Grub error 17

[TomS]

Need some help with this error message

I upgraded my video card(s) from an ATI X600 pro (which Vista and Linux did not like) to 2 ASUS EN8600GT SLI cards, this weekend and moved some of my drives around in the process. I had Ubuntu 7.10, installed on one of the drives and after the change my boot to Grub could not find the Linux drive, so I decided to try a clean install of Mint 5.0 Beta on the same 40gig drive, on my main PC (I have 4.0 on my laptop)and it works great .

So after the install and boot I get Grub error 17 and can't boot... so I put the CD disk back in and reboot and go to boot from disk, it gives me the grub list but only the Vista drive will boot. I then search the web for the meaning of this error and find it has to do with the drive mapping for Windows and Linux.

A few points for thought... The drive in question is a 40 gig drive connected to a RAID controller (it was connected to the raid before I moved it, it's still in the same RAID controller but in a different place now) so the system sees it as a SCSI drive.

Below is the result of fdisk -lu from the cd boot mint 5.0 disk and the windows device list for the same disks.

Disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes Windows disk HD3.0, vista boot disk in windows (shows as HD0,0 in Linus and does boot)
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders, total 398297088 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0561d530

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 398283479 199141708+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes xp disk HD1,0 in windows
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders, total 241254720 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identi[/i]fier: 0x82a05e05

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 241248104 120624021 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes data disk in windows HD5,0
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01d81075

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 63 976768064 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes recorded]TV disk in windows HD0.0
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fa5e70a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 63 312576704 156288321 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sde: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes Movie disk HD1,0 in windows
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders, total 490234752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fb73490

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 63 490223474 245111706 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdf: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes Linux disk HD2,0 in windows
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfe0ba546

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 63 74862899 37431418+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 74862900 78156224 1646662+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdf5 74862963 78156224 1646631 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdg: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes USB Backup drive
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa4b57300


Whit that I know (why so many drives?) just my luck at work..

My question is, it seams to me Windows and Linux have mapped these drives differently so where do I go t fix it, and what do I need to change?

I see the drive.map file but I am not sure if that's where I should make the changes and what I should change, here's that file.

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
(hd3) /dev/sdd
(hd4) /dev/sde
(hd5) /dev/sdf
(hd6) /dev/sdg

I am sure I left some things out here so let me know what I missed, Any help wou;d be much appreciated!!!

Thanks,

TomS

[Lysias]

I am not sure it might be of any help but..

Read this topic and try this solution it might work for you. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=442945


Lysias

[TomS]

Thanks Lysias, for thi"s:

I am not sure it might be of any help but..

Read this topic and try this solution it might work for you. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php

Lysias"


Thanks Lysias, this is the thread I was on and got lost in the details of how to fix the problem......

[TomS]

That was the site that I found, but I did not see what needed, perhaps I did not read all the posts and missed something..

[Fred]

TomS,

I don't see a Linux partition or partitions in your listings. You aren't trying to install Linux on an NTFS partition are you?

Fred

EDIT: ooops, I see it now.

Download and burn a live cd iso called Supergrub. url below.

Use that to boot into Mint. If you can boot into Mint, post a copy of your /boot/grub/menu.lst file, and your /etc/fstab file.

http://download.linux-live-cd.org/Super ... sgd/cdrom/

[Fred]

TomS,

Also, open a terminal and type:

blkid

And post the list it returns.

Another nice tool to have a round is Gparted. Go to the url below and download the latest stable version of the Gparted live cd iso.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=271779

Fred

[TomS]

I tried the supergrub disk and tried several of the options by could only get windows to boot....I did not try all the options for fear of messing something else up.

