Having a problem with ubuntu

[Linuxwannabe1]

I have just got a used computer from a friend and i installed Ubuntu because i am a new Linux user and i have heard its the simplest one to use but i installed to my computer as the only operating system and now when i start it up it says this: Error: No such devicea bunch of numbers and letters)
Grub Rescue:
Can anyone tell me what could possibly be wrong

[meton_magis]

did this problem just start ocurring? did you do a fresh install? did you change any default settings? did your friend mention any odd behaviour in the used computer when he gave it to you? did a different OS work on it without issues?

can you figure out from the error messages what device is not available? can you post the entire error message?


there could be WAY too many things that are wrong to deduce what it is without more information.

[hatebreed]

are you getting this after you pick ubuntu from the grub menu? sounds like grub has the wrong drive info and it can't find where ubuntu is. if you can get to grub then on the menu line with ubuntu hit 'e' and see what it has assigned for your drive. you could also boot up the livecd and reinstall grub to your drive and see if it will pick it up.

[devils casper]

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD. Open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.
* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[Linuxwannabe1]

did this problem just start ocurring? did you do a fresh install? did you change any default settings? did your friend mention any odd behaviour in the used computer when he gave it to you? did a different OS work on it without issues?

can you figure out from the error messages what device is not available? can you post the entire error message?


there could be WAY too many things that are wrong to deduce what it is without more information.

This problem did just start occurring because I have never installed Ubuntu till now. And yes I did do a fresh install with Ubuntu 10.04 live cd. I did not change any settings. And there were no problems prior.

[yancek]

The error you reported in your original post would seem to indicate Grub is looking for a UUID which no longer exists. In addition to posting the output of fdisk -l as suggested, post the output of blkid command. You could copy the 'bunch of numbers and letter' and see if you have that in the output of your blkid.

Do you know what operating system was on this computer previously?

[Linuxwannabe1]

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD. Open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.
* Its small L in fdisk -l.

Here is the result:
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 gb 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors, 1 track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinder of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/0 size (minimal/optimal): 512 bytes / 512bytes
Disk identifier 0x17f417f4

Device boot Start End Blocks id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4660 37431418+ 83 linux
/dev/sda2 4661 4865 1646662+ 5 extended
/dev/sda3 4661 4865 164663182 82 linux swap/Solarris

unable to seek on /dev/sdb

[devils casper]

Execute this

mkdir ubuntu
sudo mount /dev/sda1 ubuntu
cat ubuntu/etc/fstab

Post output of cat command here.
Post output of sudo blkid command, as suggested by yancek.

sudo blkid