botched boot loader after installing 11.1

**fd4242** · 22-Dec-2008, 14:33

After my failed upgrade from 11 to 1.1 (see post) with zypper dup, I downloaded and burned the DVD and ran an upgrade. I put GRUB instead of my old LILO. The upgrade went smoothly until the computer restarted.
1st problem: no GRUB: "Verifying DMI Pool Data...UPdate Success. GRUB Loading stage 2..." then nothing.
So I ran the "repair installed system" tool of the DVD and installed LILO instead of GRUB. It told me that LILO is not supported (!) and I got a couple of errors during the installation of LILO, that I managed to fix by editing lilo.conf. I rebooted and..
2nd problem: Kernel Panic: at the LILO menu, whether I choose "OpenSuse" or "Failsafe", I get
"Kernel alive
Kernel really alive
PANIC: early exception 0e rip...".
In despair, I run an installation from the DVD (format everything except my home).
I reboot and get the same "Kernel really alive
PANIC..."
I try several times to re-install LILO and GRUB thanks to the "repair installed system" tool of the DVD , to no avail.
The only way I can run my installed opensuse 11.1 is by running the "repair installed system" tool of the DVD, aborting it and choosing "start installed system" from the menu you get when you exit the repair tool (it asks for the boot partition, and then opensuse 11.1 starts OK).

Help! How do I fix my boot loader (GRUB or LILO, I don't care, as long as it works)?

**ardiware** · 22-Dec-2008, 21:38

Hi buddy-o. I got problems with the GRUB, it doesn't boot nothing after the first reboot after fresh installation. Here is a posible solution:

*** posted by me in a related post ***

The problem is that SUSE will install the GRUB into the same partition SUSE is installed. This is too bad, 'coz GRUB then marks that particular partition as "ACTIVE", rendering the WINDOWS partition unbootable.

The thing you should do is...

1. Make sure only WINDOWS is bootable. I mean, you should turn on your PC and only windows must boot. No GRUB at all. You can do it with good ol' FDISK (command: cfdisk /mbr), or HIREN's boot CD. The original pre-linux Master Boot Record must be restored.

2. Install SuSE in "expert mode" or run SUSE repair option. Put special attention in the GRUB section. Play with the tabs in the GRUB configuration page. You must uncheck the option "MARK PARTITION AS ACTIVE", and some other that is cheked, i don't remember wich. The point is, you must check the option that said something like "INSTALL GRUB IN THE MBR". That must solve everything with elegance.

I hope it helps you. Greetings from Tlalnepantla, Mexico.

**fd4242** · 04-Jan-2009, 13:55

I have finally found a way to make GRUB work on my 64-bit mobo: in my BIOS, I disabled RAID (switched the SATA chip from "RAID" to "IDE"). Now GRUB works fine.

**plmegalo** · 04-Jan-2009, 15:40

Originally Posted by fd4242

I have finally found a way to make GRUB work on my 64-bit mobo: in my BIOS, I disabled RAID (switched the SATA chip from "RAID" to "IDE"). Now GRUB works fine.

Hi,

I'm new to this forum but I use openSuse since 10.3. I tried to upgrade from 11 to 11.1 and have same problems. But I don't understand your solution. My disks are SATA/AHCI managed, and I can't change it because other systems won't boot. (I've got a triple boot openSuse/ ubuntu/ gentoo). So your solution seems not to be a real one. I don't want to fall back to IDE management, just to upgrade to 11.1.
Another problem : I need to keep Lilo for my others systems installed and this new version doesn't support it. Why ?
At the end of my installation, only openSuse 11.1 was booting and no other systems anymore (thank god, I have backups of everything).
What I found really more serious is that even if you refuse the installation of grub, the install process DO IT ! Am I the only one to complain about this ?
And even after boot on openSuse 11.1, nothing was really working good (nVidia graphics, sound, amarok, Kaffeine didn't start anymore, for example)
This is really disappointing, because upgrade from 10.3 to 11 was really "piece of cake". Nothing bugs (at the contrary, bugs disappeared), and I've had to do strictly nothing to have everything working fine.

For the moment openSuse is my main system, because I really think it's the best one since I tried it the first time, but if I can't get to upgrade it, I'll probably choose another one to have benefit of next generation systems.

If anyone of you have a solution to install this version without these pains, I would be pleased to ear of it.

And sorry for my poor english, I'm french..

