=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  set have_grubenv=true
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
  set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
  insmod vbe
  insmod vga
  insmod video_bochs
  insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=auto
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
if background_color 44,0,30; then
  clear
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then
  if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
    if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
      if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
        set linux_gfx_mode=keep
      else
        set linux_gfx_mode=text
      fi
    else
      set linux_gfx_mode=text
    fi
  else
    set linux_gfx_mode=keep
  fi
else
  set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
export linux_gfx_mode
if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro   quiet splash vt.handoff=7
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
}
submenu "Previous Linux versions" {
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro   quiet splash vt.handoff=7
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.38-8-generic ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-28-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro   quiet splash vt.handoff=7
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-28-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.35-28-generic ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-25-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro   quiet splash vt.handoff=7
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-25-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.32-25-generic ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic
}
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" --class windows --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 86B45B95B45B8719
	chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
  source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=ff900ae1-738d-4342-a499-5684cc737d7c /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=f35aab86-0618-4c04-b733-37d1f291edc9 none            swap    sw              0       0
acsserver:/music    /music    nfs    defaults    0    0
acsserver:/shared    /shared    nfs    defaults    0    0
acsserver:/home/tparks    /home/tparks/server    nfs    defaults    0    0
# //wollemi/shared /wShared cifs    rw,uid=tparks,gid=tparks,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/.credentials    0    0
# //wollemi/groups /wGroups cifs    rw,uid=tparks,gid=tparks,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/.credentials    0    0
# //wollemi/public /wPublic cifs    rw,uid=tparks,gid=tparks,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/.credentials    0    0
# //wollemi/users/todd_parks /wTodd cifs    rw,uid=tparks,gid=tparks,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/.credentials    0    0
# //cheetah/home/ /newImages cifs rw,uid=weblish,gid=weblish,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/cheetah    0    0
# //172.16.7.49/images /home/tparks/imageDirectory smbfs    rw,uid=tparks,gid=tparks,file_mode=0700,dir_mode=0700,cred=/home/tparks/.credentials    0    0

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


 151.6GB: boot/grub/core.img
 130.3GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
 108.6GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic
 117.0GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-28-generic
 122.1GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
 109.3GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
 153.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic
 152.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic
 120.1GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
 120.3GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
 109.3GB: initrd.img
 122.1GB: initrd.img.old
 120.3GB: vmlinuz
 120.1GB: vmlinuz.old

TobiSGD · 05-04-2011, 07:28 AM

Seems to me that your bootloader configuration is OK. I am asking myself if your problems are caused because you upgraded and not made a clean install. Heard a lot of horrible stories about Ubuntu upgrades.
Have you tried to disable the start of the Timidity++ service?

Mr. Bill · 05-04-2011, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Seems to me that your bootloader configuration is OK. I am asking myself if your problems are caused because you upgraded and not made a clean install. Heard a lot of horrible stories about Ubuntu upgrades.

Agreed. FWIW, I only tried upgrading once. Long story short, my system was so trashed that I had to use Windows to download the full version and start over.

What I'm looking at is, had the upgrade worked, there shouldn't be an "other Ubuntu installation"...

widget · 05-04-2011, 12:20 PM

I would go to synaptic and remove all of your kernels that do not belong to 11.04. There is a lot of difference between 2.6.32 and 2.6.38. Not that there is any conflict but it may be screwing with grub in some manner.

It is,by the way 2.6.38 generic (not general) that you are booting to.

Another thing I would do as I find it handy whenever grub is having some kind of erratic behavior is to run;

Code:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

Yes I know it is installed there. Let's make real sure that what it is doing is accessing the grub files that really exist in your / partition.

Grub gets a lot of flack about things like this. The real problem is that it depends on os-prober (not a grub project package) to find the OS' on your system using the script /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober. It actually does a pretty fair job of it.

I usually have a lot of different things on, not to many right now, the most interesting is;

Quote:

sda13: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu oneiric (development
branch)
Boot files/dirs: /grub/grub.cfg /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab
/grub/core.img /boot/grub/core.img

seeing how the repo for that is to open tomorrow and I upgrade to it 2 days ago.

I do not use 30_os-prober or 10_linux to find my installs. Grub2 is made to work on scripts. Those scripts are fine for your first boot. Once you are on your system there are better ways to set it up.

There is the symbolic menu entry that you can use. This is one reason why there is a 40_custom script there for you to use. Here is the entry for the install above;

Quote:

echo "Adding Lounge on sda13" >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry "Lounge on sda13" {
set root=(hd0,13)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda13 ro quiet
initrd /initrd.img
}
EOF

That entry with the "set root" and "linux /vmlinuz" lines edited to your box will boot any Debian based OS on that partition, in your case hd0,5 and sda5 would have to be in there. The stuff between the "" in the menu entry can be anything you want. Mine says Lounge as in Lounge Lizard (10.04) as that install was named at bout this point in 10.04 testing (tool chain).

I would like you to add this file to your /etc/grub.d folder making sure that the permissions part of its Properties allows it to be executed as a program (like all the other scripts);

Code:

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.

echo "Adding Nawty Newt on sda5" >&2 
cat << EOF
menuentry "Nawty Newt on sda5" {
    set root=(hd0,5)
        linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
        initrd /initrd.img
}
EOF

echo "Adding Nawty Newt recovery on sda5" >&2 
cat << EOF
menuentry "Nawty Newt recovery on sda5" {
    set root=(hd0,5)
        linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 ro single
        initrd /initrd.img
}
EOF

menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" --class windows --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(/dev/sda,msdos2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 86B45B95B45B8719
	chainloader +1
}

and run;

Code:

sudo update-grub

and rerun the grub-install just for fun.

Reboot, those menu entries should be at the top of your menu. Do they work? I do not allow MS products in the house so I am obviously not an expert on the menu entries for Win JerryLewis Pro or what ever they are running now.

If that works you can speed up your grub loading time greatly by resetting the permissions of 10_linux and above so that they are not executable. You will have to edit the /etc/default/grub file to indicate the default OS to boot to (I see it is set to "0" which in this case would be 11.04)

bobinglis · 05-06-2011, 07:03 AM

I have the same problem except I cannot boot from CD or USB card and I cannot get to the Terminal to see what has gone wrong.
If I hit escape during boot I can see the text and then it stops but cannot get to the command line. This is a catch 22 situation the laptop is completely useless unless I can solve this, anybody had this or any ideas?????

leupi · 05-06-2011, 08:28 AM

Since I was also having a few other issues I went ahead and just did a clean install of 11.04. Seems to have fixed all of my old issues. Thanks for all of the help.

bobinglis · 05-08-2011, 12:18 AM

The only option left to me was to parallel install from USB stick. This is really unexceptable any person without a solid knowledge of computers should be able use the upgrade path without this sort of hassle.

bobinglis · 05-08-2011, 12:21 AM

P.S. I used unetbootin to create the boot image on the USB stick as the original boot image was not recognised.