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O.K., I'm a newbie, and I'm lost. After reading hours on GRUB and bootloaders, I still don't understand much. Here's my story:
I had (and still do) a working dual-boot XP/Karmic (GRUB version 1.97 beta4). I shrank the Ubuntu partition and set up partitions and installed Debian 5.04. When I got to the point of installing GRUB, I told Debian to install grub to MBR. On rebooting, Ubuntu was not an option on the NEW (looked different) grub menu. Maybe it was GRUB2? Could boot to either XP or Debian though.
Thought easiest thing was to reinstall Ubuntu since it seems to "see" other OS's more reliably. So I did, and installed GRUB again during its install to MBR. Then, all three were in the GRUB menu (version 1.97 beta4 again), but when tried booting to Debian, got an error (forget the wording), but think it was because the partitions got renumbered when installing Ubuntu.
SO, reinstalled Debian, reformatting the partitions but not deleting them first so the numbering stayed the same. When got to the part for installing GRUB, I told it to skip, hoping now the current GRUB would work.
Now, all three are on the GRUB menu, but when I try to boot Debian, I get "no such device" and a list of numbers/letters after it. And "press any key to continue", which takes you back to the GRUB menu (version 1.97 beta4, by the way).
What to do? Ideas? When I try booting from Super GRUB USB, it only sees the Windows (by name) OS, and then lists a stage 1 and stage 1_5? What's that?
sudo update-grub changes things, but not fixed....
O.K., did sudo update-grub in ubuntu and rebooted. Now, Debian 5.04 shows as last entry in GRUB, and choosing it starts a boot, which hangs at "Begin: Waiting for root file system....".
One more piece of info. Waiting long enough at the "Waiting for root file system..." hang results in a series of notifications:
WARNING bootdevice may be renamed. Try root=dev/hda3
Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
-Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
-Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
-Check root= (did the sytem wait for the right device?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/sda3 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
In Gparted, the partition with Debian root is hdc3, although on the GRUB menu it's listed as /dev/sda3. However, in Gparted the Windows partition is hdc1 and on GRUB it's /dev/sda1, and it boots fine.....
Is my Debian install just borked? Did telling it to skip installing a bootloader (I got some kind of error that said "Install failed. This is a fatal error. You will have to boot with an external device..." ruin it?
If skipping the bootloader install did ruin it, how do you install Debian without borking your current GRUB? That's what happened the first time.
Have you tried to change root partition for debian to root=/dev/hda3 as you where adviced?
Anyway the best way will be to use UUID of the disk. You can check it by blkid <name of device> command when you in Ubuntu, and then put it in grub.cfg as root=UUID=<founded uuid>
how about copying the debian entries from the menu.lst on the debian partiton to the menu.lst on the ubuntu partition
never mind didn't register that you reinstalled debian without running grub during the debian reinstall.
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 03-06-2010 at 03:48 PM.
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
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/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-20-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-20-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 56b09b48b09b2d8d
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux (5.0.4) (on /dev/sda3)" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,3)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set eb7d1b5b-9dae-414a-b77e-0cb6f3c0ff61
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/sda3
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
}
### 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 ###
# /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 defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=a3cc4cdd-c80d-48c0-be69-071e7366b6ef / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda9 during installation
UUID=b8cd9e96-901d-45c2-9f3a-0329b8b7babf /home ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
# swap was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=b6a7e78e-5ddb-47da-b80c-8114b200d7e7 none swap sw 0 0
=================== sda7: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================
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