openSuse dual boot loader gone after Windows reinstallation

Hello all,
had a dual boot system with openSuse 11.1 and Windows XP working OK - Linux boot loader was where OS selection was made (openSuse was installed after Windows)
Last week I had to reinstall Windows and this removed the Linux loader from MBR and Windows booted automatically.
I wanted the Linux boot loader back,checked the threads about boot loader restoration and did the following:

  • downloaded Knoppix 6.2.1 ISO and burned to CD
  • booted with CD
  • opened terminal with root privileges and typed:

grub (ENTER)
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 (ENTER)
> (hd0,2)
grub> root (hd0,2) (ENTER)
>Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0) (ENTER)

setup was successful (no error messages)

Now when booting, i have an error that root (0,3) can not be mounted and “Press any key to continue”??? When hitting any key I see that there is GRUB there with all entries as in original state (Suse 11.1 and Windows) but only Windows can be booted.
Then I downloaded live eval of openSuse 11.1 and did the same (booted from CD and run same commands from terminal as root) - again no errors but still “root (0,3)” can not be mounted… :frowning:

What has gone wrong, please?

Many thanks…

Please don’t double post.
I answered you in this post:
Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic

Hi all,
here are the messages:

  • when booting, there is “Loading GRUB…” message
    (hd0,3)/boot/message: File not found

then:

-booting openSuse 11.1
root(hd0,3): File system unknown, partition type 0xf

then:

kernel /root/vmlinuz-2.6.27.54-pae-root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata[PROBABLY_NUMBER_OF_HARD_DRIVE]-part4 resume==/dev/disk/by-id/ata[PROBABLY_NUMBER_OF_HARD_DRIVE]-part3

then:

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition.

Please help!

Thanks in advance for any hints…

Hi caf4296,
sorry about posting double, I could not remove the post in “Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic” - let’s continue here if possible please

Many thanks for the quick response, here’s the output of fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 79,8 GB 79826342400 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9705 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2b7323fb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1771 14217525 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1771 2033 2104484 82 Linux swap/Solaris
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 2033 4477 19639462 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 4478 9705 41993910 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 4478 6389 15358108+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 6390 6772 3076416 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 6773 7876 8859847 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 7876 8047 1381558+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 8048 8430 3076416 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda10 8431 9705 102414016 7 HPFS/NTFS

Thanks again

Problem is this

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 (ENTER)
> (hd0,2)

But your menu is pointing to
ernel /root/vmlinuz-2.6.27.54-pae-root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata[PROBABLY_NUMBER_OF_HARD_DRIVE]-part4

Can you explain all those partitons

sda3 is the same as hd0,2

Which makes sense because earlier you quoted the ‘find’ as
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 (ENTER)
> (hd0,2)

BUT!
Your menu.lst is obviously pointing to the wrong location

Try adding this to the menu.lst by editing it form knoppix

title        openSUSE 11.1 TEST
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3
initrd /boot/initrd

Hello caf4296,
many thanks for your attention, I really appreciate this.
Here’s the output of my /ets/fstab after I mounted the Linux partition in Knoppix:



/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part3 swap         swap defaults   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part3 swap         swap defaults   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part4 /         ext3 accl,user_xattr  1   1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part10 /home         ext3 accl,user_xattr   1  2
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part1 /windows/C         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part5 /windows/D         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part6 /windows/E         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part7 /windows/F         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part8 /windows/G         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part9 /windows/H         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
proc                   /proc                    proc         defaults                0   0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs         noauto                0   0
debugfs               /sys/kernel/debug   debugfs         noauto               0   0
usbfs                   /proc/bus/usb        usbfs         noauto                0   0
devpts                   /dev/pts              devpts       mode=0620,gid=5                0   0
/dev/sr1   none  udf  rw,noauto   0   0


Is there anything that can be done to repair the MBR and restore boot loader?

Many thanks again…

To make it easy and short, delete the lines in red and add the text in green.


