Ubuntu
grub package

installer reversed the bios drive order so grub links to nowhere

Asked by dragonfly

I have to ask this as a separate question since my previous hardy installation went fine but now the partitionner on the alternate install DVD (Ubuntu Studio) reversed the drive order from that of my bios thus affecting grub and my /boot partition, and I am incapable of booting via any entries (hardy or Windows) and my freshly re-installled Suse install does not eve nfigure on the menu.lst- where it had worked fine when I had followed similar install proceedure with gutsy!

My IDE drive with /boot in first partition should be sda1 but it is shown as sdc1, and so on,
My second drive, a SCSI with windows and /home for hardy should be sdb but is shown as sda!
then my third drive with / and swap should be sdc but is shown as sdb.
I thought at the time it was best to follow the manual partitionnner;s designation of drives so I installed grub to /boot or so I thought on /dev/sdc1 but then got grub error no file found...

So do I have to check my installation DVD again and make sure the installer sees the drives in the right order? Because it got it right the first time and I had designated grub to sda1 that time...otherwise there will be a problem if I only correct grub's location but / is still desgnated wrong and worse, /boot is not designated as on the first drive?

Any suggestions, I did report this as a bug and saw that the same thing had occured in earlier versions, but I am unclear of how people resolved the issue!
Help is greatly appreciated- I am spending way too much time on this. Also what will happen to my Suse install? Grub used to be able to pick it up before....I can't keep on re-installing forever!

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Wyatt Smith
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Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said : 		#1

Hello

Reinstall GRUB again and have a shot..

Refer:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

Regards

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dragonfly (streams0dragonflies) said : 		#2

I tried to follow the instructions given, I tried to make sure the UUIDs matched but the only way I got to boot into Ubuntu hardy was to delete the mbr entry which pointed to My old Ubuntu (gutsy) but would not boot it. I could then only boot into hardy and windows but could not repair my suse boot files. I am getting so frustrated with this. I spent days re-reading grub and other info. and advice and finally re-installed Suse and now I can only boot into Suse. Why could Gutsy's grub succesfully find all my OS, even though I had it on a separate /boot partition? Why did hardy loose all my boot entries?

I want to now try chainloading Windows and Ubuntu, keeping Suse's grub as master, as others are advising me, but was having a separate /boot partition of any use if I now have to re-install ubuntu's grub onto the / partition?
What about the files that were on the /boot partition and now Suse of couse formatted over? Were any needed back in /boot within my ubuntu partition to boot succesfully? If I now have to flag my ubuntu partitions as bootable of what purpose is the separate boot partition?

I am really hating this now- I just want to get into all my OS- which are all on the drives!!!
I am loosing my linux enthusiasm- grub is supposed to welcome multiple OS-unlike windows and it worked before but it all seems lost now!!!
(note-I still was exploring Suse and Ubuntu for their music production and multimedia apps, which I am never getting to do...)
Note: the default for Suse boot entries is device id not UUID, I don't know if this has anything to do with it.

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Best Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said : 		#3

dragonfly

I know you have been trying to work this problem out for a while and you are very frustrated. Hopefully my suggestion here will simplify this a little bit. First try to boot hardy through grubs CLI. I recommend this because you can bypass MBR, menu.lst, and /boot folder. This procedure is the most reliable method for booting any Linux operating system that is bootable. The only thing you need to know is where / is.

From grub CLI you will only need specify the linux root partition you will be booting. You will then call the kernel and initrd from their symlinks in /. Very simple procedure actually.

This grub CLI is great troubleshooting tool as well.

The following link is from the Grub Page
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p15.htm#First_method:_direct_kernel_boot.

I suggest you read and understand the entire GRUB's Command Line Interface (CLI) section and Grub´s Numbering System.

Best of Luck

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Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said : 		#4

Although the link is supposed to bring you to the proper section, I''m not sure if its working properly. The Grub Command Line Interface section is about 1/4 way down the page.

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dragonfly (streams0dragonflies) said : 		#5

Thanks Wyatt Smith, that solved my question.