[SOLVED] My new installations of LMDE will not boot

[ceris]

I'm trying to install LMDE using a procedure like this:

1. Download the .ISO from here. Compare md5sum: It matches up exactly.
2. Use "sudo dd if=<FilePath>/linuxmint-201204-mate-cinnamon-dvd-32bit.iso of=/dev/sdb" to copy it to my USB drive. It finishes the job successfully, no problems.
3. Plug it into my laptop and boot it up. It takes me to liveboot.
4. Create a new MBR partition table on its hard drive. Create an ext4 partition for /, and another for /home, and then a swap partition. (all of this is done in GParted, which is already installed on the liveboot)
5. I make sure that it is installing to those partitions and installing the bootloader to that same hard drive as well (/dev/sda). No problems there.
6. It goes through the installation process smoothly. I get no errors. It tells me to reboot. I select "Quit" on the system menu and shut down the computer.
7. I tell it to boot from the hard drive to which I just installed LMDE. It cannot load GRUB, and simply tells me it failed to boot.
8. I try resetting my BIOS settings to the defaults. No dice. I try setting it to IDE compatibility mode. No dice. I try reinstalling the OS. Everything is the same as before.

I would like to note that I have been able to boot to GRUB 2 on this computer until now. I have no idea what could be causing this problem.

The laptop in question is a Toshiba Satellite M645-S4050 from either the year 2009 or 2010 (I can't remember which exactly). Also, I've taken this from the liveboot:

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inxi -Fc 0
System:    Host mint Kernel 3.2.0-2-486 i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Single core Intel Core i5 M 450 (-UP-) cache 3072 KB flags (lm sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips 4788.72 clocked at 1199.00 MHz 
Graphics:  Card-1 Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller Card-2 nVidia GT218 [GeForce 310M] X.Org 1.11.4 Res: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.11.2 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio driver snd_hda_intel BusID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1 Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller driver r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI at port 6000 BusID: 02:00.0
           Card-2 Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 driver iwlwifi v: in-tree: BusID: 07:00.0
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 508.1GB (-) 1: /dev/sda Hitachi_HTS72505 500.1GB 28C 
           2: USB /dev/sdb Cruzer 8.0GB 0C 
Partition: ID:/ size: 1.3G used: 33M (3%) fs: rootfs 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes 135 Uptime 6 min Memory 213.8/2458.0MB Runlevel 2 Client Shell inxi 1.4.23

Strangely, it lists my CPU as a single core... I have no idea why that is. As you can see it's a Core i5, which has always showed up as 4 cores for me in the past.

And finally... There is nothing like TPM in this BIOS. I have checked and confirmed this. It should not be preventing it from booting.

[HughT]

hi ceris,
you could try re-installing grub to the mbr again. From your live usb

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sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt

replace X and Y with the appropriate drive and partition for Mint boot.

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sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdX

note - there's a gap between =/mnt and /dev, and no partition number after sdX
re-boot into Mint then

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sudo update-grub

hope this helps, regards

[ceris]

hi ceris,
you could try re-installing grub to the mbr again. From your live usb

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt

replace X and Y with the appropriate drive and partition for Mint boot.

Code: Select all

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdX

note - there's a gap between =/mnt and /dev, and no partition number after sdX
re-boot into Mint then

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

hope this helps, regards

Ok, I did everything you said and it worked.

Thanks! Sorry for the trouble.

[zerozero]

Strangely, it lists my CPU as a single core... I have no idea why that is. As you can see it's a Core i5, which has always showed up as 4 cores for me in the past.

you installed the 32bit version that in fact is i486

Multi-core and multi-CPU support in 32-bit kernel

To guarantee compatibility with non-PAE processors, the 32-bit versions of Linux Mint Debian come with a 486 kernel by default. This kernel does not support SMP, and as a consequence is only able to detect one core and one CPU. If your CPU has multiple cores, or if you have more than one CPU, simply install the 686-PAE kernel and reboot your computer.

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_debian.php