GRUB rescue error: no such device

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi,

I seem to have got into a problem.

The current status is that I have to have the RW-DVD that I installed from in the drive. If I do then I get to choose from the “Boot from Hard Disk”, INSTALLATION" etc. menu - the "Boot from Hard Disk then gives the correct choice of OS.
If I do not have the installation DVD in the drive then I get:

error : no such device : nnnnnnn-nnnn-nnnn-nnnn-nnnnnnnnn.
grub rescue >

This is a dual boot of Windows 7 with Linux. openSuSE replaced Ubuntu 13.04 and after that replacement I got the above situation. I did not knowingly change any boot options during the initial installation.

Since then I have tried changing options in the boot loader section of YAST, and have reinstalled. No progress.

Any ideas or pointer welcome!

#2

Can you open up a terminal session in openSUSE and post the results of these commands in a code # tag (Advanced forum message editor mode)?:

su -
fdisk -l
df

How many hard disks do you have and if more than one, which one is set to boot from? Can you tell us more about your Computer hardware? Is this openSUSE 12.3 and with a KDE desktop?

Thank You,

#3
  1. 2 disks as shownbelow
  2. Which one is it set to boot from? Don’t know - how to definitively check?
  3. OS: Windows 7 and openSuse 12.3 with KDE
  4. AMD Phenom quad core, 8GIG memory
  5. Output of commands:

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x034e720c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848  1953521663   976657408    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005a9a8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048      321535      159744   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2          321536  1953523711   976601088   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/mapper/system-home: 26.8 GB, 26843545600 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3263 cylinders, total 52428800 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/system-root: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders, total 41943040 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/system-swap: 2147 MB, 2147483648 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 261 cylinders, total 4194304 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

gloria:~ # df
Filesystem              1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs                  4045580      32   4045548   1% /dev
tmpfs                     4095744      84   4095660   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                     4095744    4148   4091596   1% /run
/dev/mapper/system-root  20642428 4441780  15152072  23% /
tmpfs                     4095744       0   4095744   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                     4095744    4148   4091596   1% /var/lock
tmpfs                     4095744    4148   4091596   1% /var/run
/dev/sdb1                  154691   61953     84751  43% /boot
/dev/mapper/system-home  25803068  217420  24537072   1% /home
#4

Sounds like you deleted partition where Ubuntu bootloader was installed, but it is still present in MBR of your boot disk. And openSUSE installed bootloader somewhere else (I guess - in partition where /boot is located), so MBR is still valid.

Which one is it set to boot from? Don’t know - how to definitively check?

What information is shown in BIOS setup? Does it show serial numbers of drives, probably?

You can also try to run this script and upload result to SUSE Paste Scripts collects quite extensive information about bootloader setup found.
https://github.com/arvidjaar/bootinfoscript/raw/master/bootinfoscript

#5

So if I get the Boot Loader facility to overwrite the MBR, things should be OK?