Grub Error 2

**davidq0806** · 08-05-2008

Hi, just finished installing Gentoo Linux from the 2008 LiveCD for the second time and I still have the persistent "Error 2" problem with Grub. I have looked at almost every post on the internet about this but still to no avail - any suggestions?

**devils casper** · 08-05-2008

Hi and Welcome !

You are not using correct device name assigned to partitions in grub.conf file.
Boot up from any LiveCD and execute this

Code:

su -
/sbin/fdisk -l

Post output here. Post the contents of grub.conf file too.

**davidq0806** · 08-05-2008

Ok, here's what I got from fdisk about my main HDD:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 25005930016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identified: 0x8d44dbc9

   Device Boot	    Start	  End	   Blocks	Id	System
/dev/sda1		1	14376	115474432	af	Unknown
/dev/sda2	    14376	18293	 31457280	 7	HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *	    18294	29766	 92156872+	83	Linux
/dev/sda4	    29767	30401	  5100637+	82	Linux swap / Solaris

..and here's my grub.conf:

Code:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda3
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5

Thanks so much for your help by the way, this has been driving me mad!

**yancek** · 08-05-2008

Error 2 is "Bad File or Directory Type". You have some version of windows on sda2 and Gentoo on sda3. What's on sda1? I think this may be the problem, I'm not really familiar with Gentoo so... Where did you install Grub during the installation? To the mbr or root directory of Gentoo?

**davidq0806** · 08-05-2008

sda1 is my experiment with osx86, so it's HFS+
The thing is, the Gentoo install gave me no option of installing any form of bootloader & left me with a blank MBR, so I stuck SystemRescueCD onto a blank USB drive & installed Grub from there.

**devils casper** · 08-05-2008

Remove = sign from title line and a few parameters from kernel line.
Edit grub.conf file.

Code:

default 0
timeout 30

title Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5 ro root=/dev/sda3
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5

In case it doesn't work, post the contents of /etc/fstab file too.

**davidq0806** · 08-05-2008

No difference at all. Here's my fstab:

Code:

/dev/sda3	/	ext3	defaults		0 1
none	   /proc     proc    defaults		0 0
none	   /dev/shm  tmpfs   defaults		0 0

it wouldn't have anything to do with the 2008 distros formatting ext3 using 256-bit inodes, instead of 128-bit? Grub 256 bit inode problem

**devils casper** · 08-06-2008

it wouldn't have anything to do with the 2008 distros formatting ext3 using 256-bit inodes, instead of 128-bit?

I don't know and I have to test it myself. It looks like its inode problem only because contents of /etc/fstab and grub.conf files are correct.

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