Here are the results of the fstab and blkid

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sdf1
UUID=63d8c886-f18d-4bf9-886b-d554efcb0233 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sdf5
UUID=2b0a7fa8-860a-41ad-a3bf-5412ab243358 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="4CB8818DB881766C" LABEL="TV" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="CCE4557DE4556B2A" LABEL="Movies" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="63d8c886-f18d-4bf9-886b-d554efcb0233" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sdc5: UUID="2b0a7fa8-860a-41ad-a3bf-5412ab243358" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdd1: UUID="F434C1F534C1BB3E" LABEL="Vista Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sde1: UUID="CEC01D86C01D7645" LABEL="XP MCE Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdf1: UUID="31ACBA012E8BA627" LABEL="New SATA Drive 102107" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdg1: UUID="D0C8D447C8D42D8A" LABEL="FreeAgent Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sdh1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DISK_IMG" UUID="002A-0D23" TYPE="vfat"

Thanks for any help!

Tom

[Fred]

Tom,

To keep me from having to completely re-write your /boot/grub/menu.lst file, I need a copy of it too please.

Also, did you get this by being inside Mint? Did you boot into your Mint install somehow? If so, how?

I am assuming you are trying to use Mint 5. Is that correct?

Which drive are you booting, your Vista drive?

As complicated as your system is, it will be much easier for you to deal with in the future if you use labels instead of UUIDs. You should probably go ahead and download and burn the Gparted Live cd iso I referenced above. It will be easier for you to use it for some of the chores we will need to do.

I am going to eat breakfast. If you have the info by the time I get back I'll see about fixing you up.

Fred

[TomS]

Fred,

Excellent set of questions, I thought about several of these after my post this morning on my way to work. I will respond to each below.


"To keep me from having to completely re-write your /boot/grub/menu.lst file, I need a copy of it too please. This is the way it was installed by the Mint installer."

Here is the Menu.lst file - most of the ## comment lines

default 0

gfxmenu=/etc/grub/message.elyssa

timeout 10

color cyan/blue white/blue


title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd5,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdf1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd5,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdf1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel memtest86+
root (hd5,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdb1
title Windows NT/2000/XP (loader)
root (hd3,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd3)
map (hd3) (hd0)
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdd1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd2,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
chainloader +1


"Also, did you get this by being inside Mint? Did you boot into your Mint install somehow? If so, how?"

I booted to the Live CD and mounted the drive, the fstab data is directly from the file on the hard drive. The data from the blkid is from the console prompt on the CD. This was one of the questions I had, if it's from the CD, is it different than I would have gotten, had I been able t run it from within the hard drive?

"I am assuming you are trying to use Mint 5. Is that correct?"

Yes, I am using both the Mint 5.0 CD and it's also loaded on the HD.

"Which drive are you booting, your Vista drive?"

As I said, this was booted from the CD, If I use the boot option from the CD to boot from disk, it loads the grub and I can boot into Vista but I get the Error 17 when I try to boot to the Mint 5.0 drive.

"As complicated as your system is, it will be much easier for you to deal with in the future if you use labels instead of UUIDs. You should probably go ahead and download and burn the Gparted Live cd iso I referenced above. It will be easier for you to use it for some of the chores we will need to do."

I just posted the results of the blkid and posted everything that it showed, Most of the drives are labeled ad the label show up after the UUID"s on most of the drives. I thought I had named the Linux drive but that was either changed or I may have erased it at some point. I have no idea what the /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" is and the last drive is a thumb drive I used to copy some of the files to post here.

I have the Gparted program that comes on most of the Linux versions I have used it several times on this drive but with this install I just told it to use the whole hard drive. Should I still download the version you recommended? I also have Partition Magic, but have never played with it and Linux.

I am going to eat breakfast. If you have the info by the time I get back I'll see about fixing you up.

I really appreciate all your help here, and again I can tell from your questions, you will lead me in the right direction and help me get this working!!

Tom

[Fred]

TomS,

I just saw your post. The only difference in the output from blkid would be the loop system, which is from the RAM drive the Live cd creates.

First, is there any reason in particular that you have so much space dumped into /. If not I strongly suggest you consider changing it before we get into this too deep. Please read:

viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872

Let me know what you think before we go further.

