Changed setup of my HDs - mepis won't work anymore: problem on fstab or grub?
 

Hi,
firstable: sorry for my english and for the length of this thread.
Let's go with the problem.
I installed mepis 6.5.02 32 as unique OS on my pc: all works great.
After some months I suffering decided to install Win on a HD
I couldn't do it because on my Gigabyte MB the HDs were setup as RAID
So I modified th HD setup and put it on the tradition configuration Master / Slave
I installed Win an HD (put as master): ok works
I was sure I can restore my Mepis installation (on the ex-master HD, at now Slave).
I tried to do it manually and via boot tools (Super Grub Disk) and (Ultimate Boot CD): don't work
Please note: I'm just a little better than a newbie, certantly not a linux-guru....

I tried to restart my pc with the same OS previously installed on my pc, running the Live Distro (mepis 6.5.02 32), with the following blocker error:
Looking for MEPIS linux.....
Found MEPIS Linux at /dev/hdg
Mounting Mepis filesystem... done
cat: linux/etc/ld.so.cache: no such file or directory
[17179639.996000] hdg :command error: status 0x51 driveready seekcomplete error
[17179639.996000] hdg :command error: status 0x50 lastfiledsense
[17179639.996000] ide :failed opcode was: unknown
[17179640.000000] end_request i/o error , dev hdg , sector 1390324
------------

After that I runned the Live cd Mepis 7.0.
I can mount my linux HD partitions, see my OS (mepis 6.5), manage files.
The only thing I can't do is: run the OS stored in the HD

I don't know if the problem is:
1. grub
2. fstab
3. both of them

Here below you can see the difference in fstab between the Mepis 7 live cd and mepis 6.5 and the grub (mepis 6.5)

FSTAB live distro Mepis 7.0
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 ntfs-3g noauto,users 0 0
/dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5 auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sdb2 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
/dev/sdb3 /mnt/sdb3 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
mepis1:/etc#


FSTAB on my Hard Disk (mepis 6.5)
# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,noatime 1 1
/dev/hda2 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devmode=0666 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 /home ext3 defaults,noatime 1 2
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/hdc1 /mnt/hdc1 ntfs-3g noauto,users 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 vfat,ext3,ext2,reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/hde /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/hdg /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy vfat,ext2 noauto,users,exec,rw 0 0

GRUB on my Hard Disk (mepis 6.5)
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title MEPIS at hda1, newest kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/hda2
boot

Could you help me please?

Thanks.
Francesco

ok it looks like you swapped the drives....so the linux used to be the master and is now the slave.

so boot the live cd
open a terminal or shell

This should display the grub menu you have already posted.

Press I for insert mode (lowercase i for india)
arrow down to line kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/hda2

change that to hdb1 and hdb2

EDIT

arrow to line for root (hd0,0)
change that to (hd1,0)

press ESC escape key to get back to command mode

type
and press enter takes you out but saved the changes.

now while still in terminal

umount /z
grub
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

-------

on reboot....grub will be in the mbr of the new first drive and should give you a menu

boot linux as the next bit is easier to do with a text editor with copy and paste

In hd mepis open a terminal or shell

open /boot/grub/menu.lst and add a new line so you can boot windows

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1


save and reboot to test please

-----comment

I am assuming mepis hd keeps the names of hda for master hdb for slave, if you update...new kernels may see it as sda and sdb

of course you can do the windows stuff while still in the mepis live cd...but I do not know what its text editor is called...so if you know..do it all in there....with root powers

MEPIS 7 includes Midnight Commander (mc) & its editor mcedit.

Both 6.5 & 7 run KDE & have KWrite & Kate available, as well as "File Manager - Super User Mode" in the System >> File System menu. "File Manager - Super User Mode" allows you to enter the root password ("root" on the live CD's) once & still have root privilege when you open a file for editing.

(Saving the best for last). Perhaps most important of all, both have 4 Wizards under System >> MEPIS

• MEPIS Network Assistant
• MEPIS System Assistant
• MEPIS User Assistant
• MEPIS X-Windows Assistant

The System Assistant has a "Repair System Boot" tab which can re-install GRUB for you.

Please try that first, before you edit anything -- it will also rewrite your menu.lst if you ask it to.


P.S. I had rotten luck w/ 7.0 until I tried the community re-mastered MEPIS 7.073uce. See this:
Mepis 7.0 live CD's with updated 7.3 Xorg available here
In fact I am seeding both the 32- & 64-bit vers. as I write.

Rick

thats good to know but not sure if the OP saw your post and my edit as I made an oops...sunday morning after aussie beer night. I hope he uses Mepis in live mode to view this thread in case I have stuffed him around.

