GRUB Error, cant mount partition
 

I am trying to get GRUB working on my computer so I can use different versions of the Linux kernel on boot. I have previously been using a floppy disk to boot up. I installed the GRUB debian package and ran grub-install to install grub, upon booting, I was presented with Error 17, which means cannot mount selected partition. I decided to create a GRUB boot disk to see if I could figure things out. Here is what happens in GRUB when I try to load my menu.lst file to boot up.

grub> root (hd0,2)
Unrecognized file system. Partition type 0x83
grub> configfile (hd0,2)/boot/menu.lst
Cannot mount selected partition

I have no idea why I'm getting that error, if I run GRUB from the shell, I can run the above commands and after I rn the configfile command, I am presented with a text-based menu and a list of my kernels that I have set up in menu.lst, upon selecting one, I am returned to the shell. I think it may be something in my config file, but I don't know what it could be. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

It would help if we knew the partitioning scheme you used and we could look at your /etc/fstab file.

# How are the hard drives partitioned
fdisk -l

Installing a bootloader
Multiboot with GRUB Mini-HOWTO
Linux+Win9x+Grub HOWTO

Here is the output of cat /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/hda3 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

Here is the output of fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9693 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 = 4128768 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 24 96736+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 9601 9693 374976 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 * 25 9600 38610432 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Sorry about the formatting, there isnt a [code] tag that I know of, so the formatting got messed up

{code}paste code in here{/code}

Replace the {} with []

For example:I forgot to mention that you should also post your /boot/grub/grub.conf file:

I thought you might have wanted the config file as well. WIth my distro it is menu.lst though, so, here is the stuff again

UPDATE: I installed grub onto a floppy disk, and was able to get the menu showing my kernels that I set up in menu.lst, yet I still get error 17 when I try to boot with any of them. Could this be a permission issue? I tried (hd0,0) (hd0,1) (hd,2) for the kernel boot command, and all three returned error 17. It sounds more like a permission issue now.

Nobody can help me out here? I really need to figure this one out, as my floppy drive is about to go. Could someone please help me out.

What other files have you got in /boot/grub? Grub will give the error 17 message if it can't recognise the filesystem. I had a run in with it about a fortnight ago when I moved to Reiser4. Your root filesytem is ext2 so the minimum you need are the files stage1, stage2 and e2fs_stage1_5. Copy them from /usr/share/grub/i386-pc (if that's your architecture) to /boot/grub. I would just copy all the files as it won't do any harm. I hope this helps. Sorry if it doesn't. Good luck.