"Error 22: No Such Partition" from GRUB after openSUSE 11.3 install

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I tried to install openSUSE 11.3 from the Gnome live CD. I have two disks in my system, one with a Windows Vista x64 install, and another with a Vista x86 install which I no longer need and quite a bit of free space. I want to install Linux on it. I switch OS’s by switching the boot disk in BIOS, so I don’t really need a boot manager, but openSUSE installs GRUB by default, so I used it.

The Vista x86 partition is a primary partition at the start of the disk, and after it there’s an extended partition with quite a few logical partitions. At the end of this extended partition I added partitions for swap, / and /home (ext4 all), and a new primary partition at the end for /boot. (I actually created these for a failed Linux Mint install, but I used them and reformatted during the openSUSE install.)

I made the Vista x86 inactive and the /boot partition active, and this works. At least, I get as far as seeing a menu which I guess is GRUB. Before that I get “Error 22: No Such Partition”. If I choose openSUSE from the GRUB menu I get:

Booting ‘openSUSE 11.3’
root (hd1,2)
Error 22: No Such Partition

I booted from the live CD again and checked the /boot, / and /home partitions, and they contain data, so they must be formatted fine.

Help would be appreciated.

#2

Ideally we could do with seeing:

fdisk -l

and if you can do:

copy the text from /boot/grub/menu.lst

#3

You know you can get all this with the live cd - yes?!

#4

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfb5218ca

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6756 54267538+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6757 47042 323594543+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda3 * 47042 47054 97280 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 6757 10011 26145754+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 10012 11716 13694328 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 11716 15892 33543688+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 15892 21009 41096402 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9 21009 22066 8493338 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda10 22066 23854 14359036 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda11 23854 28030 33543688+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda12 28030 30022 15998976 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda13 30022 32453 19529728 83 Linux
/dev/sda14 32453 47042 117186560 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x47dff5b8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13055 104857600 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 13055 60801 383524864 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 13055 36552 188743680 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 36553 41774 41943040 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 41774 43341 12582912 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8 43341 56395 104857600 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb9 56395 60801 35392512 7 HPFS/NTFS

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on ‘/dev/sdc’! The util fdisk doesn’t support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60563 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16128 * 512 = 8257536 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x827957d7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 266306 2147483647+ ee GPT

(dev/sdc is a USB disk)

/boot/grub/menu.lst:

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Aug 1 13:52:42 IDT 2010

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,2)/message

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.3
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-desktop root=/dev/sdb13 resume=/dev/sdb12 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x375
initrd /initrd-2.6.34-12-desktop

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title windows 1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title windows 2
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.3
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-desktop root=/dev/sdb13 showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x375
initrd /initrd-2.6.34-12-desktop

#5

BTW, I booted this time with the Vista x64 disk as the boot disk. The installation and attempt to boot were done with the other disk as boot disk. It looks to me that this does affect things, and sda and sdb were switched compared to what I remember them. I’ll try it again tomorrow with the correct boot disk.

#6

Switched the boot order, but this didn’t change anything. It’s still a different order than when I installed, far as I remember. I reinstalled to check if that’s the issue. This time I also kept the default NTFS partitions install points (which I changed in previous installs). Didn’t change anything, I’m still getting the same error.

#7

This drive should be second in the boot order

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfb5218ca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        6756    54267538+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            6757       47042   323594543+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3   *       47042       47054       97280   83  Linux
/dev/sda5            6757       10011    26145754+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6           10012       11716    13694328    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7           11716       15892    33543688+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8           15892       21009    41096402    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9           21009       22066     8493338    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda10          22066       23854    14359036    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda11          23854       28030    33543688+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda12          28030       30022    15998976   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda13          30022       32453    19529728   83  Linux
/dev/sda14          32453       47042   117186560   83  Linux

This drive should be First in the boot order:

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x47dff5b8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       13055   104857600    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2           13055       60801   383524864    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5           13055       36552   188743680    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6           36553       41774    41943040    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7           41774       43341    12582912    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8           43341       56395   104857600    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb9           56395       60801    35392512    7  HPFS/NTFS

Once you are certain that is right - Do the following…

Identify sda 3, 13, 14
Tell me what they represent. Ideally I would like the information from /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst

Let me hazard a guess:
sda3 = /boot
sda13 = /
sda14 = /home

But get me file contents please

#8

Thanks for taking a look. For now I’ll be working with Fedora. It’s the first Linux distro I found which installed out of the box (after trying Mint Linux and openSUSE). I don’t like it as much so far, but I’ll try to use it.

#9

No problem
Fedora is a wonderful distro

#10

On 2010-08-01 21:36, ET3D wrote:

> Before that I get “Error 22: No Such Partition”. If I choose openSUSE
> from the GRUB menu I get:
>
> Booting ‘openSUSE 11.3’
> root (hd1,2)
> Error 22: No Such Partition

The typical thing to do is to get to the grub mini prompt and use it to find
“vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-desktop”, and thus find which is the proper disk and partition, as far as grub is
concerned. I think it is pointing to sdc (with GPT, unreadable for grub).

Like here:

<http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:All_about_GRUB#More_about_Grub_installation_-_advanced_users>

More info here:

<http://opensuse.swerdna.org/suseboot.html>

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#11

Hello Puzzeled Pinguin,

maybe this is interesting for you too.
SDB:Prefered bootloader options - openSUSE

#12

I encountered something similar when I tried out KDE 4.2.2 via a Live CD. I got complaints like:
" VFS cannot open root device disk/by-id/blahblah/part6",
“unknown block (0,0)”,
“unable to mount root filesystem on unknown block (0,0)”, and
“hd0,11 … no such partition.”

You can search on “undesired reordering of hd0 and hd1 during installs” to find that lots of folks have had similar experiences. Seems that Live CDs sometimes take it on themselves to impose their own boot order on the system. One solution is to edit the menu.lst file so that your partition IDs match what the Live CD has done; then, edit it back again once the Live CD is out of the system, and once again the phrase “The first drive in the boot order is GRUB’s hd0” is true.

HTH

#13

Thanks a lot! Changing from hd1 to hd0 in menu.lst solved the problem. I now have a working openSUSE desktop.