I get the grub menu, I choose failsafe, then I get the usual black screen
with a series of text messages and it stops at the messages
"waiting for device sda10 to appear (timeout 1 minute)"
"waiting for device sda9 to appear (timeout 1 minute)"

I'm enclosing the contents of menu.lst, fstab, the output from fdisk -l,
fstab and blkid

Is there anything else I can post to help diagnose ?
The Linux partitions are actually sdb9 and sdb10

fstab -
# Entry for /dev/sda10 :
UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 / ext4 defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda9 :
UUID=2d8623dd-b4cc-45a5-b407-c16b2ba65615 swap swap defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 152.7 GiB, 163928604672 bytes, 320173056 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf5e5170e

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 63 250533674 250533612 119.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sda2 250533675 320159384 69625710 33.2G f W95 Ext'd (L
/dev/sda5 250533738 320159384 69625647 33.2G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex


Disk /dev/sdb: 232.9 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x02a702a7

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 63 37767167 37767105 18G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sdb2 37767168 488392703 450625536 214.9G 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 37768815 49078574 11309760 5.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sdb6 49078638 82895399 33816762 16.1G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sdb7 82895463 98365994 15470532 7.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sdb8 98366058 385206569 286840512 136.8G 7 HPFS/NTFS/ex
/dev/sdb9 385206633 389110364 3903732 1.9G 82 Linux swap /
/dev/sdb10 389110428 488392064 99281637 47.3G 83 Linux

menu,lst -
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,9)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 nokmsboot splash=silent vga=788
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 nokmsboot
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 failsafe
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title 2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 nokmsboot splash=silent vga=788
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs.img

title 2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64 BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64 root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 nokmsboot splash=silent vga=788
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64.img

title 3.2.18-pclos2.bfs
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=3.2.18-pclos2.bfs root=UUID=73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027 nokmsboot splash=silent vga=788
root (hd1,9)
initrd /boot/initrd-3.2.18-pclos2.bfs.img

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd1,9)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20 nokmsboot

Blkid -
[root@localhost root]# blkid
/dev/ram0: UUID="26b3fb14-6caa-4009-9a20-ddd2c4cd5ab8" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sr0: UUID="2016-07-16-16-51-44-00" LABEL="livecd_2016071616:28" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="6a6544a3" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="I-ntfs" UUID="5E00E80A00E7E74D" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="f5e5170e-01"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="J-DRIVE" UUID="C4480EAD480E9E74" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="f5e5170e-05"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="WINME" UUID="DE3C91D93C91AD51" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="02a702a7-01"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="D-DRIVE" UUID="CAF06920F069144B" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="02a702a7-05"
/dev/sdb6: LABEL="NTFS XP" UUID="1484CE7E84CE61BA" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="02a702a7-06"
/dev/sdb7: LABEL="G-DRIVE" UUID="02A006CFA006C95D" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="02a702a7-07"
/dev/sdb8: LABEL="win10" UUID="2E0E5ECB0E5E8C29" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="02a702a7-08"
/dev/sdb9: UUID="2d8623dd-b4cc-45a5-b407-c16b2ba65615" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="02a702a7-09"
/dev/sdb10: UUID="73dbf5e7-5bc7-487f-be47-cfa6f82b4027" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="02a702a7-0a"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Seagate Bup Slim 1TB" UUID="8C40E35540E34494" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="9aa66103-01"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"


Thanks for any assistance

The fact that the partitions are being called out by device id rather than UUID suggests maybe your initrd is too specific.

Might be time you upgraded grub too - not many can help there these days.

supergrub2 dd to a USB stick have it boot you into your box then install grub and update it again, that might get you in quicker. then fiddling with it.

then you can better do damage control checking your fstab again the UUIDs after you get in. etc

or go old school /dev/ddbx in your fstab and see if that will get you in. looks like you're able to get to it by another means

The Linux partitions are actually sdb9 and sdb10

/dev/sdb9 /
/dev/sdb10 swap

in your fstab

I am in and have access through a Live CD, This is great for troubleshooting, but so far, I don't know what
to change so that I can boot my installed system.

Looks to me like all the UUID's match up as they should, so I'm not sure what is wrong.
The fstab matches the menu.lst which matches the output from blkid which corresponds to sdb9 and sdb10, as you say.

