[SOLVED] Help with Grub

[azteca_04]

Hi, i am kind of new to the linux world and i have a problem like we all know windows sucks so i had install xp and ubuntu but xp fail and had to re-install for school purpose, so now i cant get to load ubuntu, i all already read a lot of the howto recover grub but dont work

when i do: grub-install /dev/sda ---> is a laptop
i get an error saying: not found or not a block device.

or when i do it in the grub comand: root (hd0,2)
i get error 21: selected dis does not exist

or setup (hd0) (hd0,1) same error as above

i have xp, ubuntu and swap only particions thanks for any help

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums azteca_04

Boot from a live CD and in a terminal type

sudo fdisk -l

and post the output here. The l is a small L.

[azteca_04]

thanks for aswering so quickly ill do that when i get home and post it thanks

[Jonathan183]

If you have time ... it may be worth getting a copy of the SuperGrub CD ... you can use this to fix Window and Linux boot problems. Its a quick download and burn and you can probably sort the problem yourself using it. Let us know how it goes or post the fdisk output if you need more help.

[azteca_04]

Hi thanks for helpin, here is the output:
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cyliinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 * 1 8453 67898691 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 8454 9606 9261472+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 9607 9728 979965 82 Linux swap / solaris

i downloaded the supergrub and i put it and it says Loading Stage2 ....
and thats it, what do i have to do or is not working??

[Jonathan183]

That does not sound like the sort of thing you should get from SuperGrub ... it should give you text, ask you to press enter or space and then come up with more text followed by a menu after another key prompt ...

If you boot from the ubuntu live CD you should be able to open a terminal and type

sudo grub
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

That should reinstall grub for you ... not sure why SuperGrub is playing up though .... could be a bad download or bad burn

Let us know how it goes.

[azteca_04]

Hi, i downloaded another version and burn it again and say thing, i already did what you say but get that is not selected disk does not exist i will try another download and another disk see what happens thanks

[Jonathan183]

Hi, i downloaded another version and burn it again and say thing, i already did what you say but get that is not selected disk does not exist i will try another download and another disk see what happens thanks

Not sure another download and burn will help .... lets try to fix the boot problem with the live CD ... I'll reboot system from Ubuntu live CD and give it a try (different disk partitions but should have same effect) ... I get for fdisk ...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x199c199b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         894     7181023+  27  Unknown
/dev/sda2             895        3452    20547135    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            4031       14593    84847297+   5  Extended
/dev/sda4            3453        4030     4642785    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            4031        4158     1028128+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            4159        6078    15422368+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7            6079        6843     6144831   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6844        7480     5116671   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            7481        8088     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8089        8696     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11           8697        9333     5116671   83  Linux
/dev/sda12           9334        9970     5116671   83  Linux
/dev/sda13           9971       11244    10233373+  83  Linux
/dev/sda14          11245       12006     6120733+  83  Linux
/dev/sda15          12007       14593    20780046   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

and for the grub stuff ...

grub> root (hd0,9)

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,9)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub>

Can you post output of each command when you try using the live CD?
and here is a grub tutorial.
You are using zero instead of O and putting in () and spaces in the right places? ... you should be able to copy and paste instructions from my previous post into a terminal.

[azteca_04]

Hi, sorry for the delay, i just got home, ok i did the root (hd0,2) part and now it did work i didn't give any errors but the second part setup (hd0) gives me an error: 17 Cannot mount selected partition

[azteca_04]

Hey Jonathan183 i will like to thank you alot for your help, i download it the supergrub again and burn it in a brand new cd and it work, so thanks a lot you help me save all my info an time thanks!!!!