Hi,

I thinks its a common problem since I came across multiple forums regarding this problem. (wasnt able to solve it)

Anyway here is the case:

I wanted to try linux, so I downloaded the new Debian distro and installed it on my laptop. No problem here.
The problem starts when linux tells me the installation is complete and I have to reboot. So I reboot, come across the Grub loader and press "return" to start the OS.

Now the problem appears.
ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist
and drops to shell.

In my dev dir I cannot ls on hd* (it doesnt find anything) but I can find sd*

Now I tried editing the GRUB loader to load sd instead of hd, but editing the GRUB doesnt seem to save the changes (besides, I wasnt sure if that was going to work).

I read something about editing my /boot/grub/menu.lst, but the /boot dir doesnt exist, and typing vi /boot/grub/menu.lst opens an empty file. So in short I do have a working computer but not a working Debian installation since it cant seem to find my HD.

Is there any solution (besided dropping linux instantly and returning to windows).

are you installing debain etch or lenny?you say when you edit grub and replace hda with sda it boots?

first try to mount sda

and go from there

Sorry, forgot to mention, but i'm using etch. And no, when I edit grub and replace hda with sda, grub does not save the changes. And it still wont boot.

This doesnt work somehow. I can make the mount dir, but when I try to mount the device it says:
Mounting /dev/sda1 on /mount failed: No such file or directory.

Tried sda2 and sda5 as well without any luck.

How are you trying to edit, during boot?

If you don't have a /boot directory, I don't imagine you will have a menu.lst file?

What else do you have on the computer? Any other OS's or just the new Debian install?

Yes, during boot


Only the new Debian install. Well. I had windows xp running on it, but I made debian (deliberately) overwrite it during installation.

at grub..when you enter "e"..and edit to sda..then boot..will it load the kernel and start to boot..??but then error out about cant find hda1..if grub has your drive listed as sda then fstab will probably have partitions as sda to..if you cant use nano or vi to edit menu.lst or /etc/fstab..you can download a live cd like puppy..its a small download..boot into puppy and mount the drive from puppy then edit your menu.lst and fstab..or download lenny and install lenny..etch is old..and lenny will be stable soon anyway.lenny might recognize your hard drive better

try fdisk -l to see if we can get a listing of what the drives are really labeled. Is the drive a sata or pata drive?

Its a PATA drive.

When in grub, pressing "e", edit and then boot there is no change in how linux boot. The same error, same messages, same text.

I thought I downloaded the latest release with etch, but sees like lenny is even newer. My laptop is about 3 years old now. I dont know for sure but I would think my drive is recognizable enough?

But I will try and install Lenny. Since linux wont boot anyway, things can hardly get worse :P.

This code will only work if $PWD is /.
Try changing the recipe to
(note: mkdir /mount)
You will probably need to be root to do this. Try it using /dev/sda1 and /dev/hda1.
As jstephens84 says, try fdisk -l, as root. Also,
This should give some insight about correct device naming.
--- rod.

I would hold off on trying to just install the next version. Lets get this fixed as it will teach you about troubleshooting boot errors in the future. Just installing another version is more of a patch not a fix.

You are absolutely right about that. However, I have read your command after I allready started the installation of Lenny. And now I must happily say that it does work now. So I hope you understand my joy about this. Still, I think I have enough to learn from this point on .

Tx all for help and commands

Well atleast you got up and going that is a good thing. Do you know what your disk are labeled as now. Just out of curiosity.