**whych** · 04-Jan-2009, 16:19

I found after upgrading from 11 to 11.1 that many things didn't work because they weren't upgraded. The best is to make a separate / and /home partition and go for a fresh install. The fresh install works fine but you will need to add the nvidia and other repos.
Grub should allow the same or similar boot functions to lilo. If you aren't happy with grub, you can always configure a lilo manager after the default grub install from a terminal window.

**plmegalo** · 04-Jan-2009, 18:11

Originally Posted by whych

I found after upgrading from 11 to 11.1 that many things didn't work because they weren't upgraded. The best is to make a separate / and /home partition and go for a fresh install. The fresh install works fine but you will need to add the nvidia and other repos.
Grub should allow the same or similar boot functions to lilo. If you aren't happy with grub, you can always configure a lilo manager after the default grub install from a terminal window.

Well I already have separated / and /home (even /usr which is not the best way for openSuse I know, should be /opt), but I miss the point. What's the match with the problem of erasing MBR of all other systems of all other disk drives during the install process ?
This installation is a non-sense, and there's a big issue about the way the grub installation is made by force even if you choose not to install it. This should be said during the install, and "not to install" shouldn't be proposed so. it would be clearer..
I don't need neither nvidia repos, and I even know how to install drivers with the package run, (what i've done by the way to have my desktop KDE3.5 appear at last and see that Kaffeine, amarok don't start anyway).
And I insist, no need of installing any extra packages after upgrading from 10.3 to 11!!! All was rolling.
They shouldn't propose an upgrade if it doesn't work and if only a clear install is supposed to be the right way !!!

I'm sorry if it makes me angry, (probably because I've lost hours to get my machine to work fine back again), but before this install, I really thought I have a stable system with great upgrades for years. Not anymore...

**johmidl** · 22-Feb-2009, 04:24

Originally posted as "Repair Tool", not had much response so I am adding it here. It seems that many have had similar problems with 11.1, except that at this stage I am trying to get only one system working - will - maybe - try XP or something later. Here is my bleat:
I have a problem, which I am sure is with GRUB.The repair "fixes" faulty boot and partitions, but after accepting, an error message comes up with "Installation Error".
I have tried reinstalling, but some files remain with the original modification date. Find files "GRUB" returns:

file:///usr/share/doc/packages/pm-utils/examples/hooks/01grub, size 652, modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99Zgrub, size 6214, modified 03/12/2008
file:///boot/grub, size 4096, modified 20/02/2009
file:///usr/lib/grub, size 4096, modified 10/12/2008
file:///usr/sbin/grub size 119512 modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/share/doc/packages/grub, size 4096, modified 10/12/2008
file:///usr/share/YaST2/include/bootloader/grub size 4096, modified 20/02/2009
file:///usr/lib/grub/nbgrub, size 183746, modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/lib/grub/pxegrub, size 184500, mofified 03/12/2008

The system is supposedly up to date from recent downloads. I am at a loss to explain how some files remain unchanged after reloading.

Any brighht ideas?

**johmidl** · 24-Feb-2009, 06:04

Originally Posted by johmidl

Originally posted as "Repair Tool", not had much response so I am adding it here. It seems that many have had similar problems with 11.1, except that at this stage I am trying to get only one system working - will - maybe - try XP or something later. Here is my bleat:
I have a problem, which I am sure is with GRUB.The repair "fixes" faulty boot and partitions, but after accepting, an error message comes up with "Installation Error".
I have tried reinstalling, but some files remain with the original modification date. Find files "GRUB" returns:

file:///usr/share/doc/packages/pm-utils/examples/hooks/01grub, size 652, modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99Zgrub, size 6214, modified 03/12/2008
file:///boot/grub, size 4096, modified 20/02/2009
file:///usr/lib/grub, size 4096, modified 10/12/2008
file:///usr/sbin/grub size 119512 modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/share/doc/packages/grub, size 4096, modified 10/12/2008
file:///usr/share/YaST2/include/bootloader/grub size 4096, modified 20/02/2009
file:///usr/lib/grub/nbgrub, size 183746, modified 03/12/2008
file:///usr/lib/grub/pxegrub, size 184500, mofified 03/12/2008

The system is supposedly up to date from recent downloads. I am at a loss to explain how some files remain unchanged after reloading.

Any bright ideas?

Also, taskbar trashed, icons do not line up in window. Ugh!