openSuse13.1 Grub2 boot/reinstall issues

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Probably due to a recent update, one of my machines will no longer boot - I get a black screen with a flashing cursor.

As memory serves, this is a grub issue.

Using supergrubdisk, I can boot the O/S just fine, so all the files are there.

Last time this kind of thing happened, I went to Yast/System/Boot and reinstalled the boot system, and everything was fine. This time not so much.

Yast doesn’t complain, but doesn’t fix the problems either.

Is there any way to /force/ yast to do a more thorough job, or a command-line way of getting the same effect?

I found a tool called “bootinfoscript” which yielded quite a lot of info; according to it, at least, yast isn’t actually doing anything. (MBR box ticked, but the output shows nothing installed in any MBR, for instance)

Some info:


                  Boot Info Script 0.61      [1 April 2012]


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdd.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sde.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdf.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdg.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdh.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdi.

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sdb2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sdc1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 

sdc2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  Grub Legacy
    Boot sector info:  Grub Legacy (v0.97) is installed in the boot sector 
                       of sdc2 and looks at sector 46457272 of the same hard 
                       drive for the stage2 file.  A stage2 file is at this 
                       location on /dev/sdc.  Stage2 looks on partition #2 
                       for /boot/grub/menu.lst.
    Operating System:  Welcome to openSUSE 13.1 
                       "Bottle" - Kernel ().
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/grub.cfg 
                       /boot/grub2/grub.cfg /etc/fstab

sdc2 is root

I’ve not included all of the output for brevity.

I’m a bit concerned by the Grub Legacy bootsector - it’s possible that I’ve done that in the course of trying to find get things working.

The only other observation is that when I use supergrubdisk and select installed OS (which is the only way it will boot),
option xxxxx-desktop.gz fails with “bad magic number” - the xxxxx-desktop [no .gz] boots.

TIA

2

Ok exactly when do you get this blinking cursor? Do you see the grub menu at all?

What video and what video driver. You may have had a kernel update and the drive did not update or did not connect to the new kenel. This may happen if you installed the driver by a hard method.

Are you really still using grub 1?

3

Assuming you are using BIOS and not UEFI - it is not. None of your disks appear to have MBR (at least, MBR which is recognized by bootinfoscript), so it is unlikely your system can actually boot. It loads some garbage from MBR of boot drive (whatever is set as boot drive in BIOS) and tries to execute it.

Yast doesn’t complain, but doesn’t fix the problems either.

This is known problem. What you can do - select “do not install bootloader” in YaST and confirm (exit bootloader configuration). Then call bootloader configuration again and select bootloader you want and configure any parameters as you like. It will then actually install bootloader.

4

No grub menu/prompt - just a blank, black screen with a flashing cursor. No messages of any kind.

I don’t think it’s to do with video as SuperGrubDisk will boot the system. It’s an atom mobo and Intel graphics. I can have a dig, if it’s needed.

Grub 1 - it’s not supposed to be. It’s a full 13.1 install, not an upgrade, so should be grub2, no?

Having said that the disks have been in systems before…

5

You could try bootinfoscript from URL below which correctly detects openSUSE grub2 (original bootinfoscript does not).

https://github.com/arvidjaar/bootinfoscript/raw/master/bootinfoscript

But even stock BIS should still detect MBR (I made no changes in this part). Your MBR are all empty.

6

The last bit was what I needed! Thanks.

It also turns out that /boot/grub2/drive.map had two instances of a drive in it - somehow. Had to fix that too, which I did by renaming the old file out to see if it would get recreated. As it happens, it does.

7

I think I was running your version - at any rate the version & date printed are the same.

I still have empty MBRs, but the system boots now, and I have a grub2 bootloader on /dev/sdc2 as expected, so I’m happy enough, as it seems to work.

Thank you again. :slight_smile: