Booting problem.

[Fornhamfred]

This may have something to do with the boot sequence in the bios. Otherwise is there an error message given when Mint fails to boot?

[Fornhamfred]

Shakkra

I have seen another post of yours headed grub error 22. Is that your problem?

If so have a look at this post of mine and it may help. http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=15647

Alternatively google the error as there are many suggestions, normally it just means that your menu.lst is looking in the wrong place for grub i.e on your USB stick and not in MBR.

If you do not solve the problem it would help if you post your menu.lst file here.

[Fornhamfred]

No problem.

Go to start/places/computer/file system/boot/grub then menu.lst . Double click file and you can then copy it.

Good Luck

[kansasnoob]

Everyone look here:

http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... 90&t=16089

Now, in Ubuntu I learned how to do a 100% change in desktop environments, but this is Mint!

Look at "Playing Around" here:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php

Of course that's for Ubuntu! Things you try there may and almost certainly WILL totally break Mint!

It could be argued that Ubuntu is more flexible but I can guarantee you that Mint is the best I've tried so far if you're looking for "out-of-box" performance! (Simply MEPIS is my next project)

What I find irritating is that you're using the forum in a manner that would indicate problems with Mint, when in fact, the problem is you keep changing what you want and how you want it!

Then again, I'm a grouchy old man!

[Fornhamfred]

Shakkra

For future reference it is not necessary to upload any files, all you need to do is open the file , copy the required content and then paste it into your posting. Obviously if it were a large file it is easier to upload but for menu.lst or fstab pasting is fine.

[Fornhamfred]

Don't worry we all start from the same place.

Are you still having the boot problem or is fixed?

[kansasnoob]

Please post the output of:

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sudo fdisk -l

That will tell me what your disc set-up is.

Like this is mine:

lance@lance-desktop ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for lance:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x63056305

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3825 9729 47431912+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3825 6934 24981043+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 6935 7175 1935801 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 7176 9729 20514973+ 83 Linux

[kansasnoob]

BTW, what I think is going on is that since you're using a USB drive to install, the USB drive is recognized as hd(0,0) so GRUB is installing to the USB drive instead of the hard drive.

So, is this a situation where you can only boot with the USB drive plugged in?

The more info we have the better!

[kansasnoob]

In your original post you say, "after reainstalling mint 5 (used to have mint with kde) and now I have gnome, somehow it wont boot without the live cd (actually it is a memory stick [usb])."

So can I still assume that every time you say "live CD" you actually mean "memory stick"?

So when you boot from the live CD (actually memory stick) do you get the option to either boot the hard drive or to boot into the "live CD environment"?

A bit of explanation here. Since you installed Mint with a usb stick rather than an actual live CD the installer did recognize the usb stick as a drive. I know this because your fdisk -l shows:

/dev/sdb1 1 4676 37559938+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 4677 4864 1510110 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 4677 4864 1510078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

sdb indicates drive #2. sda would be drive #1, sdc = drive #3, etc.
sdb1 indicates drive #2 partition #1.

Now while we're talking numbers you should also know that Grub begins it's numbering sequence with 0 (zero), so Grub sees sdb1 as hd (1,0). You see the b drive becomes the 1 in hd (1,0) and partition 1 becomes the 0 in hd (1,0).

Now the lines that would concern me with Grub in your menu list look OK, but my best guess is that Grub stage 1 is only recognized on hd (0) which is your memory stick/live CD.

Now what you need to do from the live CD environment (Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer) - THIS WILL NOT WORK JUST BOOTED INTO YOUR OS - is to install Grub to drive#2, aka sdb, aka hd (1).

Open a Terminal session and type in

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sudo grub

and press Enter. Then run the following commands in sequence:

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root (hd1,0) 

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setup (hd1) 

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quit 

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exit

Of course here we would normally reboot and remove the live CD when prompted to, I'm not absolutely sure at what point you'd want to remove your "live mem stick"

Of course if you can't boot into the live CD environment (Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer), then we'll have to look into other options such as Super Grub Disk:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/ ... kPage.html