Configuring Bootloader . . .

[PaulW]

Tried to install-32 bit LMDE 201012 today (Christmas). Ba Humbug!

I currently have Mint 9 installed on /dev/sda5 and wanted to install LMDE over it on the same partition. So I selected /dev/sda5 as the installation directory and accepted the default sda as the target for the bootloader. The installation hung at the "Configuring Bootloader" screen. I finally rebooted after about 30 minutes. Of course, my MBR and /dev/sda5 were both hosed. Fortunately I had made an image backup before attempting the install. I was able to restore both MBR and /dev/sda5 to Mint 9.

I'm really disappointed with this LMDE failure. Would I have better luck with the 64-bit version?

Maybe I should have asked Santa for a Mac.

[wayne128]

Tried to install-32 bit LMDE 201012 today (Christmas). Ba Humbug!

I currently have Mint 9 installed on /dev/sda5 and wanted to install LMDE over it on the same partition. So I selected /dev/sda5 as the installation directory and accepted the default sda as the target for the bootloader. The installation hung at the "Configuring Bootloader" screen. I finally rebooted after about 30 minutes. Of course, my MBR and /dev/sda5 were both hosed. Fortunately I had made an image backup before attempting the install. I was able to restore both MBR and /dev/sda5 to Mint 9.

I'm really disappointed with this LMDE failure. Would I have better luck with the 64-bit version?

Maybe I should have asked Santa for a Mac.

I had good luck on 64-bit version on intel i3 +ATI graphic and on another AMD athlon 245 with nVIDIA graphic.

I had long ago learned similar lesson, nowadays I would not replace a known good partition with a unknown distros.
What I do is then create a new 10G partition to test out that unknown distros first, then run then in parallel, until I know which one to keep and which one can be deleted.

[CiaW]

Does it give you the option to install the bootloader to the root / partition, instead of sda (mbr)? I know when there have been grub updates for the 32 bit version I select for it to install on both locations; that way if I end up installing another distro that over-writes the current grub I have one on the / partition also to get to from a chainloader option.

I don't know if there's an option to rescue a current installation (there is on Fedora), but if there is that's another option. You chroot the /mnt/sysimage that gets created then grub-install sda (or install-grub, I always forget which...) and you're back in business. Had to do that once...

[wayne128]

Does it give you the option to install the bootloader to the root / partition, instead of sda (mbr)?

for 64-bit 201012 version, Yes. I installed on root partition and chainload from my master boot loader

I don't know if there's an option to rescue a current installation (there is on Fedora), but if there is that's another option. You chroot the /mnt/sysimage that gets created then grub-install sda (or install-grub, I always forget which...) and you're back in business. Had to do that once...

Since my master boot loader is grub legacy, i used only three line of codes to repair either MBR or PBR ( partition boot record, or root partition :
find /boot/grub/stage2
root ( hdx,y)
setup (hdx) for MBR or setup (hdx,y) for PBR

[SpyderPride]

There's a good chance that this was just a random bad install. It happens to a lot of people every so often.

I would definitely try again with LMDE. If you want 32-bit, use it. Run md5sum on the ISO and re-download if necessary, burn another DVD (or use unetbootin for a usb install, worked great for me), and give the install another go. If it doesn't work the second try, its not liking your hardware for some reason. There shouldn't be any issue with formatting/installing on /dev/sda5 and putting grub on /dev/sda

EDIT!!! : nevermind, it seems others are having problems with the 32-bit version and installing grub to /dev/sda. I had no problem doing it with the 64-bit version, so that is definitely an option if your CPU supports it.

[RichardH]

Seems to be a problem just with unetbootin building the boot USB.

I burnt the DVD and installed without problem on a cheap P4 which is incapable
of booting from a USB, though it builds them admirably well.

I have tried several different things until I saw a mention in another thread,
[ posting.php?mode=quote&f=141&p=359344 ]
to uncheck Install Grub.

