Arch installed but GRUB doesn't load

benav · 04-30-2011, 12:13 PM

I installed Arch 2010.5 and the installation went flawlessly, not a single error message. But when I rebooted, GRUB did not load. Just a blank screen with a blinking cursor. I cannot input anything. I'm sure I followed the installation instructions correctly, and I don't know what could be wrong.

The installation should be on (hd1,0). [(hd0,0) is going to be windows eventually but it's not my top priority and BIOS is instructed to boot hd1 (sdb) first.] If I boot from the Live USB drive I used for the installation, I can select "Boot Existing OS" and tell it to boot "hd1 0" at the prompt, but then I just get "Booting..." and the blinking cursor that does nothing.

Any ideas?

Thanks

ButterflyMelissa · 04-30-2011, 02:05 PM

Hey there!

Let's see what's in the /boot/grub/menu.lst.

There's a comprehensive read, look for the entry that reads "Configure /boot/grub/menu.lst for this computer"...

By the way, great choice of distro, once up and running, you will love it.

I did...

Thor

MTK358 · 04-30-2011, 02:10 PM

Maybe this is irrelavent, but the first time I tried installing Arch it didn't work becasue I installed GRUB to a partition (/dev/sda1) indtead of the drive (/dev/sda).

benav · 04-30-2011, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

Maybe this is irrelavent, but the first time I tried installing Arch it didn't work becasue I installed GRUB to a partition (/dev/sda1) indtead of the drive (/dev/sda).

I thought I might have done that, so when I retried the installation I was very careful to check what the instructions said and install to the drive, not a partition.

benav · 04-30-2011, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0

Hey there!

Let's see what's in the /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Unfortunately, I can't get at it, because I can't boot the computer. I didn't change any of whatever the Arch installer put in the menu.lst file and I can't remember it perfectly, but I'm pretty sure it was aiming at (hd1,0) for Arch Linux. I checked that specifically during the installation.

TheStarLion · 04-30-2011, 02:25 PM

What you can do is use the install cd and mount the /boot partition - or whatever partition /boot is on - and retrieve the file that way.
Any other LiveCD works just as well, of course.

benav · 04-30-2011, 02:51 PM

The menu.lst entries:

Code:

# Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/db9d5d80-d822-481e-885f-c93bf2927512 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# Arch Linux fallback
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/db9d5d80-d822-481e-885f-c93bf2927512 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

John VV · 04-30-2011, 05:09 PM

??
A thought . When you partitioned the drive was there an error or maybe a mistake ( it happens )

with booting from the Arch dvd after you "chroot /mnt/sysimage" run

Code:

fdisk -l

and see just where the "*" is sdb1 should be bootable

benav · 04-30-2011, 06:04 PM

output of `fdisk -l`:

Code:

    Disk /dev/sdb: 100.2 GB, 100204886016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
    Units=cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes/512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes/512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x00022eec

       Device Boot Start    End    Blocks  ID System
    /dev/sdb1  *       1     13    104391  83 Linux
    /dev/sdb2         14     46    265072+ 82 Linux swap/Solaris
    /dev/sdb3         47   2596  20482875  83 Linux
    /dev/sdb4       2597 121601 955907662+ 83 Linux

yancek · 04-30-2011, 07:28 PM

Did you check the uuid to see if it is correct? Use the live CD, open a terminal and run blkid and compare the output for sdb1 to your menu.lst entry.

Try the geometry command from Grub. In a terminal as root just type grub to get the grub prompt then type geometry (hd1) - (hit enter to get output).

Do you not have your other drive currently attached?
Did you have it attached during the installation of Arch?

John VV · 05-01-2011, 12:40 AM

it is possible that grub is on the mbr of the first disk ( default)
hd0,0

try that in grub .If it works then when you install MS Win7 you will need to reinstall grub

benav · 05-01-2011, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Did you check the uuid to see if it is correct? Use the live CD, open a terminal and run blkid and compare the output for sdb1 to your menu.lst entry.

Try the geometry command from Grub. In a terminal as root just type grub to get the grub prompt then type geometry (hd1) - (hit enter to get output).

Do you not have your other drive currently attached?
Did you have it attached during the installation of Arch?

Does the geometry command include the "-"?

The other drive is attached, and was attached when I installed Arch. Maybe that got GRUB confused. I'm wondering about detaching the other drive and reinstalling to see if that makes a difference.

The other drive will have Windows 7 on it, but that hasn't been installed. I'm wondering whether I should install that first, detach it, install Arch, reattach everything, and edit GRUB's menu.lst.

MTK358 · 05-01-2011, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benav

Does the geometry command include the "-"?

Yes. Otherwise the application wouldn't be able to tell it apart from, for example, filenames given to it.

And it's not a "command", it's an "option".

yancek · 05-01-2011, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Does the geometry command include the "-"?

If you are referring to my last post, no the - is not included in the command. As I indicated, go to a terminal in a live CD as root enter:

grub

That should give you the grub prompt which looks like this: grub>

here you would type: geometry (hd0) That is a number zero not a Letter O.
After getting the output, repeat the process and change the (hd0) to (hd1) if you have both drives attached.

Quote:

And it's not a "command", it's an "option".

The Grub manual refers to geometry as a command, Section 13.3.13?

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...gacy/grub.html

MTK358 · 05-01-2011, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

The Grub manual refers to geometry as a command, Section 13.3.13?

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...gacy/grub.html

For some reason I was thinking of the "-geometry" option for X11 applications.