Grub error 22 on netbook(no cd drive)

ajlewis2 · 09-13-2009, 08:47 AM

Here are the instructions for installing eeebuntu. You can use your running ubuntu remix to make the usb install disk. Then you can install it on the same partition that you have ubuntu remix on. So create the install usb drive, then put it in and run it. There should be a place where it asks what partition you are going to put it on. After you have checked what the number of your linux partition is with the fdisk command I gave you, you can choose that same partition for eeebuntu. Request that it format that partition. There is usually a check block for that. That way it will clear it of the old system. Don't use that netbootin thing that didn't work well for you before. :-)

http://eeebuntu.org/wiki/index.php/Usbcreator

sarick22 · 09-13-2009, 08:35 PM

thanks again. here is the partition.txt. my comp came with 160GB. it was orginally divided into 2 with 4GB of windows image for easy system restore(which didnt work with grub error). then i dual booted ubuntu netbook remix and it partitioned 13GB. then i put unbootin + eeebuntu on USB and erased the ubuntu partition. and then i tried to combine the 13GB with the other one but screen keep freezing . i took out the battery and tried it over again few times and the partition i tried to resize got corrupted and the stuff on it got erased then i started getting the error.

ajlewis2 · 09-14-2009, 05:59 AM

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd65316e1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        4382    35198383+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            4383       18422   112776300    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *       18814       19457     5172930    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4           18423       18813     3140707+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           18423       18788     2939863+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           18789       18813      200781   82  Linux swap / Solaris

You have about 5Gb of Windows FAT32 (sda3) and about 3Gb for Linux on the extended partition (sda4) divided into two logical partitions for swap and the system. 3Gb is quite small. You could just combine the FAT32 with the Linux to make 8Gb, but even that may not suit you in the log term. If you just want to try Linux out and then make more space later, that would be fine, but it might be good to make this a little bigger now. Are you using that extra Windows FAT32 partition for anything? I think not, because with what you have described, I think that is the result of your attempt to put the partitions back together. So, here is my recommendation:

Start up the usb and run the installer that you originally used to repartition. Use this one, because you already know that it is not going to give you problems. The problem is one I've had twice and it is caused by a mix of kernel, parted, and the way your BIOS has your hard drive set. Your setup is probably ok since you didn't have the problem before, but I'd hate to see you try a new installer that had the bad combination. I know that folks who have not experienced this will think I'm nuts, but I was surprised to have it happen the second time to me using remix and a toshiba nt205 a month ago. The fix required getting the restore disk and an external cdrom in order to restore windows so that the windows boot sector could be rewritten. It is a royal pain on a netbook and for me was costly. Plus you overwrite windows. All that would have been needed was fixboot, but the restore disk does not have it. An XP install disk does have it; so it is an easy fix with that. Lots of words here, but I do not want to be the cause of trouble. So, if you feel secure, you can just go with the eeebuntu installer, or you can take the extra care and use the one you originally used.

When it gets to the partitioner highlight partition 6 and delete it. Do the same with 5, 4, and 3. Then resize 2 and take another 10-20 Gb off that. Then you will have 18-28 Gb of free space. Make all of that into an extended partition so that you can make 2 logical partitions on it. Then make the swap like you did before and the rest of it into the Linux partition.

Install on the new partition with eeebuntu. If you have only one usb stick you would have to first continue with the install of remix, and then put eeebuntu on the usb stick and install over remix.

sarick22 · 09-14-2009, 06:29 AM

i think the win fat32 is the system restore partition. when i press F9 at boot it restores windows to original state so i dont need CD to reinstall windows. i will try what you said after classes today. thanks!

ajlewis2 · 09-14-2009, 08:41 AM

I think the restore part might be sda1. sda2 is your windows main partition. You can check by looking in Linux at /boot/grub/menu.lst, because it will show two places to boot Windows. One will be the actual system and the other will be the restore setup. You should see both of them when you boot listed on the grub menu at the bottom, but I don't think it lists the partition number there.

The sections should be toward the bottom of menu.lst and will look something like this. This example shows sda1 -- hd0,0 means first drive, first partition. hd0,1 would be sda2.

Code:

title         Windows 95/98/NT/2000
root          (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader   +1

On my netbook, that is the way it is set up. The restore portion is ntfs and not fat32. (Edit: This is incorrect. See next post for correction)

Another thing you can do is to mount that fat32 partition while in linux to see if there is anything on it. I think you might find that you can't even mount it, because there is no filesystem on it. That would be the case if you made it while trying to put space back from the linux partition. To try to mount it:

Code:

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3 /mnt

If you get no error message, then have a look with:

Code:

ls /mnt

Partition 1 does look like about the right size for restore, and not for the system. The second partition is over 100Gb and likely your system.

ajlewis2 · 09-14-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajlewis2

I think the restore part might be sda1. sda2 is your windows main partition.
<snip>

On my netbook, that is the way it is set up. The restore portion is ntfs and not fat32.

Correction: My restore is indeed fat32 and is only 7Gb; so it looks like you are right and you do not want to remove that partition sda3. I don't know what sda1 is on your drive. Do you?

You could still delete 6, 5, and 4 and resize sda2 for a little more room.

pramodhrai · 09-14-2009, 09:13 AM

I am trying to install Tomcat. For that I have installed jre-6u16-linux-i586.rpm
I ahve installed it in data directory. And in home directory my user is Pramod.
For that i have set the enfirnment but at the time of installation of Tomcat it
did not get the jre enviornment.
Please send me the the installation steps and commannds regards to that.
Thank You for regards.

sarick22 · 09-15-2009, 07:49 AM

how do i remove linux completely? i still got grub error 22 after i removed linux partition with Gparted. So i had to reinstall ubuntu. this comp is for doing my school work so i cant risk getting errors anymore....

oh and sda1 is windows main partition and sda2 is just for storage.

yancek · 09-15-2009, 09:30 AM

The Grub bootloader puts one of its files in the master boot record and the remaining files on the partition of the distribution (Ubuntu in your case). If you delete the partition with Ubuntu, you need to make a change to the master boot record so the Grub file there is not pointing to a non-existent partition.

You can search here at LQ as there are numerous post with solutions to repair xp master boor record.

sarick22 · 09-15-2009, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

The Grub bootloader puts one of its files in the master boot record and the remaining files on the partition of the distribution (Ubuntu in your case). If you delete the partition with Ubuntu, you need to make a change to the master boot record so the Grub file there is not pointing to a non-existent partition.

You can search here at LQ as there are numerous post with solutions to repair xp master boor record.

thank you for putting in words i acutally understand! no wonder i kept getting the same error. its so much more clear now.

and thank you ajlewis2 as always.