I would like for you to download and burn the latest Gparted Live cd iso. It has more features and is more reliable than the version on the install CDs.

You will need to give me a little bit of time to do this. I was just going to eat.... again. lol

Don't worry, I won't forget you.

Fred

[TomSal]

Fred,

You asked: First, is there any reason in particular that you have so much space dumped into /. If not I strongly suggest you consider changing it before we get into this too deep. Please read:

I don't understand your question, I don't know what or where "/" is or where you are seeing that in what I posted???

I have downloaded gparted from the site you linked to and will burn the iso as soon as I get home from work today. I have been reading your post on partitioning, I am not sure I fully understand it all but I am willing to listen!

Thanks again,

Tom

[TomS]

I guess Fred is on vacation, I work on this part of this weekend and we through a bunch of tries from several sites and the super grub site and CD...Sad to say no luck Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Tom

[Fred]

TomS,

I am sorry my friend. I fell on some steps and hurt my back. The result is that I can't sit very well. It is just too uncomfortable.

My computer time is very limited right now. I will help you, if you still need it, when I can sit at the computer again. Give me a couple more days. It is getting better.

Fred

[newW2]

Fred take it easy, and let that back heal. See you back here soon.

[TomS]

Fred, I hope you're feeling better, I have had back issues and I know how bad they can hurt! Well since we have a new 5.0 RC, I decided to retry a fresh install and I tried to follow some of your partitioning instructions, from the link you posted. I am still getting the error 17 but now I see a different configuration in some of the files I posted above. This time I made sure I posted the results from the CD files and from the file on the disk if I saw a difference. Hopefully this will give some clues to where the problem is.... Tom

fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders, total 398297088 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0561d530

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 398283479 199141708+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders, total 241254720 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x82a05e05

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 241248104 120624021 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01d81075

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 63 976768064 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fa5e70a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 63 312576704 156288321 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sde: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders, total 490234752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fb73490

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 63 490223474 245111706 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdf: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfe0ba546

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 * 63 23438834 11719386 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 23438835 78156224 27358695 5 Extended
/dev/sdf5 74862963 78156224 1646631 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf6 23438961 74862899 25711969+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdg: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa4b57300

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdg1 63 1465144064 732572001 7 HPFS/NTFS


Device Map

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
(hd3) /dev/sdd
(hd4) /dev/sde
(hd5) /dev/sdf
(hd6) /dev/sdg


etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sdc1
UUID=77672877-15de-4d65-bca1-ce8d2d3745cb / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sdc6
UUID=30176230-3a11-41fe-a98d-534155a40f66 /home ext2 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sdc5
UUID=2b0a7fa8-860a-41ad-a3bf-5412ab243358 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


ect/blkid.tab

<device DEVNO="0x0801" TIME="1212231795" UUID="4CB8818DB881766C" LABEL="TV" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sda1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0811" TIME="1212231795" UUID="CCE4557DE4556B2A" LABEL="Movies" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sdb1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0821" TIME="1212231795" UUID="77672877-15de-4d65-bca1-ce8d2d3745cb" TYPE="ext3">/dev/sdc1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0825" TIME="1212231795" UUID="2b0a7fa8-860a-41ad-a3bf-5412ab243358" TYPE="swap">/dev/sdc5</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0826" TIME="1212231795" UUID="30176230-3a11-41fe-a98d-534155a40f66" TYPE="ext2">/dev/sdc6</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0831" TIME="1212231795" UUID="F434C1F534C1BB3E" LABEL="Vista Drive" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sdd1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0841" TIME="1212231795" UUID="CEC01D86C01D7645" LABEL="XP MCE Drive" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sde1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0851" TIME="1212231795" UUID="31ACBA012E8BA627" LABEL="New SATA Drive 102107" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sdf1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0861" TIME="1212231795" UUID="D0C8D447C8D42D8A" LABEL="FreeAgent Drive" TYPE="ntfs">/dev/sdg1</device>
<device DEVNO="0x0700" TIME="1212231796" TYPE="squashfs">/dev/loop0</device>