After several attempts with other manners, I tried this on my EeePC,
unchecked Install Grub, and everything went very well.

I expected to have to boot Peppermint and do # update-grub to get LMDE
into the menu. Rebooted and to my surprise there was LMDE in the Grub menu.
It may have been from a former attempt, but I chose it and it booted up
in LinuxMintDebianEdition-201012.

At last it is installed on the EeePC 1005 HA and runs as expected.

[PaulW]

I took wayne128's advice and created a separate 10GB partition, leaving my mint 9 alone. Tried to install 64-bit LMDE into the new partition (/dev/sda8). It hung up while trying to copy "usr/sbin/groupdel". So I had to break out of that.

Then tried to again to install 32-bit LMDE - same results as previous: hung at "configuring bootloader". Of course, I had to resurrect MBR.

My hunch is the problem has to do with where bootloader is installed, but I don't know what approach to take.

Later . . .
I tried installing 64-bit LMDE once again. This time I unchecked "Install grub" and the installation completed OK. However, I do not have LMDE in my boot menu. So, now, how do I get LMDE to appear on the boot menu. And then, if all is well, how do I uninstall mint 9, and remove it from the menu?

[SpyderPride]

I would start by booting into Mint 9 and running 'sudo update-grub'. It should detect LMDE and add it to the menu. Reboot and try to start LMDE, then from LMDE run 'sudo grub-install /dev/sda'. Then 'sudo update-grub' again, 'sudo update-initramfs -u', and test by rebooting into LMDE. If all goes well, you should be fine deleting your Mint 9 partition and reclaiming the space. Remember to update-grub again after you delete Mint 9's partition and expand whatever other partition (which will most likely have to be done with gparted through a LiveCD/DVD). Let us know if you have any questions.

[lizzibet]

bittorrents have hash checking to ensure a proper download.... an experienced user know to never use anything else to download if you can help it. it eliminates so many problems and so much wasted time blaming the distro creators for a bad build when you really got a bad download...... I have lmde64 running in transmission and my share ratio after 17 hrs is 0.45 and I think that is sad when i hear about all the install issues. By now, any other distro would have a share ratio of 2 or 3.

[PaulW]

@SpyderPride

(Looks like the forum has been down for a while!)

I did as you suggested. Thanks very much for your help. I'll wait until all is configured before deleting Mint.

Got errors and noticed in /boot/grub/grub.cfg that the UUID was wrong for the LMDE partition. Checked GParted for the correct UUID and made the change. Also changed the boot flag back to the Vista partition in GParted.

After selecting the LMDE install in thegrub menu, I get an error:

[ 03.47132] pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR6: no parent found for of device [0xfffe0000-0xffffffff]

However, it continues to boot OK to LMDE. Any suggestions on how to clean out the error message?

[SpyderPride]

Try using dmesg to figure out what is going on around the time of that error, post here if it looks interesting.

I googled it, its probably just a harmless kernel bug (something being displayed that shouldn't). As long as everything is running well, I wouldn't worry about it. Just upgrade the kernel (or go a step further to liquorix if you want) and see if anything changes.

[Koninator]

I select boot option in Mint Debian, grub loader and press e, for edit
Then i edit this code (rename hd0 into hd1)

Code: Select all

insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfa
set root = (hd0,msdos1)
search --no-floppy --s-uuid -set aaa09dfba09dc8e9
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1

so how i can save it?
Crtl-x executes code but don't save changes.
How should i save changes? (Crtl-s don't work)

In some ubuntu forums they say that in boot/grub/grub.cfg are settings for Grub but i can't find the file. (This boot loader is inside winXP partition)
Is there some easy way or i have to use terminal?

Can you edit Grub options inside Grub? If not why not?

[garcia82]

i have same problem on my eeepc 701..

[Koninator]

The boot loader problem fixed itself, i installed Nvidia kernel for my graphic card which added new entry in grub and also fixed winXP boot loader.
(but i have still some problems with Nvidia ...)