Boot Error!

[lsbruva]

I'm trying to boot my Fedora (2.6.35.14-106.fc14.i686) Linux computer and I'm getting the error message:
no root device found

boot has failed, sleeping forever

I'm able to access the GRUB interface. Can anyone explain what I need to do to fix this problem without re-imaging my hard drive? I don't have any install disks. Thanks!

[devils casper]

Something is wrong with root partition or Grub Config file. Boot up from LiveCD/USB of any Linux distro. Post the output fdisk -l command here. Mount / ( or /boot, if any ) partition of Fedora and post the contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf file here.

[lsbruva]

Something is wrong with root partition or Grub Config file. Boot up from LiveCD/USB of any Linux distro. Post the output fdisk -l command here. Mount / ( or /boot, if any ) partition of Fedora and post the contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf file here.

I booted with the LiveCD and "fdisk -l" command doesn't return any results. The "/boot/grub/" directory only contains "splash.xpm.gz". Am I doing something wrong? Thank you for your assistance!

[yancek]

The fdisk command will only work as root user. You need to log in to the terminal as root by typing: su, hit the Enter key and you should be root. Type fdisk -l again and post the output here. Also, which release of Fedora do you use. The most recent (16 and 17 I believe) use Grub2 and they have both /boot/grub and /boot/grub2 directories. If you have both, check both grub directories. If the splash.xpm.gz is the only file in both, you need to reinstall Grub.

[lsbruva]

Thanks Yancek! The boot disc I'm using (as instructed to by 'devils casper' above) is Fedora 14. The version I had installed on my computer was 16. I attempted to re-install Grub (yum install grub) and received this message:
Package 1:grub-0.97-66.fc14.i686 already installed and latest version

Here's the result of fdisk -l:

[root@localhost liveuser]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 30.8 GB, 30750031872 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3738 cylinders, total 60058656 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x82c682c6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1026048 2026048 500000+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/dm-0: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@localhost liveuser]#

[devils casper]

The version I had installed on my computer was 16. I attempted to re-install Grub (yum install grub) and received this message:
Package 1:grub-0.97-66.fc14.i686 already installed and latest version

Fedora 16 uses GRUB2 instead of GRUB Legacy. Did you try to replace GRUB2 with GRUB Legacy in Fedora 16? Where did you execute 'yum install grub' command?

[yancek]

What happened immediately prior to your getting the error you listed in your first post? Changes to software, hardware?

The "/boot/grub/" directory only contains "splash.xpm.gz"

You may have been looking in the /boot/grub directory on the CD. If you had Fedora 16 installed you would be much better served using a Fedora 16 disk to try to repair rather than Fedora 14 in my opinion. You might try to mount sda1 and see if there are boot files there. I don't know your experience level, if you don't know how to do this, post back.