seeking assistance w install ...grub?

[rbc]

hi all,

my apologies for posting this twice but I'm getting desperate...

i have been having fun w my new box and 9.04 install up until a couple days ago. everything was working well and had been testing a bunch of apps in vm's then installing locally.

after a handful of reloads I created a hd image w clonezilla (updated ver, not jaunty ver)

A couple days ago I hosed up my local install and reloaded the image

The restore process went as expected and did not see any errors except I'm not sure how to access the logs.

Clonezilla ver is a dl from yesterday and the restore is ext2/ext3

I assumed grub was the issue and can access if running the server rescue cd but get a file not found error when running find /boot/grub/stage1

Then ran root (sda,4) and get error 23 error while parsing number

At that point I dl supergrub iso and ran the mbr repair with no luck.

I'm still figuring a mbr issue because clonezilla sees all the internal hd's.

Decided to run the restore again and made sure restore mbr was checked and watched for any errors....nogo

After trying to install grub every which way I could find I ended up zeroing the drive in an attempt to validate it's integrity w
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/TARGETDRIVE bs=1M

This completed after several hrs on a 500gb sata.

Then reloaded the clone image. Same result

Zeroed the disk again overnight and now am not able to complete a simple local install.

The installed had failed (hung) at 2 diff spots..33% and 83%


After the 3rd try I was able to complete the install...

but am now back at sitting at blinking cursor




MB BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M RT
CPU AMD|PH X4 9950 BLK2.6G 65N R
MEM 2Gx4|OCZ OCZ2G8008GQ R (8GB total)
WinTV-HVR-1800 (CX23385/7 driver)
SATA HD 1T|WD 32M WD10EADS (2ea)(Green)
SATA HD 500GB WD (1ea) Blue
DVD BURN SAMSUNG|SH-S223Q LS
2.6.28-11-server w/GUI

[rbc]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000402ea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 58336 468583888+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 58337 60801 19800112+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 58337 60801 19800081 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002e48d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 121601 976760001 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ab931

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 118653 953080191 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 118654 121601 23679810 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 118654 121601 23679778+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


I'm wondering if it's trying to boot from the wrong disk but not sure how to verify that.

[yancek]

Then ran root (sda,4) and get error 23 error while parsing number

I don't understand what you were trying to do with the above. Your fdisk output doesn't have an sda4 and in Grub, that root entry would need to be: root (hd0,3)

You have three Linux partitions where Ubuntu could be according to your fdisk output:

sda1, sdb1, or sdc1, so you could use your Ubuntu CD, load it and get to a terminal and run following commands from a grub prompt consecutively to see if they will boot:

sudo grub (to get the grub prompt: grub>) From there:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

reboot. If this fails, change the root entry to: root (hd1,0), reboot, if that fails try:
root (hd2,0) and re-boot.

If you are sure that your system files are on a certain disk, try that one first. Also, I'm wondering based upon your post, if you know that Grub starts counting from zero (0) not one (1)?

You could also go to the grub prompt and run the commands: geometry (hd0) to get ooutput of how Grub sees your partitions, do geometry (hd1) and geometry (hd2) also.

[rbc]

hi yancek- thanks for your response.

you are correct about sda. I had made it past that but didn't edit the post.

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,0)

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0,0)
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 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,0) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu
.lst "... succeeded
Done.

grub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 60801/255/63, The number of sectors = 976773168, /dev/sda
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82

grub> geometry (hd1)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 121601/255/63, The number of sectors = 1953525168, /dev/sdb
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> geometry (hd2)
drive 0x82: C/H/S = 121601/255/63, The number of sectors = 1953525168, /dev/sdc
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub>