Error 15 in Grub

Hi Everyone,

I am getting an ‘Error 15: File not found’ at boot. This problem can directly after an upgrade where a new Kernel seems to have been installed.

I booted with a live CD and see that in menu.lst the Kernal is …

vmlinuz-2.6.25.18-0.2-default

but the actual kernel file is now …

vmlinuz-2.6.25.20-0.1-default

So I thought: Easy to fix as I will just change the details of the kernel file in menu.lst.

That was no problem and so then I tried to reboot and still got Error 15: It seemed to still be looking for the 18-0.2 kernel. Strange!

I then looked again and noticed that there are two symbolic links pointing to kernel-related files (initrd and vmlinuz) with the 18-0.2 and so assume that these are the problem.

vmlinuz points to the kernel file and initrd points to …

initrd-2.6.25.18-0.2 …

which does not seem to exist.

I then tried changing the symbolic link for vmlinuz but was denied permission.

So my reaction was arrrgghhh!

This seems like a simple problem … does anyone have any further tips for me.

Many, many thanks.

Regards,
Alan Searle

swerdna has a help page here
GRUB Boot Multiboot openSUSE Windows (2000, XP, Vista) using the Grub bootloader.

Do you get the green boot screen with the error after selection or is this error directly with no green menu at boot.

Yes, I get the standard green boot menu with options to also boot windows (dual boot is available). I then select SuSE and get a black screen with the “Error 15” information.

I have been googling like mad and recommendations seem to be to adjust the vmlinuz entries in menu.lst. I have done this but it doesn’t seem to help.

My suspicion is that the symbolic link vmlinuz (which I have no permission to change) is blocking me.

PS: I was wondering whether, if I changed the kernal names back to 18-0.2 (even though they are 20-0.2), then maybe it might work. This is extremely dirty but is it worth trying?

Many thanks,
Alan

You can fix this with the install dvd
repair - select expert
swerdna has info on this

or manually edit /boot/grub/menu.lst
use a live cd (I prefer knoppix or mepis)

check your partition setup with:

fdisk -l

Hi again,

Thanks for the tips and, yes, I will certainly try that with the ‘install dvd repair - select expert’ suggestion.

The problem is on a PC which I installed for a friend (which makes it all rather embarrassing for me) so I can’t check details at the moment (I’m not there) but I have been comparing that installation with my (good) installation.

It looks to me as if the kernel upgrade got half way through and then crashed out. Most of the new files are there but some (including initrd-2.6.25.20-0.1-default) are missing. As it is, I have manually edited the menu.lst file (booting with a live CD) but find that symbolic links (initrd and vmlinuz) which still point to the old (18-0.1) version are locked and I have no permission (even as root on the live CD) to edit these.

So my question is whether the expert-repair (with the install CD) will fix these missing files and these bad links?

This is all a bit frustrating because, if I had permissions and if I had the (missing) files available, then I am sure that I could ‘plug them in’ and get it working again.

Any further tips would be a great help.

Regards,
Alan Searle

It will install the kernel from the dvd
but you would have to use repair packages to do that, you would lock down every package but the one you want to re-install, then try it

And if necessary repair bootloader too

OK, I’ll give it a go.

One other thought I have is whether it would be possible for me to upgrade from 11.0 to 11.1 without blasting the current configuration away?

That might solve all my problems in one.

Many thanks for the tips.

Cheers,
Alan Searle