(to aus9) Yes, I hope he does all this in time. The only way you could "stuff him around" is if he has trouble following your instructions or gets intimidated by vi. I'm a veteran CP/M's ed.com so a modal editor doesn't throw me, but that doesn't mean I like vi, I just know enough to use it in an emergency.

Expanding on the wizards/assistants themes: These features were part of the installer at least as early as MEPIS 2004.04, but disappeared in 6.0; now that are part of the regular menu system, they get installed on the HD.


OP -- Oops, that was your first post:

Welcome to LQ

I hope you get as much out of the site, as I have.

Please post back your results.

Hi aus9 and archtoad6,
really thanks for the quick answer.
You were faster than my expectations.
I don' use to write in the forums.
Today I' ll try the "Repair System Boot" way, and if it won't work, the modification of the menu.lst file.

I will post the results of your nice suggestions as soon as possible.

Many thanks.
francesco

Hi aus9 and archtoad6,
I have some results to my tests:

1. repair system boot via GUI (system assistant) - Mepis 7
An error message appear, sorry, I didn't copied it, It was like "an error occoured, please restart your pc and do it manually"
After that, I reboot my pc. Boot was on windows (without grub), so I think nothig was done by the GUI

2. Modification of file menu.lst
The error message is:
Kernel panic - Not syncing VFS unable to mount root fs on unknown block (0,0)

Please note:
1. I modified the setup of disks (from a RAID connector, to the "common" IDE connector). Are maybe some blocks "lost" ?

2. I lounched, in the Mepis 7.0, only in test mode, Mepis System/Repair partition. The result was :

----On sdb1
/dev/sdb1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sdb1: 98547/400000 files (1.4% non-contiguous), 713442/799225 blocks
Check partition completed.

----On sdb3
/dev/sdb3: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sdb3: 8914/9125888 files (11.2% non-contiguous), 9522389/18243815
blocks
Check partition completed.

Could it be useful?
Do you need further informations?

Thanks.
Francesco

P.S.:
1. thanks for the welcome, nice to meet you :-)
2. At now I use windows (thanks aus9 your modification of menu.lst (root hd0, makeactive, ..) works fine
3. I can use the "popular" linux software and shell command (like vi, mc, and so on). My problem is that I'm really ignorant about PC architecture (hardware). Not good for a linux newbie ;-)

Thanks in advance for the reply.

yes well with trouble shooting it is better to do only one major change at a time.

1) could you redo the raid setup

2) I smile when I say that is why I prefer manual way of installing grub

Now the following image will not be the same for your setup....root must change to (hd1,0) but the message of success shows up for commands and not for gui which you attempted
http://h1.ripway.com/aus9/grub.png


3) I agree with your observation on windows booting up....so far

4) please do not use mepis repair.......lets keep the hardware the same.....you would not put a toyota engine in a ford would you? (they are both good just an example)

5) In case I make any more mistakes please read my signature for the grubs. It may be handy to print or write down some stuff.

let me know if you agree to revert to raid setup etc

Hi aus9,
I don' t want to redo the raid setup because (maybe I'm wrong) in case of master/slave configuration I can easy manage my HDs in case of crash.
For two times I just put my HD in an external HD box, runned a Live distro and retrieved all my data.
I'll read in the next days the docs you posted.

But don't worry, I ask for this informations only because I'm a bit lazy (for reinstalling Mepis) and also because I want to improve my linux know-how.
I have a backup of all my data.

Many thanks.
Francesco

More a request than reply
 

Would yo mind telling me how to mount my windows drives from fstab. Or tell me where to mount them from if I can't get automount from fstab.
cheers

umm mike your question may be a hijack....the OP has a question in Mepis and you have not supplied enough info for anyone to help.

Francesco

Since you have not replied forgive me for replying to mike here.

Mike

to read a partition and make it accessible with or without read write ability needs a mount point for each partition and knowledge of the partition structure and knowledge of the filesystem format

are you using Mepis in live cd mode?

egs of common windows stuff would be

/dev/hda1 aka c partition for old style vfat
/dev/sda1 aka c " for new style ntfs

use root powers to
then edit fstab where appropiate change for your partitions etc etc

/dev/hda1 /w95family vfat users,rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /ntfs ntfs-3g users,rw 0 0

rw means read and write ...so you can install files delete etc

if thats too dangerous for you change it to ro = read only

users means anyone booting the linux computer can read the ms stuff change that to
user....means only root can read it if you have confidential info on ms

post the mepis fstab if use it if you do not understand what to do next

cheerio