LinuxQuestions.org - GRUB error

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Hello, I recently formatted and put Ubuntu on my old SuSE partition. I think the installing process went okay, but when I try to boot it up, GRUB gives me Error 22. I tried reinstalling Ubuntu but still no success. I was hoping someone could help me tell GRUB to boot from the right place. I have two hard drives, one with windows and the other that has more windows on it and another partition for linux. I'm currently using the live cd that the ubuntu installer comes with, please help.

Hi Jim...

What partition actually holds your stage 1,2, and 3 GRUB? If you know that info, you can reinstall GRUB to your hd's MBR without too much pain or strain.

The partition that has the GRUB stages will look something like this:

Code:

root@ericsbane03:/mnt/boot/grub# ls -a

.        device.map    jfs_stage1_5  minix_stage1_5    stage2

..      e2fs_stage1_5  menu.lst      reiserfs_stage1_5  xfs_stage1_5

default  fat_stage1_5  menu.lst~    stage1

This is on my hda1 partition. That partition holds the GRUB that I use to boot all my distros. If you can determine which of your partitions holds that info, you can then use the GRUB commands from the command line (within a live CD) to restore your GRUB to your disk's MBR. See HERE for that info.

Luck!

~Eric

sda2 and to restore, I have no clue what the password is.

Also, whenever I try to do anything like 'setup (hd0) or root (hd0,1) it says that the drive is non-existant.

Give us the output of:

Code:

# fdisk -l

Absolutely nothing, it just gives me a new line waiting for an input.
"ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ fdisk -l
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ "

You have to be root to do that. In "live" Ubuntu:

Code:

$ sudo fdisk -l

Try that.

Okay, here's the output...

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l



Disk /dev/hda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x13a8aa02



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/hda1  *          1      30401  244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS



Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x008d130a



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          1      14876  119483406+  7  HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda2          15008      19457    35744625  83  Linux

/dev/sda3          14877      15007    1052257+  82  Linux swap / Solaris



Partition table entries are not in disk order

I tried booting off of what I did below, still gives me "Error 22"

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.



      [ 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> find /boot/grub/stage1

find /boot/grub/stage1

 (hd1,1)

grub> root (hd1,1)

root (hd1,1)

grub> setup (hd1,1)

setup (hd1,1)

 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes

 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes

 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes

 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,1)"... failed (this is not fatal)

 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,1)"... failed (this is not fatal)

 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1,1) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu.lst "... succeeded

Done.

I don't know what you are after.

If you set up Grub to (hd1,1) which is sda2 then Grub resides inside sda2 and must be booted by another boot loader in the MBR. I presume the reason of this is you don't want Grub to take over the MBR.

If you want Grub to boot from the MBR then do

Code:

root (hd1,1)

setup (hd0)

Well, I was reading some thing that I found on Google on how to restore GRUB...I guess it was wrong. Anyways I tried setup (hd0) and GRUB still gives me an error.

jim98cl,

You have to know booting is in two parts. First part is by Grub and the second part is by the kernel. Basically Grub loads the kernel and kernel loads the Linux.

How do you know it is Grub and not the kernel part? Got any proof to back up your claim?

Your Post #9 suggests that Grub can be installed in (hd0) successfully.

Grub error 22 = No such partition. This implies the menu.lst may have an error resulting Grub could not find the partition you want it to use. Can you post the following?

(1) /boot/grub/menu.lst
(2) output of root terminal command "fdisk -l"

Code:

GRUB Loading stage 1.5

GRUB loading, please wait... 

Error 22

This is what shows up in my BIOS then just hangs until I reboot. Is that the proof I want to show?

Code:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)

#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),

#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub

#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.



## default num

# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and

# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.

#

# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry

# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.

# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your

# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.

default                0



## timeout sec

# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry

# (normally the first entry defined).

timeout                10



## hiddenmenu

# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)

#hiddenmenu



# Pretty colours

#color cyan/blue white/blue



## password ['--md5'] passwd

# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing

# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the

# command 'lock'

# e.g. password topsecret

#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/

# password topsecret



#

# examples

#

# title                Windows 95/98/NT/2000

# root                (hd0,0)

# makeactive

# chainloader        +1

#

# title                Linux

# root                (hd0,1)

# kernel        /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro

#



#

# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST



### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified

## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below



## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs



## ## Start Default Options ##

## default kernel options

## default kernel options for automagic boot options

## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z

## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.

## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro

##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro

##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro

# kopt=root=UUID=39e3d188-b00b-4a54-b5a6-fd70da667976 ro



## Setup crashdump menu entries

## e.g. crashdump=1

# crashdump=0



## default grub root device

## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)

# groot=(hd1,1)



## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. alternative=true

##      alternative=false

# alternative=true



## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. lockalternative=true

##      lockalternative=false

# lockalternative=false



## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the

## alternatives

## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5

# defoptions=quiet splash



## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options

## e.g. lockold=false

##      lockold=true

# lockold=false



## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option

# xenhopt=



## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option

# xenkopt=console=tty0



## altoption boot targets option

## multiple altoptions lines are allowed

## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options

##      altoptions=(recovery) single

# altoptions=(recovery mode) single



## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst

## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the

## alternative kernel options

## e.g. howmany=all

##      howmany=7

# howmany=all



## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option

## e.g. memtest86=true

##      memtest86=false

# memtest86=true



## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system

## can be true or false

# updatedefaultentry=false



## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options

## can be true or false

# savedefault=false



## ## End Default Options ##



title                Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic

root                (hd1,1)

kernel                /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=39e3d188-b00b-4a54-b5a6-fd70da667976 ro quiet splash

initrd                /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

quiet



title                Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)

root                (hd1,1)

kernel                /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=39e3d188-b00b-4a54-b5a6-fd70da667976 ro single

initrd                /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic



title                Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+

root                (hd1,1)

kernel                /boot/memtest86+.bin

quiet



### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST



# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian

# ones.

title                Other operating systems:

root





# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS

# on /dev/hda1

title                Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

root                (hd0,0)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader        +1





# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS

# on /dev/sda1

title                Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

root                (hd1,0)

savedefault

makeactive

map                (hd0) (hd1)

map                (hd1) (hd0)

chainloader        +1

I have already posted my output of "fdisk -l". (See above)

Woo, hello from Ubuntu that runs off of my hard drive. Thanks everyone! :D