grub error after installing gentoo minimal

[jimlikessweets]

i just finished installing gentoo and grub. i rebooted my system to find i have an error with grub and cannot boot gentoo. i am pretty sure i know the problem. i think i specified the wrong directory that holds my kernel or i typed in the kernel's name wrong.
here is the error message that i received:
-----------------------------------------------------
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/linux-2.6.23-gentoo-r9 root=dev/hda3

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...
------------------------------------------------------
what do i do to fix this?

-jim

[MikeTbob]

When you reboot the machine, and you get the grub boot screen, press the spacebar to open the grub menu. Highlight the line with your kernel info and press "e" for edit, now you can attempt to change the kernel line to include the missing or incorrect kernel

[jimlikessweets]

alright that is all well and good, however i don't know how to go about figuring out what i need to put in.

[MikeTbob]

alright that is all well and good, however i don't know how to go about figuring out what i need to put in.

Ok then, do you have a LiveCD or another Linux installation you can use?
If so, then boot it up and mount your gentoo partition

mkdir /mnt/gentoo

mount /dev/hdax /mnt/gentoo

(substitute /dev/hdax with your device name)
then look in the /boot directory

ls /mnt/gentoo/boot

Write down the kernel name, and while your are in the LiveCD, issue this command and post the output back here too.

fdisk -l

(lowercase L not an i)
Also, post the output of this command

cat /etc/fstab

[Neon427]

I'm also having the same issue, so I booted from the minimal install cd. and i'm not sure how to get to the place where i can type in those commands. If i type them in when it asks for the "livecd root #" it doesnt' work. My goal is to fix grub without having to reinstall gentoo again.
Thanks for the help.

[Jonathan183]

I'm also having the same issue, so I booted from the minimal install cd. and i'm not sure how to get to the place where i can type in those commands. If i type them in when it asks for the "livecd root #" it doesnt' work. My goal is to fix grub without having to reinstall gentoo again.
Thanks for the help.

OK try running just the

fdisk -l

command first and see if that works. You should get output that looks something like this ...

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80054059008 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9732 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x15551555

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1         256     2056288+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2   *         257        2168    15358140    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3            2169        9732    60757830    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            2169        3910    13992583+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6            3911        5784    15052873+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7            5785        5915     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8            7162        7799     5124703+  83  Linux
/dev/hda9            7800        9095    10410088+  83  Linux
/dev/hda10           9096        9732     5116671    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda11           5916        7161    10008463+  83  Linux

If you see references to sda .... instead of hda ... then use sda rather than hda in the commands posted by MikeTbob.

[Jonathan183]

...
here is the error message that i received:
-----------------------------------------------------
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/linux-2.6.23-gentoo-r9 root=dev/hda3

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...
------------------------------------------------------
what do i do to fix this?

-jim

I think you need the extra / in the root definition ....

kernel /boot/linux-2.6.23-gentoo-r9 root=/dev/hda3

[Neon427]

although i have repartitioned according to my specifications

Disk /dev/hda : 120.0GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/hda1 * 1 10 80293+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 11 96 690795 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3 97 14583 116447152+ 83 Linux

what to do next?

[Jonathan183]

although i have repartitioned according to my specifications

Disk /dev/hda : 120.0GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/hda1 * 1 10 80293+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 11 96 690795 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3 97 14583 116447152+ 83 Linux

what to do next?

Ok ... looks like you have a boot partition on hda1 and root partition on hda3. I suggest you mount the boot partition and double check kernel name ...
You should be able to use ...

mkdir /manmount
mount /dev/hda1 /manmount
cd /manmount/boot
ls

You should be able to check the kernel name & then correct the entry in grub using

nano /manmount/boot/grub/menu.lst

then do

cd /
umount /dev/hda1

and you should be able to restart the system.

By the way ... I think you should have been able to use MikeTbob instructions replacing hdax with hda1.

[Neon427]

I tried what MikeTbob said to do but it doesn't want to "mkdir /mnt/gentoo" says file already exists, so I move on.
Should i moun my root or boot partition? in other words;
"mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo" (boot) or "mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo" (root)
not sure which one i'm supposed to put there.
than i can make it up to the fdisk -l, but when i type in cat /etc/fstab/ it says its the fstab on the livecd. How do i switch to the fstab on the HD, or /mnt/gentoo/etc/fstab where it should be. I beleive this is supposed to have some outputs that we need to look at but can't figure out howto.
thanks