Problem re-installing GRUB

**saurabh.nigam** · 05-14-2009

I ran

Code:

fsck

cause it was showing some probs in getting started
it asked

Code:

This may damage your filesystem y or n?
y

I answered yes
After that i couldn't use GRUB
Grub said

Code:

Grub loading stage 1.5.

Grub loading, please wait...
Error 17

So i used mandriva 09 dvd for rescue & had to restore Windows bootloader

Now when I used Mandriva DVD to rescue
I selected re-install Grub bootloader
it answered

Code:

Installing drivers.........SATA controller

Installing drivers.........IDE controller

Please wait finding your root device
running: vol_id /dev/loop0
running: vol_id /dev/sda
running: vol_id /dev/sda1
running: vol_id /dev/sda2
running: vol_id /dev/sda3
running: vol_id /dev/sda4
running: vol_id /dev/sda5
running: vol_id /dev/sda6
running: vol_id /dev/sda7
running: vol_id /dev/sda8

Couldn't find your root device:-(

Guessmounts failed at /usr/sbin/install_bootloader line 28

I also ran

Code:

fdisk -l
mkdir realroot
mount /dev/sda5 realroot
grub-install --root-directory=realroot /dev/sda

but it answered

Code:

/sbin/grub-install:line 595:expr:command not found
/sbin/grub-install:line 587:test:-gt:unary operator expected
/sbin/grub-install:line 597:test:-eq:unary operator expected

Please help

**devils casper** · 05-14-2009

Boot up from LiveCD of any distro and post the output of fdisk -l command here.

So i used mandriva 09 dvd for rescue & had to restore Windows bootloader

Is Windows OS working fine?

**saurabh.nigam** · 05-15-2009

Yes devils casper
my windows is working fine
I cant enter my mandriva

**devils casper** · 05-15-2009

Something is wrong with Mandriva's partitions only. Boot up from LiveCD and post the output of fdisk -l command here.

Code:

su -
fdisk -l

**saurabh.nigam** · 05-15-2009

I used mandriva rescue cd

Code:

fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda:80.0GB      80026361859bytes
255 heads ,63 sectors tracks,9729 cylinders
Units=cylinder of 16065*512=8225280bytes

Disk Identifier:0x00000001
Device               Boot       Start          End            Blocks         Id          System
/dev/sda1           *            1               1912       15358108+     7         HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2                         1913         5736               . .            7         HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3                         5737         7011                ..             7         HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4                         7012         9729                 ..           5         Linux
/dev/sda5                         7012        8286                   ..          83       Linux
/dev/sda6                         8287        9083                  ..           83       Linux
/dev/sda7                         9084        9243                  ..           82       Linux swap/Solaris
/dev/sda8                         9244        9729                    ..         83        Linux

I also used Super GRUB DISK but no results

**yancek** · 05-15-2009

Your fdisk line for sda4 looks different than the normal. The Start (7012) and End (9729) numbers indicate it is an Extended partition containing sda5, 6, 7, 8. The ID (5) indicates a paratition "05 DOS 3.3+ Extended Partition" which "Supports at most 8.4 GB disks: with type 05 DOS/Windows will not use the extended BIOS call, even if it is available. See type 0f below. Using type 05 for extended partitions beyond 8 GB may lead to data corruption with MSDOS".

Usually the type partition for Extended is "0f" or "f". Don't know how this Extended partition was created or how to change it, but it seems like a good possibility as the source of the problem. Happy googling.

**saurabh.nigam** · 05-15-2009

Well Yancek
you ought to check this link-lissot.net/partition/partition-05.html

I dont think there is anything wrong with sda4
Well I think problem is that my device sda6 is not labelled as '/' hence unable to be loaded by grub
Any kind of help are open

**devils casper** · 05-15-2009

I agree with yancek regarding Extended Partition. Lets verify it. Check if you can mount /dev/sda6 partition in LiveCD.

Code:

su -
mkdir sda6
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda6 sda6
ls sda6

Post error message here, if any.

**saurabh.nigam** · 05-15-2009

Devils casper i mounted sda6 successfully

Code:

mkdir sda6
mount -t ext2 /dev/sda6 sda6
ls sda6

Code:

ls sda6
  Recycled              lost+found

then i reused Super GRUB Disk
it showed

Code:

findf /boot/grub/menu.lst       grub/menu.lst     /boot/grub/grub.conf
Error 15:File Not Found

**devils casper** · 05-15-2009

/dev/sda6 partition is empty. Mount all Linux partitions and check which partition has Linux OS files. Post the contents of /etc/fstab file here.

Thread Tools

Display

Problem re-installing GRUB

Posting Permissions