The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

[taliz]

---

I have installed ubuntu 8.04 beta, but grub is failing, so I tried lilo which seems to work but it is veeeeery slow to boot.
Hence I want to replace it with grub, but I cannot manage to get it to work.
My setup is one single partition for / that is located on /dev/sda1.

When I run grub-install I get this:
root@lap:~# grub-install /dev/sda
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

I have of course googled for that, but haven't found a solution that works for me. One proposed solution was this:
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

..well duh, its already mounted..

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
Error 15: File not found

.. but it is there:
root@lap:~$ file /boot/grub/stage1
/boot/grub/stage1: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, code offset 0x48

Another suggestion was that the Inode size was something other than 128, but it isn't:
root@lap:~# tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 |grep "Inode size"
Inode size: 128

I don't know what else could be wrong.

Other info that might be of interest:
root@lap:~# cat /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0) /dev/sda

root@lap:~# cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sda1 / ext3 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mw/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 iso9660 rw,nosuid,nodev,utf8,user=mw 0 0

root@lap:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

[Jonathan183]

From your description you should find to setup grub

sudo grub
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

works ... what does

dmesg | grep mount
dmesg | error

report?

[taliz]

From your description you should find to setup grub

sudo grub
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

works ... what does

dmesg | grep mount
dmesg | error

report?

As I wrote I have tried rootnoverify (hd0,0) in the grub console, only root (hd0,0) gives the same error..

root@lap:~# dmesg |grep mount
[ 125.658759] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

[taliz]

I managed to solve it by using the GParted Live CD to make myself a /boot partition, then using the Ubuntu Live CD to mount, chroot, copy etc as per How to install Grub from a live Ubuntu cd. - Ubuntu Forums

[Jonathan183]

Glad you are sorted and thanks for sharing the solution ... it may help others in future.

[patrick9027]

I just encountered this problem on debian while upgrading grub and a new kernel at the same time. The updating procedure missed a step:

grub-install /dev/sda
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

depmod
update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... 


Generating /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-2-686
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-1-686
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-3-686
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done