grub rescue

[david1248]

I know this has probably happend to others but my ubuntu 12.10 and Zorin 6 machine will not boot up all i get is error file not found grub rescue. I know that both partions can be mounted when i run the live CD i need help with this problem please


David

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Which distro's did you install first? Have you tried to re-install GRUB using Installation CD/USB?

[david1248]

Hi and Welcome !

Which distro's did you install first? Have you tried to re-install GRUB using Installation CD/USB?

first in was Ubuntu 12.10 then Zorin 6 it all worked for a few days then it came up with error file not found after update

[Honeyman]

Hey David,

did you follow devils casper advice to re-install grub via a Live-CD? Boot-up any Live-Linux (Ubuntu, Knoppix or Fedora might be the easiest, but choose whatever you like). Then you might want to run os-prober (possibly you have to install the package first as Live-distributions tend not to come with it by default) to check whether Ubuntu and Zorin are detected. Re-install GRUB via grub-install on your hard drive (See man page for more information). That would be sda (Not a partition like sda1, sda2...!) assuming that you have a SATA drive that is recognized as sda. If in doubt, you can check via:

$ /sbin/fdisk -l

or

# fdisk -l ## as ROOT

to have all your partitions displayed. Thus you can figure out not only how your connected hard drive(s) are partitioned but also which is the physical hard drive your Ubuntu and Zorin OS are installed on. Install GRUB on the same hard drive, but not a specific partition like sda1!

Good luck! Beware: Fiddling with partitions and hard drives can destroy your data!!!!!

[Raymond Day]

Do you know if the hard drive is still good? Spin rite is good to fix hard drives and tell you about when to get a new one. It cost about $80 for it but it's very good at fixing hard drives. Or just keeping them good longer.

-Raymond Day

[Syndacate]

Do you know if the hard drive is still good? Spin rite is good to fix hard drives and tell you about when to get a new one. It cost about $80 for it but it's very good at fixing hard drives. Or just keeping them good longer.

-Raymond Day

While I agree about spinrite, this doesn't sound anything like a hard drive issue.

@ OP: Just, as others have said, reinstall GRUB, use the latest live Ubuntu CD, then:
Switch to root:

sudo su

(prompt should now have a # instead of a $).

Find out what drive is which:

fdisk -l

(You're looking for sdX, where X is a, b, c, d, e, etc., it will be sda if you only have one drive, make sure you get this right, then after it will be a number (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Note the number of the partition of your Ubuntu install:
ie.
sda2
could be a possible partition..

Then mount that partition in the live environment, first make sure all drives are unmounted, you can do this with:

umount -a

Then mount that Ubuntu partition in the live env.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

NOTE: could as easily be sdb1 or sdc4, it's whatever your fdisk list reported as your ubuntu partition..

After it's mounted, you can reinstall grub:

grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

NOTE: Since GRUB will be installed to the MBR (applicable to all partitions on that drive), it's just the drive, the partition number ('2' in my example) is omitted, so just sda (opposed to 'sda1')

Hope that helps, let us know what happens..

EDIT:
If you don't know what's what in your partition layout, copy/paste the output of fdisk here and we can try and help you .

[fenario]

hi devils casper
could it be that the kernel got updated but not the entry in grub?
you can see the kernel image in the /boot/ folder
the grub config file(grub.cfg) would be in the /boot/grub/ folder wherever that got installed
in there one should find something like:
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-38-generic" or whatever kernel 12.10 uses
this entry should correspond with the image in the /boot/ folder

fen

[devils casper]

hi devils casper
could it be that the kernel got updated but not the entry in grub?

Package Updater has messed up Grub while updating GRUB menu. Zorin is based on Ubuntu and uses GRUB2. Its easy to fix GRUB2 problem but Thread starter has not posted the output of suggested commands yet.

[zrdc28]

There is a very simple way to solve this problem, download "super grub" and run it. It has never failed me yet on these kind of issues.

[ElEmAl]

Many Debian distros are a bit shaky with Grub and MBR. Use Boot-repair and follow these instructions: help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair. I'm quite sure it will resolve your problems