Problems with installing both 10.3 and 11.0

Right i decided i was going to move from 10.3 to 11 so i installed 11 using the linux format cd which caused an error saying kdeinit cudnt start

i then downloaded the full 11 32bit dvd and installed 11 with kde3 and it was succesful

upon reboot im greeted with a lovely little message saying “no operating system”

so i then tried to reinstall 10.3 and this no gets the same message “no operating system”

but 10.2 installs and reboots fine

anybody got any ideas???

Hi,

What that means, simply stated, is that your BIOS is unable to find an enabled boot device which happens to have a bootloader installed.

That means that you probably have wiped the former boot loader from the disk or that it has been totally scrambled during installation.

If you don’t see any grub related messages, then I suggest you boot from the Open Suse 11 DVD in rescue mode. Once in that environment, try to reinstall Grub in the MBR of the disk you intend to use as the first boot device.
For that to work, double check that booting from your DVD drive is enabled in BIOS.

Regards.

Some extra info please: did you install on the first drive, on a second internal drive or on a usb external drive?

Here’s the drill . . . since it could be a lot of things, and to avoid going 'round-n’round asking for more data . . . post back the output of:

cat /boot/grub/device.map
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /etc/grub.conf
fdisk -l -u
grub
>find /boot/grub/stage2
quit

Describe disk devices, e.g., SATA, RAID, external, USB, etc.

Any other OS’s on the system?

Any modifications to disk partitions?

right heres some more infomation

at the moment on the hard disk is a fully working version of 10.2

now if i do either an update or fresh install of 10.3 or 11.0 this message comes up.

the install im doing is removing 10.2 and using the whole hard disk .so no other os to worry about,using the standard partitioning suse recommends

and its an internal sata hardisk on lenovo r61i thinkpad

cat /boot/grub/device.map
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /etc/grub.conf
fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sda : 120.0gb,120034123776 bytes
255 heads , 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders ,total 234441648 sectors
units = sectors of 1* 512= 512 bytes
disk identifier : 0x00044c21

device boot start end blocks id system
/dev/sda1 63 4209029 2104483+ 82 linuxswap/solaris
/dev/sda2 4209030 46154744 20972857+ 83 linux
/dev/sda3 46154745 234436544 94140900 83 linux

grub
>find /boot/grub/stage2
quit

find : /boot/grub: no such file or directory

when i go into the rescue installation bit

i come to a blue screen with says linuxrc v3.0.20 (kernel 2.6.22.5-31-default

and then a red box that says "an error occurred during the installation

only option is to press ok

and it then loads a main menu with options like

settings,system info,kernel modules,eject cd,exit

just done a clean install of 11.0 i dont want to reboot it or turn it off or else i wont be able to get back to it

ive just done

linux-0f67:/home/andrewjbarratt # cat /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0)   /dev/sda

linux-0f67:/home/andrewjbarratt # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Aug 20 12:14:44 UTC 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.5-1.1
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST91208                                                           22AS_5LZ6ZDFX-part2 resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent showopts vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.5-1.1
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST91208                                                           22AS_5LZ6ZDFX-part2 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic ma                                                           xcpus=0 edd=off x11failsafe vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae



linux-0f67:/home/andrewjbarratt # cat /etc/grub.conf
setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0,1) (hd0,1)
quit
linux-0f67:/home/andrewjbarratt # find /boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/stage2
linux-0f67:/home/andrewjbarratt # fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00044c21

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63     4209029     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2   *     4209030    46154744    20972857+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3        46154745   234436544    94140900   83  Linux



can anybody see anything wrong with the above stuff?

Two things . . . first, in your listing of menu.lst, there is either text cut off in the post or the file itself is corrupted. The Device-ID lines which end with “ST91208” should continue (I can’t say exactly how; this is the model/serial number) ending with “part2”. For example, mine is “scsi-SATA-ST3320620AS_6QF0LH2X-part2”. If you are unsure about this, you can change it to the Device-Name, i.e., “root=/dev/sda2”. Having this clause wrong would result in a something like a “no OS found” error.

Second, grub.conf (the grub installation command file fed by YaST to the grub shell based on what the user enters in the Boot Loader section) indicates grub was installed to the root partition but not to the MBR. The root partition has also been marked active. I can’t say why the MBR bootstrap code was not also installed; it should not necessarily have been, or you may have de-selected the option. If you are in openSUSE now, go to YaST Boot Loader, the Boot Loader Installation tab, de-select any checked Location boxes, click Boot Loader Options, and there click on “Write Generic Boot Code to MBR”. Click OK, click the Other button bottom-right, click Edit Configuration Files and take a look at menu.lst there. It should not be changed, but sometimes that seems to happen; if you see anything changed or missing, you can fix it right there. Then Finish. This should put a generic bootstrap in the MBR (or overwrite the one that is there); it will search for the active primary partition which your fdisk indicates to be sda2 (the root, this is correct) and hand-off to the boot sector there, which your grub.conf indicates was previously installed.

Good luck.

cheers for that ill try it.

this install has been a nighmare ,when i first installed 10.1,10.2 and 10.3 never had any problems like this