[SOLVED] Problem with Grub2 upgrade in 9.04

[wtwine]

Hi

I am new to the forum. I posted this thread over an hour ago but it did not appear, so I am re-submitting - apologies if it appears twice.

I run dual boot Ubuntu 9.04 and Win XP on my PC. I am relatively new to Linux - first installed Ubuntu in May 2009.

In anticipation of upgrading to 10.04 soon, I upgraded from Grub to Grub2 recently. I tested it for a few days, and it booted fine every time. <sudo grub-install -v> showed that version 1.96 is installed.

Today I decided to finalize the upgrade with <sudo upgrade-from-grub-legacy>. The installation of the new MBR was successful, BUT generating grub.cfg was NOT.

I got an error saying:
"Calling update-grub to generate grub.cfg
/etc/default/grub: 1: quiet: not found
Failed to generate /boot/grub/grub.cfg but GRUB2 has been already installed to
your MBR. THIS MEANS YOU HAVE CURRENTLY AN UNBOOTABLE SYSTEM.
Either fix the error from update-grub and run /usr/sbin/upgrade-from-grub- legacy again or install old grub again and run grub-install from it to have again
grub-legacy in your MBR."

Yikes! The text in capitals is worrying!

I checked /etc/default/grub and the only entry is:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”ipv6.disable=1 quiet splash”

I tried replacing it with the default "quiet splash" and reran upgrade, but got a similar error message "1: splash: not found".

I don't know how to "fix the error from update-grub and run /usr/sbin/upgrade-from-grub-legacy" as suggested.

Can anybody help?
Thanks

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

You have to Boot up from Ubuntu 9.10 LiveCD to fix this problem. Mount / partition and execute update-grub command to re-install GRUB2.
Or
Download SuperGRUB CD/USB and re-install GRUB2.

[wtwine]

Thanks

I don't have a 9.10 live CD, so I booted with SuperGrub USB, and tried reinstalling GRUB@, but got same errors. I then uninstalled GRUB2 and installed Grub (legacy). However, now when I boot (without SG), I get a black screen with "Grub>" prompt. What now?

[devils casper]

Boot up from LiveCD of any Linux distro, mount / partition of Ubuntu and post the filenames of all files available in /boot/grub folder.

[wtwine]

I booted from live CD, ran fdisk to check which was my Ubuntu partition (/dev/sda5) and attempted to mount it, but got the error message "mount: can't find /dev/sda5 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mta". However, I could see in Nautilus that my Ubuntu partition was mounted as media, so I changed directory to media/disk/boot/grub and got the following list of files:

ubuntu@ubuntu: cd /media/disk/boot/grub
ubuntu@ubuntu:/media/disk/boot/grub$ ls
acorn.mod fshelp.mod multiboot.mod
affs.mod fs.lst normal.mod
afs.mod fs_uuid.mod ntfscomp.mod
amiga.mod gfxterm.mod ntfs.mod
aout.mod gpt.mod partmap.lst
apple.mod gzio.mod pci.mod
ascii.pff halt.mod pc.mod
ata.mod hello.mod play.mod
biosdisk.mod help.mod png.mod
bitmap.mod hexdump.mod pxeboot.img
blocklist.mod hfs.mod raid.mod
boot.img hfsplus.mod read.mod
boot.mod installed-version reboot.mod
_bsd.mod iso9660.mod reiserfs.mod
bsd.mod jfs.mod search.mod
cat.mod jpeg.mod serial.mod
cdboot.img kernel.img sfs.mod
_chain.mod _linux.mod sleep.mod
chain.mod linux.mod sun.mod
cmp.mod lnxboot.img terminal.mod
command.lst loadenv.mod terminfo.mod
configfile.mod loopback.mod test.mod
core.img ls.mod tga.mod
cpio.mod lspci.mod udf.mod
cpuid.mod lvm.mod ufs.mod
default memdisk.mod vbeinfo.mod
device.map menu.lst vbe.mod
diskboot.img menu.lst~ vbetest.mod
echo.mod menu.lst_backup_by_grub2_postinst vga.mod
elf.mod menu.lst_backup_by_grub2_prerm video.mod
ext2.mod minix.mod videotest.mod
fat.mod moddep.lst xfs.mod
font.mod _multiboot.mod

[wtwine]

OK, I booted again using SuperGRUB, uninstalled Grub2, and tried re-installing again. I got the following error message (see below). I got the same when I tried installing Grub-pc. Seems to be a problem with linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic, so I uninstalled and then re-installed it, but same error:

reconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package grub2.
(Reading database ... 322599 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking grub2 (from .../grub2_1.96+20080724-12ubuntu2_i386.deb) ...
Setting up linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic (2.6.28-18.60) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-18-generic
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
/etc/default/grub: 1: quiet: not found
User postinst hook script [/usr/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 127
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic:
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic depends on linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic; however:
Package linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic; however:
Package linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-restricted-modules-generic:
linux-restricted-modules-geneNo apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
ric depends on linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic; however:
Package linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-restricted-modules-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 2.6.28.18.23); however:
Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.
linux-generic depends on linux-restricted-modules-generic (= 2.6.28.18.23); however:
Package linux-restricted-modules-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up grub2 (1.96+20080724-12ubuntu2) ...

Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.28-18-generic
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-18-generic
linux-image-generic
linux-restricted-modules-generic
linux-generic

[wtwine]

Out of desparation I reverted to kernel 2.6.28-17, purged grub-pc and grub2 and reinstalled grub. It now boots fine into Ubuntu, but I have lost my dual boot option. How do I add Windows as a boot option?

[devils casper]

Post the output of sudo fdisk -l command here.

[wtwine]

Hi. Posted below. I have 2 HDD, one for running Ubuntu and Windows (sda), and one for backing up data (sdb).

Thanks!


Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd95dd95d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5880 47231068+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5881 14593 69987172+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 5881 14232 67087408+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 14233 14593 2899701 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5fe1713e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 12745 102374181 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 12746 14593 14844060 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 14220 14593 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Sol

[devils casper]

Add this code in /boot/grub/grub.conf file :

title Windows OS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1