[SOLVED] Grub Rescue after install

Emegra · 10-18-2011, 01:19 AM

Over the past few days I've been attempting to install a lightweight Linux os on an old pc (jst as an experiment)it has an intel processor (not sure what exactly and 256 mb ram, I've tried Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Kubuntu, after a long install process on the first boot on each install I get Out of Disk, Grub rescue a the command prompt, at the moment I seem to have Kubuntu installed but I just can't load it

can anyone tell me what may be wrong and how I can fix this,I Don't want to go through another installation as it takes a long time only to find it wont boot at the end of it all.

Any help would be apreciated

Many Thanks

Emegra

foodown · 10-18-2011, 01:54 AM

How much hard drive space does your machine have?

It sounds like you are running out of disk space.

Emegra · 10-18-2011, 02:57 AM

Hi Foodown Thanks for your reply
It's a 10gb seagate hard drive, I never thought of that possibility but you could well be right the machine previously run Windows xp on a similar 10gb drive which is why I didn't think it would have any problem running a lightweight Linux distro

Many Thanks

Emegra

Larry Webb · 10-18-2011, 03:52 AM

The ubuntu distros are pretty heavy for a machine that old, I would suggest a lighter weight distro such as puppy or slax or similar.

One of your major limitations is memory, it would be better if you could double the amount.

Emegra · 10-18-2011, 01:45 PM

Thanks Foodown & Larry for your advice it seems that this is a hardware issue and what you are both saying makes perfect sense in light of the amount of failures I've had, I think I may have a 20gb HD lying around somewhere I'll see if I can find it and try that if not I'll get another drive somewhere, I dont think upgrading the ram is an option I checked the spec on this motherboard a while ago and I'm sure it's limited to 256mb and to be honest I wouldn't spend any money on this old pc upgrading the ram, The whole point of choosing an Ubuntu distro is that I've only recently started trying Linux and installed Ubuntu on my main pc and wanted a similar or compatable distro on this old one and thought that the versions I tried were suitable for older pc's with limited resources but perhaps not as limited as the one I'm using, Anyway thank you both for your time & advice it's much appreciated

Many Thanks

Emegra

Larry Webb · 10-18-2011, 03:01 PM

A ten gig hd should have enough room to install any of the distros, you may not be able to store a great amount of data. As I said earlier your memory is your main limitation. Most of the larger distros need at least 512 meg to operate in the lightest situations. Puppy and Slax and a few others operate well on 256 meg of memory.

Emegra · 10-18-2011, 04:09 PM

Thanks again Larry
The reason I'm so keen to use an Ubuntu version is that I'm a complete novice with Linux and have only recently started using Ubuntu on my main pc so I thought an Ubuntu version would allow me to use the same programs as I do on my main pc, My idea was to use the old pc to experiment with software and familiarise myself with the command line etc, without screwing things up completely (I have history of that)I was also planing to use it through remote desktop so I could put it away in my attic beside my server, I also download films (mainly childrens films for my grand-daughter)and I thought it would be useful to use the old pc to do the downloads & the format conversions (It wouldn't matter how long it took), I read in an earlier thread on this site that someone ran Kubuntu on a 600mhz processor and 256mb ram with good performance and I thought I could do the same. Anyway thanks again for your help and any suggestions you or anyone have for me would be much appreciated

Many Thanks

Emegra

yancek · 10-18-2011, 06:18 PM

Quote:

I read in an earlier thread on this site that someone ran Kubuntu on a 600mhz processor and 256mb ram with good performance

Probably not the most recent release of Kubuntu which has a minimum of 384MB RAM required and 1GB recommended. Other Ubuntu derivatives that are a lot smaller download and lighter Desktops are Lubuntu and Peppermint Linux.

RockDoctor · 10-18-2011, 06:19 PM

I've installed a number of distros onto 4GB flash devices; if you've got the whole 10GB, disk space should not be the problem. I've never tried to run Ubuntu with only 256MB; I can say that Warty Warthog (the original Ubuntu, Ubuntu 4.10) ran just fine on my Averatec laptop with 512MB RAM. With only 256MB RAM, you'll definitely want a 512MB swap partition on your hard drive. However, even if you can get Kubuntu installed, it may need to do so much swapping that it's aggravatingly slow. Personally, on hardware like yours, I'd give Puppy Linux a shot.

Cr0wb4r · 10-18-2011, 08:02 PM

I also suggest trying either puppy or slax, slax being one of my favorites. Though the original poster does not seem to want to re-install a system

.

So back to the original question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emegra

on the first boot on each install I get Out of Disk, Grub rescue a the command prompt, at the moment I seem to have Kubuntu installed but I just can't load it

Could you be a little bit more specific about what errors you get when you turn the computer on? Is it just spitting you out into a grub prompt or is it giving you errors?

While I would not run the latest Ubuntu distros on 256mb of ram (and more ram will speed you up in this case), ram should not be a problem until it has loaded the kernel and starts a large number of daemons, X, and all the services that provide eye candy.

Emegra · 10-19-2011, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Probably not the most recent release of Kubuntu which has a minimum of 384MB RAM required and 1GB recommended. Other Ubuntu derivatives that are a lot smaller download and lighter Desktops are Lubuntu and Peppermint Linux.

Hi Yancek I tried Lubuntu and got exactly the same results I have a feeling that although the hard drive is a little too small I should still have been able to install it and boot it up even if it didn't run all that well on on my limited ram also I would have thought that if was simply due to my drive being to small it would have told me during the install process, I didn't feel competent enough to partition the drive manually and just let the installer do it for me but I didn't see a swap partition and it said "Kubuntu will use all the available disk space" which I took to mean that there would only be one partition but I still found that strange

Many Thanks

Emegra

EDDY1 · 10-19-2011, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Thanks again Larry
The reason I'm so keen to use an Ubuntu version is that I'm a complete novice with Linux and have only recently started using Ubuntu on my main pc so I thought an Ubuntu version would allow me to use the same programs as I do on my main pc,

Debian will also run on that hardware& ubuntu is debian based, where as you are looking for ubuntu based os
1 thing you left out was what mobo you're using.

Emegra · 10-19-2011, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cr0wb4r

I also suggest trying either puppy or slax, slax being one of my favorites. Though the original poster does not seem to want to re-install a system

.

Hi Cr0wb4r Thanks for your help
I don't mind having to reinstall I just feel that no matter how many distros I try to install it's not gonna boot with this drive and from what Rock Doctor said Kubuntu isn't gonna work for me anyway so I'm gonna have to re install or give up altogether until I get another drive, I only want to find a lightweight distro to run reasonably well on what I have and similar to what I'm already using (Ubuntu), I'm not looking for super performance or a fancy desktop.

I have a hard drive dock connected to my main pc do you think it would be a good idea to drop it in there wipe it clean and reformat it from scratch and start again ?

So back to the original question.

Could you be a little bit more specific about what errors you get when you turn the computer on? Is it just spitting you out into a grub prompt or is it giving you errors?

There are no errors other that "Out of Disk" then at the prompt "Grub Rescue"

While I would not run the latest Ubuntu distros on 256mb of ram (and more ram will speed you up in this case), ram should not be a problem until it has loaded the kernel and starts a large number of daemons, X, and all the services that provide eye candy.

Unfortunately increasing the ram is not an option as my motherboard is limited to 256mb and I wouldn't spend the money upgrading it even if I could

Many Thanks

Emegra

yancek · 10-19-2011, 10:57 AM

You should be able to install Lubuntu on a 10GB drive. The amount of space required on the last Lubuntu (10.10) I installed was 3.2GB.
Does Lubuntu run from the CD with the Try without installing option (if you have that)?

Emegra · 10-19-2011, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

You should be able to install Lubuntu on a 10GB drive. The amount of space required on the last Lubuntu (10.10) I installed was 3.2GB.
Does Lubuntu run from the CD with the Try without installing option (if you have that)?

Hi Yancek Thanks again for your reply I really appreciate your help
To be honest I never tried Lubuntu live, I went straight to the installer, But today I downloaded the Peppermint iso and burned it to a disc at work and ran it live on my office pc it worked perfect and was I very impressed with it in fact I think I like it better than Ubuntu,Since then I've place another 10 GB had drive in the pc and run the live disc but I couldn't work with it because all the letters (except menu at the bottom left) was just small square blocks so I went to install and it crashed on 2 occasions at more or less the same point while copying files, I'm currently downloading again and will try another burn to see if it's just a bad iso but I've decided I definitely like peppermint and would like to use that distro if I possibly can, I'll post back later with the result

Many Thanks

Emegra