Hello. I recently upgraded to 11.1 from suse 10.3, and have had grup error 15 messages. I can see the grub menu if I boot from the suse dvd, and both suse and windows load fine. But not without the dvd. Tried reinstalling grub a bunch of times, without sucess. So i reinstalled the os from scratch, and fromatted my root and /boot partitions. After the install I still get the same grub error 15 message. here are the contents of my menu.lst below. I have 2 hard drives, one with just an /archive partition, and my main drive that has multiple partitions. The /boot partition is called sda8.

Thank you


# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Dec 26 01:11:25 UTC 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,7)/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.7-9
root (hd1,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500320AS_9QM01QLB-part6 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500320AS_9QM01QLB-part5 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.7-9
root (hd1,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500320AS_9QM01QLB-part6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
"menu.lst" 24L, 1037C 1,1 All

Post result of fdisk -l

Hi, here is the result of fdisk -l . THanks

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9515aed2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 19457 156288321 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1 19457 156288289+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x893d893d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 10199 81923436 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 10200 60801 406460565 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 10200 10390 1526175 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 10462 13072 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 13073 60801 383383161 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 10390 10461 578277 83 Linux

Check /boot/grub/device.map and make sure what's there is correct - otherwise, correct it and reinstall grub.

Are you sure the grub entries shouldn't be hd0 rather than hd1?

what's written in my /boot/grub/device.map is as follows,

(hd1) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500320AS_9QM01QLB
(hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160023A_5JS5AQRN


if this was incorrect, wouldn't linux and windows fail to load at all, because what was written in menu.lst would be incorrect too? I can still get in with the dvd, the grub menu works. It's just if I try booting without the dvd, I get the grub error 15.

Error 15 is file not found.

Can you get into thew grub command line (hit escape at the grub menu, then "c" to enter the command line), and try

>find /vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default

if that doesn't work, try

>find /boot

or

>find /vmlinuz

and see what it throws up.

Hi there billymayday, here is what I found using your procedure

find /vmlinuz shows the following, (hd1,7)

find /boot shows "error"

find /vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default shows (hd1,7)

It's curious that find /boot shows an error. On installation I specified that as to where to install grub, and indeed I do see grub files on that directory. What do you think?

Thanks

GRUB should be installed to the MBR, whichever drive is master. If it is the WIN95 drive, then it should go there. Knowing windows, sda is probably the boot drive, although I see you have an ntfs partition on sdb. Put GRUB in the MBR, always. The config is in /boot/grub/menu.lst, but the program should be placed on the MBR. (Sorry, I am repeating myself.)

Why do you have 2 swap partitions?

Hello, I only have 1 swap partition, hard drive sda is my /archive drive . When I installed suse 11.1 it seemed to flip around the hard drive labels for some reason, sdb became sda, and vice versa.

I thought the proper procedure is to install grub on a /boot partition, I had it like this in the past and it worked fine.

I have always installed the boot loader, whether GRUB or Lilo, to the MBR. I have been dual booting (or triple-quadruple) for 10 years.

ANother thought, if you switch the boot order in the bios, that would explain the switch and that it works.

I'm sure you can install grub on a /boot partition. This is common and should work. I see files in that partition for grub, so I want to find out why it's not working with error 15. I want to know where the issue is so I have an understanding. I know if I reinstall grub on the mbr it won't work. I've tried it before I reinstalled 11.1. The problem is not that I installed grub on /boot, the trouble is elsewhere.

Stage 1 has to be in the MBR, stage 1.5 or 2 can be anywhere (give or take)

Check

find /initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default

as well.

The failsafe entry doesn't work either?

my grub.conf file has the following written, setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 --force-lba (hd0) (hd1,7)

Does it make a difference which drive is specified as first or second?

The menu works but Only accessable through "boot from hard disk" in the suse dvd, the menu is fine, but only loads with the dvd. Without the dvd I get grub error 15

Try the 4th last faq

http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/gnu/gru...18.html#SEC112