Last night, I installed openSUSE 11.1 and upgraded it to 11.2. When I restarted it, it wouldn’t boot. So I tried to use the 11.1 live DVD that I started with to repair the fresh 11.2.
Not knowing what I was doing, I tried to feel my through it anyway. The repair option analyzed the discs and detected partitions, looked for errors, and gave me repair suggesions and options, et al. Ultimately, none of it helped because (I guess) the live DVD (11.1) wasn’t compatible with the os (11.2). Following my non-productive attempt to repair the non-booting 11.2 (gnome, by the way), I found myself unable to boot my other os, PCLinuxOS. Still can’t. What to do? Isn’t there some way to get it back on the MBR (or what)?
Also, I’m a noob; please assume that I know nothing. Any help would be much appreciated.
Is the partition table of the SUSE install still there or have you tried to delete them.
The best info you could provide is from a su terminal: fdisk -l
An excellent utility disk that will help you is Parted Magic: Downloads
Boot that and open a Roxterm (no need to switch to root). You may have to do a print screen if it doesn’t boot to online mode, save the screen to a usb pen drive and post it at imagebam or similar
Also if you open the Partition editor and show us what you have, screens again.
We can restore the PCLinux grub from here but it would be better if we could see what you have and where. Or do you know what partition your PCLinux root is on?
I’m tickled to death to hear from you so soon. I tried to give you some reputation, but “it” said I had to spread some around elsewhere first.
linux-dccw:/home/randall # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30020272128 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3649 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000555a3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1460 11727418+ 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 3302 3649 2795310 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 2328 3301 7823655 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 3628 3649 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 3302 3605 2441817 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 3606 3627 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Disk /dev/sdb: 18.2 GB, 18209320960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2213 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003cd84
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1154 9269473+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 1155 1282 1028160 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 1155 1282 1028128+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
linux-dccw:/home/randall # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
I’m sure my PCLinuxOS root is on /dev/sdb1 * 1 1154 9269473+ 83 Linux.
/dev/sdb5 1155 1282 1028128+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris is for openSUSE 11.2. Although I didn’t do that by design, I’ve read that it’s better to have swap on another disk. I try to keep openSUSE all on one disc, and the other os all on the other.
I used the same partioning for this os that I used for the non-booting gnome. So I didn’t delete anything.
Your directions “Boot that and open a Roxterm (no need to switch to root). You may have to do a print screen if it doesn’t boot to online mode, save the screen to a usb pen drive and post it at imagebam or similar
Also if you open the Partition editor and show us what you have, screens again,” is like chinese to me.
“save the screen to a usb pen drive and post it at imagebam or similar–” do you mean for me to include screen shots in a reply? Now, I really need someone to explain to me how to do that one. But I have seen other people do it, and I do want to learn to do that. I’ve just had the hardest time trying to figure out how to include a quote in this reply like I see you folks do. I need someone to tell me how to do that also. I’ve tried searching it, but no luck.
I have a Novell-produced DVD, that says "Installation 32-bit. When I put it in the drive, it has live options, i.e., I can use it without installing.
It does warn me that since my computer has less than one GiB of RAM, that installation may not work, but I try anyway and it does. When I had a single core processor, it wouldn’t work.
That’s the kind of guy I am, “give it shot, anyway; you never know, I might get lucky.”
You are in a mess right now.
How much Important data is there here?
Do you know what boot order the HD’s are in in the BIOS? It’s important I know and that it remains the same way (at least for now).
Screenshots can be made by pressing the PrtSc button or starting the the Screenshot application. Hosting the image it is necessary to sign up for an account with (eg; imagebam.com) or use a service like skydrive (m$) service.
And I used to have a double-sided installation DVD that I gave to someone interested in Linux. One side was 32-bit and the other side 64-bit. It was openSUSE 11.0, that I got out of an old issue of Linux magazine (they were giving them away at the annual LinuxFest), here in Columbus, Ohio. It, too, had live options.
Okay, the boot order is 1) CD-ROM, 2) Hard Drive C, 3) Diskette Drive (A), 4) Compaq Ethernet controller, and 5) 3Com Ethernet controller. If expedient, I can change the order.
Since I was in the neighborhood, the hard drive order: 1) Embedded IDE, 2) Compaq SCSI controller.
I don’t have any blank CDs, nor any CD-WRs. I do have a SystemRescue CD that I burned. And I can install Gparted. I have an Ubuntu 9.04 Live CD.
I lost most of the data I might have wanted to keep when my previous 11.2 broken down. I was in the process of moving stuff from there to PCLinuxOS with a 512 MiB flash drive. So, no, there’s nothing important that I can’t loose.
I put in systemrescuecd and invoked gparted. It shows that where PCLinuxOS was at has 359.55 MiBs used and 8.49 GiBs unused.
Even though I said that there was no important data that I can’t loose, I’m nevertheless devastated.
But I can’t say that I wasn’t forewarned. I think it was in a forum where folks were all excited over the prospect of getting 11.2 GM, someone suggested that he wouldn’t touch 11.2 for at least two months. S/he cited known issues plus the likelihood of undiscovered bugs. Plus, I’d known that a Distro Watch reviewer refused to recommend it.
It’s my own ignorance that caused my loss of the data I had stored in my sturdy and stable openSUSE 11.1 and PCLinuxOS.
Nevertheless, it is Thanksgiving and I’m still grateful. Thank you for all your help and patience.
I’m not sure what you plan now, but a total wipe especially of sda is a good idea, it all messed up anyway. If you are sure there is no data in any of sdb now, I would do the same there.
With the amount of HD space you have, one OS is really enough, 2 at a push. PCLOS seems to be touching your heart, perhaps you should use that? Or 11.1 as you seemed to have that going OK.
Sorry I haven’t been a great help resolving your problem. Had I actual physical contact with your machine, it would be a different story:)
Does it mean that you have an IDE and a SCSI HD?
Print the geometry (the output of fdisk -l) on a sheet of paper, and next time you use gparted or a setup disk partitionner, make sure that sda and sdb are really what you think they are. You could also have saved the mbrs (containing the partition table) before doing experiments. I’m sure next time you will.
What i had to do to boot both windows and OPENsuse without taking up too much space is to install x minimal graphics so the boot loader could re-install. Or if you have the Vista recover disk, you could always re-install the windows boot loader.
