Need help re-enabling GRUB boot loading manager

English Install/Boot/Login
21

Very pleased to read that your data is OK, When your backup is sorted, we are happy to help with the rest.

22

Data is now backed up on an external drive. I can’t make ‘fdisk -l’ work. Nothing happens. I’m using an ubuntu livecd right now.

Daqar

23

I can’t make ‘fdisk -l’ work.

try,

su -

enter the root password, then

fdisk -l

note that is a lower case L (not number one)

24

I can’t use ‘su’, it asks for password. I have no clue what that is.

25

I can’t use ‘su’, it asks for password. I have no clue what that is.

Sorry, I don’t know ubuntu passwords, maybe check there web site?

EDIT: they do like sudo, so perhaps

sudo fdisk -l

and enter the user name? (could be wrong, I don’t use sudo)

26

Aahh…I was supposed to use ‘sudo’ and not ‘su’. That helped a lot:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x50a5b170

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1437    11534336   27  Unknown
/dev/sda2   *        1437       15919   116330496    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3           15919       30402   116331520    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9fba11de

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       16343   131267115    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2           16343       30401   112928886    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5           16343       16604     2104452   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6           16605       19215    20972826   83  Linux
/dev/sdb7           19216       30401    89851513+  83  Linux
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

It seems ok to me, but I’m not sure.

Daqar

27

That makes a lot more sense! Linux is on sdb. We only previously saw sda.

28

Uhm what do I do then?

29

I’m going to point you to two good ways to fix this,

from swerdna GRUB Boot Multiboot openSUSE Windows (2000, XP, Vista) using the Grub bootloader.

And from caf4926 Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic

Both are well worth reading and considering, I think either will fix your problem.

30

On 2010-07-06 18:16 GMT dvhenry wrote:

>
> That makes a lot more sense! Linux is on sdb. We only previously saw
> sda.

Indeed! I hoped for that, but as he said “laptop”, I though he wouldn’t
have two disks.

Well, now it is a question of repairing grub. That’s not something I’m
good at :-}

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

31

And also from swerdna: HowTo Boot into openSUSE when it won’t Boot from the Grub Code on the Hard Drive

For the future:

  • If you are trying to use a Ubuntu (live) system again: They have quasi deleted root by giving root an invalid password - there are only administrators (=sudoers) that can use sudo -
    so for repairing issues in general an other live CD/DVD (like Knoppix) may be better - and specially for repairing openSUSE I like the the openSUSE DVD.

Good luck
pistazienfresser

32

I tried swerdna’s method first. I get an error message from the install disk. Then I tried caf4926’s method, that doesn’t work either. I get to type:

 find /boot/grub/menu.lst

Then it says:

 file not found

Saw that my Parted magic disk, version 4.11 has:
Super Grub Disk 1 - Easily restore the grub bootloader with grub-legacy.
Super Grub Disk 2 - Easily restore the grub bootloader with grub2.

Can I use one of those?

Best regards,

Daqar

33

Super Grub Disk is a very useful tool, do try. If you can boot from windows you can download super grub disk for windows and use it from there.

34

Couldn’t make that work either…maybe I should format the whole thing and start anew…

35

You should be able to install Grub using ‘Repair Installed System’ after booting from dvd, choose automated option and follow the instructions by saying yes to everything, will see what happens; you wont loose anything if you follow the directives.

36

I’ve tried both automatic and advanced repair. They can’t find a valid root partition. So I think I’ll try and reinstall OpenSuse. Could it be that I actually have 11.2 on the computer and my installation disk is 11.1?

Daqar

37

may be your partition table is corrupted. did you ever do hard shut down or you ever had a power failure. fschk on ext4 doesnt work all that well and no point trying to fix it that way

in this case i suggest reinstall of suse.

38

I found a tool for recovering lost partitions, I’m hoping that’ll help.

39

you can work with testdisk from ubuntu systemrescue cd or similar.