grub loader stage2 menu not working

Slot · 08-21-2018, 03:49 AM

Guys please help me here with the problem I have with my client pc which is installed SUSE Linux 11.1 in
it. But the problem is that the computer doesn't boot up anymore.
it give a long error massage and then at the end of that massage it
say something like this.
"attention. only control -d will reboot the system in this maintenance
mode. shutdown or reboot will not work.
give root password for maintenance"

But the problem I have is that I don't know this root password. I made
some research on how to go into command prompt but I also failed.
Because it seems like the file named grub loader stage2 is also
missing. Even if I try to load that grub menu by pressing shift key
but nothing to show
This is where the main problem is.
I have tried to repair this from the CD but on the cd there is no menu
where it says repair.
I don't want to install a fresh copy of this OS.

yancek · 08-21-2018, 06:25 AM

The first problem you have is that you are using a version of Open Suse that hasn't been supported for almost 6 years. See their site below:

https://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime

If this is a 'client PC' does that person not know the password? That would seem to be the simplest solution. If the person does not know it, you can re-set the password with the client permission if you are doing this for someone else. Lots of threads heree at LQ on how to do this.

If you have a CD/DVD with the original Opensuse used to install, you could boot it and mount the partition and you should be able to copy the stage2 file from the CD to the hard drive. If it is looking specifically for a file named stage2 then it is using the older Grub Legacy and newer Linux CD's use Grub2 which has different files.

syg00 · 08-21-2018, 06:28 AM

Even worse, it might be really be SUSE (Enterprise) 11.1
Should be under a support contract, but of course, also way out of support.

This is just a bomb waiting to go off - and maybe has.

michaelk · 08-21-2018, 07:16 AM

Quote:

*** An error occurred during the file system check.
*** Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
*** when you leave the shell.
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

I assume that pressing Control-D does not work. I also assume that you are seeing this message which is probably due to a corrupted file system or failing hard drive. If you can not start the system in single user mode then you can try repairing it from SystemRescueCd. It also has smartmontools where you can check the hard drive status.

http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/

Slot · 08-21-2018, 08:15 AM

yes you are right Yancek the machine is using OPENSUSE which I believe is way old like you said.
And we don't know that root password, even the original installation disc is misplaced. Is there any way that I can manage to get this pc up and running like normal?

yancek · 08-21-2018, 11:27 AM

Try SystemRescueCD as suggested. Could be a corrupted filesystem which might be repairable or failing hardware.

Ztcoracat · 08-21-2018, 07:06 PM

You could try these links:

https://srvfail.com/reset-lost-root-...rprise-server/

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Recover_root_password

System Rescue CD
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/

Good Luck:-

Rickkkk · 08-22-2018, 04:29 PM

One of the causes of this I've dealt with several times is an improper entry in fstab.

If you have made any recent changes to your system and / or to your fstab file, this might be worth investigating, especially since it is fairly simple to fix.

Boot your installation media and then either mount the installed system partition (as suggested previously) or chroot into it. Then examine the fstab file and make sure there are no entries in it that are referring, for example, to:

file systems that no longer exist
file systems whose UUID or block ID may have changed
remote (nfs or samba) systems that aren't available at boot and for which the "noauto" option is not specified.

... and correct whatever may be amiss. Then exit chroot, umount and reboot and ... hope for the best

!

... worst case, all this maybe takes 15 minutes, so you haven't wasted much time if it didn't fix your problem and you can move on to something else ...

Let us know how you make out !

ehartman · 08-23-2018, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slot

yes you are right Yancek the machine is using OPENSUSE which I believe is way old like you said.

openSUSE 11.1 was released in 2008 and has been out of support since 2010.
These are the original installation media (DVD's):
-r--r--r-- 1 hartman beheer 4.3G 2008-12-10 08:44:19 openSUSE-11.1-DVD-i586.iso
-r--r--r-- 1 hartman beheer 4.4G 2008-12-10 09:35:28 openSUSE-11.1-DVD-x86_64.iso
(and there was a BiArch Addon image of about 700MB too).
This version of openSUSE still used what we now call grub legacy, so not GRUB 2 yet.

We used this distro in 2008/9 as a system-wide linux for the Delft university, it has been replaced by SLED since then.