/dev/sda2 swap         swap defaults   0  0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part3 swap         swap defaults   0  0
/dev/sda3 /         ext3 accl,user_xattr  1   1
/dev/sda8 /home         ext3 accl,user_xattr   1  2
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part1 /windows/C         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part5 /windows/D         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part6 /windows/E         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part7 /windows/F         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part8 /windows/G         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
#/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS5xxxxx_MPB4Lxxxxx-part9 /windows/H         ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_UD.UTF-8   0  0
proc                   /proc                    proc         defaults                0   0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs         noauto                0   0
debugfs               /sys/kernel/debug   debugfs         noauto               0   0
usbfs                   /proc/bus/usb        usbfs         noauto                0   0
devpts                   /dev/pts              devpts       mode=0620,gid=5                0   0
/dev/sr1   none  udf rw,noauto   0   0

Hello caf4296,
unfortunately I can not find the menu.lst:


find /boot/grub/menu.lst

returns


find: ' /boot/grub/menu.lst': No such file or directory

How can I find it?

Many thanks again…

what do the following commands say ?
**ls /
ls /boot
**

Hello,
ls /


KNOPPIX   boot   home  media           mnt-user      proc       sbin    usr
UNIONFS   dev    init     mnt              modules       ramdisk   sys   var
bin           etc    lib      mnt-system    opt             root       tmp

ls /boot


System.map-2.6.32.6   config-2.6.32.6    grub   linuz-2.6.32..6

How come this kernel version is now displayed? This is Knoppix still in live eval mode, right? My openSuse kernel is 2.27.54 (the missing Linux I am trying to retrieve after Windoes wiped MBR…:frowning: )

Thanks

This is not your hard disk, it’s the live CD. You have to mount your root partition first. So please type :
**mount -t ext3 /dev/sda3 /mnt
**and show us the output of the following commands:
**ls /mnt/boot
ls /mnt/boot/grub **

Have you got this one @please_try_again?

@caf4926
OK … if he doesn’t take too long to answer for today.

Thanks

Just a point to consider
11.1 is just about to have the door closed on it and coffin lid nailed down.

Oh yes, that’s true. I’ll propose to install 11.3 and preserve /home if desired.

Hello please_try_again,
many thanks for your attention, mush appreciated…
Did as you suggested, here are the outputs:

ls /mnt/boot


System.map-2.6-27.54-0-1-default                  symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-trace.tar.gz
System.map-2.6-27.54-0-1-pae                      symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-vmi.tar.gz
backup_mbr                                                 symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-xen.tar.gz
boot                                                           symtypes-2.6.27.54-0.1-default.gz
boot.readme                                                symtypes-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae.gz
config-2.6.27.54-0.1-default                          symtypes-2.6.36.rc8-33-default.gz
config-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae                               symtypes-2.6.36.rc8-33-pae.gz
grub                                                           symvers-2.6.27.54-0.1-default.gz
initrd                                                          symvers-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae.gz
initrd-2.6.27.54-0.1-default                            vmlinux-2.6.27.54-0.1-defaut.gz
initrd-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae                                vmlinux-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae.gz
message                                                     vmlinux-2.6.36.rc8-33-default.gz
symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-debug.tar.gz                vmlinux-2.6.36.rc8-33-pae.gz
symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-default.tar.gz               vmlinuz
symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-ec2.tar.gz                    vmlinuz-2.6.27.54-0.1-defaut
symsets-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae.tar.gz                   vmlinuz-2.6.27.54-0.1-pae

ls /mnt/boot/grub


device.map                iso9660_stage1_5    reiserfs_stage1_5    vstafs_stage1_5
device.map.old           jfs_stage1_5          stage1                    xfs_stage1_5
e2fs_stage1_5           menu.lst                stage2 
fat_stage1_5             menu.lst.old           stage2.old 
ffs_stage1_5             minix_stage1_5       ufs2_stage1_5 

Hello.
Do you know that 11.1 support is almost over? So if you ever planed to upgrade, that would be a good time. And it would solve your boot problem by the way.

Hi please_try_again,
I tend to consider the 11.3 openSuse installation as well (with previous backing up of my /home for later).
But what I would really want to know is what actually happened on GRUB restore? Was it something I mistyped or something I forgot to type :slight_smile: ? I think I have considered all details I could find in related topics…
Could this happen again in similar scenario? The most important thing I’d like to know is if 11.3 installation from scratch will actually repair the MBR?

Many thanks again for your assistance, much appreciated on late Friday afternoon…

Everything is possible. Your MBR is not damaged. You can install Grub there or not, either now or in a new installation. This is not a big deal.
OK. let me see the following files (type the following commands):

cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /mnt/etc/fstab