UBUNTU Install failed, missed grub page
 

Hi,
I just tried to updated my UBUNTU 10.04 to 10.10. I missed the page where I was asked to reuse the current GRUB information. The system hung after trying to load the new GRUB. I rebooted, and got an error about Configuration defaults for gnome power configuration not correct.
I googled this, and have lost of disk space. The other suggestion was to remove and reinstall the gnome power app.
I am not sure if this is the real problem, or if it is something to do with GRUB. There is some information on the system that I don't want to loose. I can get to a system console.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Kerry

Have you tried just re-installing Ubuntu 10.10 and making sure you work through the section where you add the GRUB bootloader? Or even just booting from the live CD and re-installing GRUB on its own?

I am a little cautious to re-install, some important stuff was not backed up. How do I install GRUB by itself?
I can get to the /home directories, and the user directory with the needed info.

Can you boot to recovery mode from the grub2 menu? If so, then boot to recovery mode and try running: Then reboot and see if you can boot to Ubuntu 10.10.
If this does not work, then reinstall grub2 to the MBR as Snark1994 suggested. Here is how to reinstall grub2 to the MBR in Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ing%20GRUB%202
The first method there titled Simplest should work just fine.
Both Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 use grub2. So this is not an issue with upgrading grub-legacy 0.97 to grub2 1.98.
I am not sure about this. Do you mean to say you have lost a lot of hard drive space???
Upgrading Ubuntu should not cause any significant loss of hard drive space.
Also, the Gnome power power manager is unrelated to any grub2 booting problems.
The best suggestion here is to have a separate /home partition for your data. With a separate home partition you can reinstall Ubuntu quickly and easily; and all of your data and user specific settings are preserved on your separate home partition.
If you decide to reinstall Ubuntu 10.10, this is an excellent time to create a separate home partition. See this tutorial for a separate home partition: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installseparatehome
Note: You will need to backup any data you do not wish to loose before reinstalling Ubuntu if you do not already have a separate home partition. You can use any live CD to mount your current Ubuntu install. Then copy any data you need to a usb flash drive, or external hard drive, or CD / DVD or whatever. Then reinstall Ubuntu and create a separate home partition.
Write back if you need more help.

EDIT: I wrote this post before I saw you most recent post #3. Again, write back if you need more help.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

Thank you,
I will give these suggestions a try.
Kerry

Please review my last post again. I was editing it as you posted your last post.

Thanks for all the help. I got it working. I tried loading the gnome-power-thing from the console, and it told me that I needed to finish the installation, and gave me a command. I ran the command, and everything installed. I had to kind of hack the update-grub from 10.04 running from the CD to get it to point to the correct place. I selected the default, use my grub configuration file and everything is working.
I am kind of new to UBUNTU, so it was interesting.
Kerry

Well done for fixing it :) now, it's just polite to give reputation to anyone whose post you found helpful (clicking "Yes" by "Did you find this post helpful?" and marking the thread as solved using the thread tools.

Hi,
YES, these postings were helpful. I do not see anywhere that I can answer Yes/No for reputation. I will gladly do this, if someone will tell me how.
Thanks again for the help,
Kerry

Never mind, I found it. It magically appeared after I asked the question.
Thanks again.
Kerry

Just out of curiosity, how did you do this? Did you boot to recovery mode? Or did you boot from the live CD? Or did you boot the half-upgraded 10.04 install?
And what command did gnome power manager tell you to run?
So you reinstalled grub2 to the MBR from the Ubuntu live CD then?
I am just interested to know exactly how this was fixed.
Anyway, I'm glad you got this working; and I'm glad that I could provide some help on this!

I have UBUNTU on a Dell Inspiron 1501. This does not play well with the video, so, to fix it, I entered nomodeset in the grub.cfg. When I tried to upgrade to 10.10 from 10.04, it got part way and then chocked. I had to turn off the system, and when it rebooted, I got a message that the "Configuration for gnome power configuration was not correctly installed, consult the system administrator."
It is my computer, so I am the administrator. My fiance also uses this system as her main computer, and had lots of bookmarks and other things on it. I did some research and found that if I press CTRL-ALT-F1, i would get a terminal. Unfortunately, one of the things that did get upgraded was GRUB.cfg, without the nomodeset, so no terminal, just wavy grey lines.
I booted the system from my old 10.04 disk, mounted SDA1 as /mount/disk/ and proceeded to add nomodeset to the grub configuration. When I ran update-grub, I got an error saying that / could not be found. OOPS! I looked at the update-grub file and found that a location was passed to the grub-updater program. (I am not at that computer, so the file names may not be correct.) I passed the location /mount/disk/.../grub.cfg to the updater, and it still did not work. Next step was to go to the grub-updater and hack that by adding /mount/disk/ before any call to the output file. I changed the local variables in the script.
After a few tries, it worked.
I was then able to get a terminal after the boot failed, and run the gnome-power-manager. This gave me an error saying that a process was still running, and gave me a command. I ran the command and everything started loading. I watched carefully for the grub questions, and kept the current configuration.
I booted the partly upgraded 10.04 / 10.10. I don't remember the command that the gnome-power-manager told me to run, but it was a system command because gnome-power-manager could not run.
I did not have to re-install grub2, everything just worked.
I showed it to my fiance, with all her stuff complete, and I did not have to sleep on the porch.
Again, thanks for your help.
Kerry