Reinstalling Grub

[desm]

Grub wouldn't load, calling an error 17. I followed the following instructions, using an ubuntu live cd, to fix the problem:

1. Open terminal by going to Application>Accessories>Terminal.
2. Then type SUDO grub in the terminal to access the GRUB.
3. In the GRUB, type find /boot/grub/stage1
4. You will have output like (hd0,6). hd0 is your hardisk of your linux, and 6 is the index number of your linux partition.
5. Then type root (hd0,6) by assuming your output for step 3 is (hd0,6).
6. Then type setup (hd0) and look at the output. If any problem occur then you need to check the step and the output for STEP 3.
7. If there isnt any problem occur then we may proceed to the final step. Restart your laptop by typing shutdown -r now command.

Upon rebooting Grub loaded, but then when I try and boot into debian, I get an error 17. I've retried the quoted method, but it doesn't help. Any ideas ?
Preferably ones that can be achieved from my ubuntu live cd. But my over riding aim is fixing my system.

[Jonathan183]

Boot from the live CD, open a terminal and type

sudo fdisk -l

and post the output here, the l is a small L

[desm]

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1501 12056751 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1502 4865 27021330 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2678 4136 11719386 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 1502 1744 1951834+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7 1949 2677 5855661 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 1745 1948 1638598+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 6527 52428096 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 6528 13054 52428127+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 13055 19581 52428127+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb4 19582 22192 20972857+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Grub error 17's are from grub having an incorrect partition table. So my guess is I need to edit /etc/grub/menu.lst.
Right ? I dont really want to break it any more. Also - if I do have to edit it, how do I do that form a live cd?

In the GRUB, type find /boot/grub/stage1

returns (hd0,7)

[Jonathan183]

OK you look to have 2 drives hda and hdb. The first drive hda also looks to have Windows installed ... which one has the version of Linux you are unable to boot?

Ed: run

sudo grub
find /boot/grub/menu.lst

and post output here ... (hd0,7) is a swap partition so should not contain grub files - it's hda8

[desm]

(hd0,6)

is the output, and i've tried the websites process with (hd0,6) to no avail.

hda8 is swap.

[Jonathan183]

OK I assume you are running from the live CD. Type ...

sudo -s
mkdir /manmount
mount /dev/hda7 /manmount
cat /manmount/boot/grub/menu.lst

Ed: and post the output here

[desm]

I've deleted all the comments at the top (plus useless stuff like colours), here are the partition entries:

title Debian:
root

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-6-686
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-686 root=/dev/hda8 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-686
savedefault

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-6-686 (single-user mode)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-686 root=/dev/hda8 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-686
savedefault

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Ubuntu:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda5.
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (on /dev/hda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=bd5bdb26-306f-434a-99ad-de3471e63504 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda5.
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/hda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=bd5bdb26-306f-434a-99ad-de3471e63504 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda5.
title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+ (on /dev/hda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
savedefault
boot

#to seperate windows

title Windows:
root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

note: The partition I deleted was an ubuntu root partition which corrupted.

[Jonathan183]

Ed: corrected post ...

You need to change (hd0,7) to (hd0,6) in Debian entries ... assume you already have partition mounted so use

sudo nano /manmount/boot/grub/menu.lst

after that run

sudo grub
root (hd0,6)
setup (hd0)
quit

Then shutdown and restart system

[desm]

I followed your instructions, I didn't get an error 17, but I did get the following after selecting to boot debian.

mounting /sys on /root/sys : no such file or directory
mounting /proc on /root/proc : no such file or directory

Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init

Busy Box
/bin/sh Can't access tty; Job control turned off

I'm confused as to why grub changed the location of my Debian partition in the menu.lst, I deleted what was hda5, an ubuntu partition.

[Jonathan183]

You need to change the root=/dev/hda8 to hda7 also ... sorry ... you need to boot from live CD and remount partition and use nano to mod menu.lst file again

Ed: while your at it double check /etc/fstab for correct partition information also ... /manmount/etc/fstab for the live CD mount