From the cd boot Terminal blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="F434C1F534C1BB3E" LABEL="Vista Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="CEC01D86C01D7645" LABEL="XP MCE Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="31ACBA012E8BA627" LABEL="New SATA Drive 102107" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdd1: UUID="4CB8818DB881766C" LABEL="TV" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sde1: UUID="CCE4557DE4556B2A" LABEL="Movies" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdf1: UUID="77672877-15de-4d65-bca1-ce8d2d3745cb" TYPE="ext3" /linux boot
/dev/sdf5: TYPE="swap" UUID="2b0a7fa8-860a-41ad-a3bf-5412ab243358" /swap
/dev/sdf6: UUID="30176230-3a11-41fe-a98d-534155a40f66" TYPE="ext2" /home
/dev/sdg1: UUID="D0C8D447C8D42D8A" LABEL="FreeAgent Drive" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"


grub/menu.lst

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdc1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdc1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel memtest86+
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdd1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd3,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd3)
map (hd3) (hd0)
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sde1
title Windows NT/2000/XP (loader)
root (hd4,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd4)
map (hd4) (hd0)
chainloader +1

[Sammy95]

Hello Tom !

I struggle with the same Error 17 problem.

My story: I installed LinuxMint v4.0 on my Laptop and I think it's awesome
However - on the Grub meny there was TWO options to boot Windows XP (that I use to run my accounting system)
The first one worked okey and took me to WInXP, but yesterday I choosed the second one
and it took me DIRECTLY into the Recovery program for WinXP that was delivered on this Laptop.
Even on Windows You can't run it directly - It will warn You...

Luckily my laptop was almost out of battery, and the recovery program halted
to ask me if I should connect my external powersupply. I selected the Abort button.

However afte the restart, the Grub menu was gone and it only showed a Grub Error: 17

I was able to reinstall the Grub menu by running the Live CD.
Open Terminal and type:
sudo grub
find /grub/stage1 (to find Your disc number, mine was: hd0,1)
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0),

The Menu came back, but I still get a ERROR 17 whenever I try to run Linux Mint.
Windows boots fine....... (And it really the best thing, cause I had 2 weeks accounting work without backup)

My error message says:

Booting Linux Mint kernel 2.6.... and so on...

root (hd0,2)
Filesystem type unknown partition type 0x5
Kernel /vmlinuz.....and so on...

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition.
Press any key to continue...

So...
I guess the recovery program tried to change the boot loader..

Would it (if nothing else is faster) help to format and install Linux Mint once again..
(I only had a two days fresh install of Linux Mint there.. Emails and stuff but nothing unloosable...)

Sammy

[TomS]

Sammy,

I feel your pain With a one drive system like yours, I would look at the menu.lst file and check the there first. I am novice with Linux, so I won't try to give you to much advice on this. I am sure some of the experts on here will guide you to a simple solution to your issue. If you don't want to wait I would try the reinstall, after you backup your windows stuff of course.

Good Luck!

Tom

[Sammy95]

Hello again TomS

Problem solved..

Like You said.. I edited the menu.lst file..

Reading the error message just a little better tells me it could not mount the partition..

So I tried to change the partition in the Grubs menu (pressed e on the command line)
and changed it from hd0,2 to hd0,1

WOW - It booted nicely again.. So then I only had to edit the menu.lst file just the same way...

I guess the recovery program had changed the disc order or something ?????

Sammy

[TomS]

Bump...still looking for some help here... I may try a new set of partitions and reinstall this weekend.
TomS

[Nessa]

Tom, I ran into the same issue a few days ago. In my case, the Live CD saw Linux drive as third while my BIOS saw it as first when I go into the boot menu using F11 during POST. Can you check if both see your drive as (hd5,0) /dev/sdf and drive number 6 respectively?