Error 15 on bootup (Won't boot)

[jaytounit]

I forgot my username and password to login, so I read up on the issue and learned that the simplest solution would be to reinstall arch. So I reinstalled it and now I get the following error message on bootup:

root     (hd0,2)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

I did a few searches on google and can not find out what the problem is. Do you guys have any idea how I can fix this?

[rokytnji]

Maybe in next post if you post the output of

fdisk -l

(lower case L after - ) so Arch members can see where Arch is installed they can get your (hd0,2) to point to the right partition.

I don't run Arch so I don't know if it uses Legacy Grub or Grub2 or I would also recommend posting the contents of grub legacy /boot/grub/menu.lst or for Grub 2 it is /etc/grub.d

Any Live cd like Puppy can access those installed files so you can post them since vanilla Arch is not a live cd.

[jaytounit]

here it is:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x43ae0772

Device Boot    Start     End    Blocks      Id      System         
/dev/sda1  *      1        13    102400      7     HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda2         57    26316   21924000  7      HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3     26316   26331   120487+   83     Linux
/dev/sda4     26331   38913  101070585  83     Linux

[jaytounit]

This the menu.lst contents(too much to copy so I will only include what I think is relevant):

...
#Device Name Conversions

#Linux                              Grub
#-------------------------------------------
#/dev/fd0                         (fd0)
#/dev/sda                         (hd0)
#/dev/sdb2                       (hd1,1)
#/dev/sda3                       (hd0,2)

#FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
...

#(0)Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root  (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /kernel26.img



#(1)Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root  (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img



#(2)Windows
title Windows
root  (hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive

[yancek]

Your menu.lst file shows the root entry pointing to (hd0,2) which is sda3 and the kernel line point to root=/dev/sda4. Change the kernel line to sda3 and it should work. You should be able to use the install CD to create a mount point for sda3, mount it and then as root user make the change. If you are not familiar with mounting partitions, post back and someone will explain.

[jaytounit]

I am not familiar with mounting points, thanks for the help so far!

[oz]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

I'm not sure which kernel you are running, but note that if it's 3.0 or later, the latest kernel and initrd image have changed and are now renamed as follows:

vmlinuz-linux
initramfs-linux.img

and for fallback mode:

vmlinuz-linux
initramfs-linux-fallback.img


Here's a copy of my own grub menu.lst file if it helps you any:

# /boot/grub/menu.lst

timeout   6
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro vga=838
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img

[jaytounit]

Your menu.lst file shows the root entry pointing to (hd0,2) which is sda3 and the kernel line point to root=/dev/sda4. Change the kernel line to sda3 and it should work. You should be able to use the install CD to create a mount point for sda3, mount it and then as root user make the change. If you are not familiar with mounting partitions, post back and someone will explain.

I reinstalled linux and did this, but it did not work. (Reinstalling was the only way I could get around my lack of linux knowledge.)
Also I have the older make of arch so the files names should be ok... but im not sure because I am not sure how to mount partition from the LiveCD and view them for myself. How can I mount a partition from the LiveCD?

[yancek]

I reinstalled linux and did this,

Does this mean you have reinstalled since you posted the fdisk output earlier? If you did, run fdisk -l again. Note that sda3 is quite a lot smaller than sda4 so I would guess it is a /boot partition? Did you create a separate boot partition during the installation? Did you select to install Grub to the master boot record.

Post back with answers and someone will explain mounting so you can access your partitions.

[jaytounit]

Yes, it is a separate boot partition.
I followed "Windows + Arch Linux dual-boot and installation tutorial " from youtube and did everything exactly like it was done in the video.

The grub loader is installed to /dev/sda