I’ve just installed openSUSE 11.1 everything was going good, then I had to reboot and it wouldn’t boot, would just get suck on “GRUB loading Stage2…” then I tried system check and it found boot problem, but it didn’t fix it, so I re-installed openSUSE and still the same problem.
You really need to provide information about your install.
A su terminal and do:
fdisk -l
That will show all your disks and partitions. Paste it here.
Try and explain what you think you have done. eg; which partition is which, where you installed grub etc…?
I installed it on one partition, and I don’t get what you mean by where I installed grub.
fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16055 * 512 = 8225280
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 37784 303499948+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 37785 38913 9068692+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 37785 38913 9068661 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16055 * 512 = 8225280
Disk identifier: 0xf7ce1580
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 37777 303443721 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 37778 38913 9124920 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 37778 38913 9124888+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
You have 2 HD’s sda and sdb
which HD is SUSE, what is on the other?
Do you understand about HD boot order in the BIOS?
Have you changed boot order since you installed?
Have you changed the boot menu in Yast?
Have you run online update in Yast
You can boot an installed suse system with the install dvd or if you used a cd you can use super grub disk:
see here for more info HowTo Boot into openSUSE when it won’t Boot from the Grub Code on the Hard Drive
Did you install grub to the MBR and of which HD?
Sude is sda, and I think sdb is Ubuntu 7.10 I installed long time ago.
Not really.
No.
No.
Yes.
I did what it said, but after it says “Welcome to openSUSE 11.1 - Kernel 2.6.27.7.9-default (tty1).”
Then asks me to log in, once done just stays in tty asking for a command.
Also, in the tty it says
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-default/modules.dep: No such file or directory
iptables v1.4.2-rc1: can't initialize iptables table 'filter': iptables who? (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or oyur kernel needs to be upgraded.
Do you have a live cd?
Any Distro will do. Boot it and go to sda1. If it’s not mounted, mount it and then go to sda1 and in the folder tree go to:
/boot/grub/menu.lst
Copy it and paste it here:
I am correct in thinking you do get the green suse boot menu, but then it fails when you try to boot the OS.
Incidentally, is your other OS in the menu? And if yes, does it boot?
No, I do not have a live cd.
Well actually, my other OS doesn’t work and it’s not even in the menu.
Bit confused how you got fdisk output but seeming as you did…
You could try the repair of the install media if you have the full dvd(Maybe on the CD to).
If that doesn’t work, then after su use terminal yast => system => bootloader and install it from there.
Otherwise you may have to use command line grub and install with that. After su try grub-install it should work.
With the CD, you can go in Escape mode and it takes you to the tty.
So do you want me to re-install su? Since, I can’t boot into it for boot error, I should re-install su and manually install the bood loader? I can get in tty if there is a way to install it from there.
Also, everytime I try to repair, everything goes great but after it opens up the linux kernel saying “there was an error during the installation”
I refer you to my post @ #4
if you don’t have the dvd you could download super grub disk
OK no need but I’m going to stumble through this a little bit as it is a while since I did this, I did wonder think this rescue or ramfs can never remember.
No need not even sure if you could install su any way …
What you’re at is a very limited toolset now I’ll need the errors if this doesn’t go as simple as I hope.
Firstly you just seem to have / on sda so hoping …
login which iirc is as root
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
chroot /mnt
yast
In yast try reinstalling the kernel first see if that helps. It may but not sure it will if not then go for yast and bootloader.
If you get a problem with the chroot then give me the error message it is possible we’ll need to bind some directories before chrooting.
I do have the DVD.
I did everything it told me to, and now it says:
GRUB Loading stage1.5..
GRUB loading, please wait...
OK so what have you done(I can’t see I guess you mean repair and it said a problem with bootloader)
If so then you’ll have to either do as caf said(Though without another distro bit hard and pointless) or do as I suggested and create a chrooted environment and fix it from there.
The additional binds you might need are…
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount --bind /dev/shm /mnt/dev/shm
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
Hmm, after doing the first 3 commands, the text got a bit weird, but I could of still typed.
I tried mounting, but I kept getting this:
Rescue:/> mount: mount point /mnt/dev does not exist
Ok that is where the binds come into it what I was expecting 
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount --bind /dev/shm /mnt/dev/shm
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
yast
Try that little lot should get rid of the error message. Notice we mount /dev which was the error message.
Hmm I agree, but it’s telling me to specify the filesystem type…?
It shouldn’t be are you typing exactly and in order.
Getting it after the first command.
This is what it exactly says:
“Rescue:/> mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
Rescue:/> mount: you must specify the filesystem type”
Oh well tell it then
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt
Edit
I also found the wiki page to the approach we’re using perhaps the over view may assist.
http://en.opensuse.org/Using_the_rescue_system_(advanced)
Rescue:/> mount: special device /dev/sda1 does no exist