[LazarusLong]

I recently updated the Fedora 9 kernel to the latest available through the update manager (x-76 I think, didn't pay very close attention to the number unfortunately).

Sometime after the update (several bug fixes and enhancements were included) I rebooted my machine (a Dell 505, also has windows). Instead of going to the usual Grub boot menu the computer stops booting and displays 'GRUB' on the screen. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del starts the cycle over again, but everytime, after seeing the initial setup screen (press F2 or F12, etc) it just displays 'GRUB'. Not the menu mind you, but just the word and a blinking cursor.

Any ideas about what I could possibly do to fix this? I've tried running the install CD in rescue mode, but have no real idea what to do in there, so I nixed that idea at least for now. Since my machine is booting to neither windows or fedora 9, it is essentially an expensive (though somewhat out of date) paper weight.

[yancek]

Might try this: On bootup all you get is word Grub and server stops booting - Atjeu Hosting LLC Forums

Whenever you update the kernel, you need to change the entry in your menu.lst. to reflect the new kernel number.

[Jonathan183]

try typing

find /boot/grub/menu.lst

If this returns something like (hd0,1) then type

root (hd0,1)
configfile=/boot/grub/menu.lst

If you get file not found from above try

find /grub/menu.lst

do the

root (hd0,1)
configfile=/grub/menu.lst

If neither work then try similar with

find /boot/grub/grub.conf

and

find /grub/grub.conf

This should get you the grub menu and the ability to start Linux. Once you start Linux you can reinstall grub

su
grub
root (hd0,1) # replace this with (hd....) you typed to get the grub menu
setup (hd0)
quit

You could also try the grub manual

[LazarusLong]

Originally Posted by yancek

Might try this: On bootup all you get is word Grub and server stops booting - Atjeu Hosting LLC Forums

Whenever you update the kernel, you need to change the entry in your menu.lst. to reflect the new kernel number.

It turns out the link above provided the information I needed to fix the problem. I also had to find and check out my grub.conf file to find out where the boot partition was residing. It turns out mine are hanging out on (hd0,2) for the old a new Fedora kernels and the 'Other' is at (hd0,1). Once I found that out, I was able to follow the instructions supplied in the link and it appears things are back to normal.

What I'm curious about now is how did things get out of sync to being with? Did grub not get automatically updated when the new kernel was added during the update that I can only suspect caused this problem? I know I've had kernel updates come through before (at least on Fedora and I never experienced a problem like this? Or any problem for that matter.

Thanks to Jonathan183 and Yancek for the pointers.