Why during the startup messages is it looking for sda9 and sda10 ? Where is this coming from ?

Are there some grub commands I can issue that will rebuild the whole environment ?

I'd use supergrub2 .. dd a copy onto another USB via your live install, then use that to boot into your Linux then I would try re installing grub update grub, reboot see if that works, then go to changing my fstab to /dev/sdxx if not then I'd try rebooting to eliminate that possibility .. process of elimination is part of trouble shooting.

if you had your system split / and /home you could just do a re-install of linux and not lose any personal data in /home

there is another in here that spoke of your initrd is too specific. in post #2

Sorry, I've absolutely no idea what this means :
"maybe your initrd is too specific"

In which case I would suggest you ask on your distros (pclos ?) own forums. It is likely you can simply chroot into your on-disk system (from the liveCD) and remake the initrd. But these things can be distro-specific.

Another (last resort) option is to save your data and re-install, then restore your data. The installer should find all the drivers needed.

The fact you can everything from the liveCD is a good sign.

you changed your motherboard therefore hardware is no longer the same, your initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64.img and initrd may well be fine tuned to your hardware from your other board therefore it cannot load what it needs to boot up your system due to the hardware change.

is it possible hd0 and hd1 connectors got switched?

Appreciate the continuing suggestions.
According to what I see /dev/sda is where the boot loader is, while /dev/sdb is where the Linux root and swap
partitions are. /dev/sda is hd0 and /dev/sdb is hd1. /dev/sdb9 is swap and /dev/sdb10 is root

This point made about the initrd being an issue could be relevant. I am a bit of a newbie, dont know
Linux commands and concepts that well. I might have gone to the PCLinuxOS forum for perhaps more targeted
info, but their site is down; it is so slow its unusable.

When this message appears on the screen "waiting for device sda9 to appear" the initailization has alreay
progressed some of the way. Has the initrd already been successfully processed? Here's a screen shot
http://www.mediafire.com/file/sx1j6s...110_133232.jpg

Perhaps it's best to create a new initrd because of the new motherboard. Question is how.
Any one have any tips on the initrd creation from the LiveCD environment?

Had you bothered to check the pclos forums as I suggested, you might have found this thread that almost exactly covers your situation.

your hard drive(s) maybe they are not plugged in properly as well so they are not spinning up so that they can be mounted.

Hi,

Try

any of these:

1) Boot, press F2, or anything to go to the BIOS configuration. DISABLE
the option for Booting to "LEGACY". or,
2) Swap the Hard Drive Cable socket to the other (usually there are two
of it) then to boot up; or,
3) There are plenty of sources on "how to" create initrd, I used to do
that before when RAM was still expensive. Today I don't use initrd
anymore, Slackware 32bit is doing well without it. Thus, my advice is
not to modify anything about initrd yet until you have tried the two (1)
and (2) above.

Hope that helps. Good luck and enjoy.

m.m.

The PCLinuxOS forum and the main website were having problems the last few days, with extremely slow response times.
I have in the meantime found some instructions from an alternate source to recreate the initrd.

I actually tried it yesterday and it successfully recreated the file. The system, still, would not boot from the HDD.
Then I realized I had used a 64-bit LiveCD to fix a 32-bit installed OS.

I have since downloaded an iso from 2013 and are retrying. I'll update the thread later

These were the commands I used

mkdir /mnt
mount /sdb10 /mnt
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
mkinitrd -f -v /boot/ .... (insert image name and kernel name here)

I can now boot and can get to a safemode command prompt, not sure what would be helpful here.
If I boot regular mode I get a text logon prompt ad I can logon. I think it's having issues with
the graphics. The new motherboard has at ATI chip, while the old had an Nvidia graphics card.

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, it's been interesting for me to get this far.

This old system is 32 bit. There was not that much installed, I've
already got the little data I had safely saved away. It makes more sense to install a new system.
I have already downloaded and looked at the latest LiveCD versions of 64 bit Linux Mint, Peppermint
and the recent PCLinuxOS KDE version.

If there's any other distribution you'd recommend please mention it. As you can see, I'm not a complete
beginner, but my conceptual understanding of the environment and the commands to support it
is pretty weak. (But I'd like to learn more)