grub rescue: no such device

[Clarence]

Hi, need help bad!!
tried to set up a dual boot of Linux Mint 17 with win7 on Dell Inspiron. Everything went just fine until it tried to reboot. A small white screen appeared in the upper left corner of the monitor with nothing vital, just a warning that I can't remember. I thought it would correct its self but after about 15 minutes I couldn't communicate with the computer so I turned it off and then on again. The Dell logo flashed by, ignoring my F12 (and later F2) request. The live DVD is in the boot drive but it doesn't seem to care. I am totally new to the tech banter; on the net all the advice was as if I could get back into windows or Linux which I can not. It seems that I am going to have to talk to the computer in a language of which I know nothing about.

I appreciate any and all help.

Clarence

[Flemur]

tried to set up a dual boot of Linux Mint 17 with win7 on Dell Inspiron.

Does that mean you installed Linux to a hard-drive?

Everything went just fine until it tried to reboot.

The first reboot after the install?

A small white screen appeared in the upper left corner of the monitor with nothing vital, just a warning that I can't remember.


The Dell logo flashed by, ignoring my F12 (and later F2) request.

The F12 or F2 to select boot device/setup? So its trying to boot from the HD? (I'd try that again, it shouldn't ignore those).

And after this you get "grub rescue: no such device"?

The live DVD is in the boot drive but it doesn't seem to care.

Does that mean it didn't try to boot from it? Are you trying to boot from the DVD or from your installation (if you did that)?

[Clarence]

Thanks Flemur,
1. I thought that I was installing to the hard drive but I noticed, too late, that it had chosen a
Seagate storage device which is on a usb hub drive. Which has now made me think that since the windows proper is not being entered, the usb hub it not being found. I moved it to a direct usb slot but the error still remained.
But on further thought: I wrote down the partitioning of the drive used and it was files=260 GB, Linux=60 GB; Seagate only has only 242GB total and only 44GB free; so maybe it did install to the hard drive.

2. Yes, the first boot after install.

3. When the DELL opening window appears I can see the F12 and F2 options printed in the lower right corner as is normal. I am using a Logitech 400 wifi keyboard & pad which worked just fine during the linux set up proceedure. However, as the screen appears I press the FN key and the F12 key but the screen produces the grub rescue message. Have done this several times alternating between F keys but the same thing always happen: the grub rescue.

4. The live DVD is in the drive and I can hear it reading the drive; then there is a faint beep and the error message is displayed.

I can't find a way out of the grub rescue error.
I can get a response to the ls comand: it sends the following:
(hd0) (hd0,msdos3) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos1)

I did this to all of the above partitions: ls (hdx,y)/ and the result was "error: unknown file system".

Your questions have brought me some hope, thanks
Clarence

[gold_finger]

Clarence,

Did you get this fixed yet?

If not, I have an idea.

Try booting again with your live DVD. This time, don't hit <Fn> + <F12>. Just hit <F12> to get the boot menu where you can select the DVD.

Assuming that worked to boot the DVD, when Mint finishes loading plug in the Seagate storage device that you think you might have mistakenly installed to. If a window pops-up showing the files on the drive, just close the window.

Open a terminal and enter the following commands:

Code: Select all

sudo os-prober
lsblk
sudo parted -l

(Last command ends in lowercase letter "L".)

Copy the entire output of those terminal commands and paste it back here for us to see.

[Clarence]

Thanks for reply, I thought I had been forgotten! Just read your suggestion today! Have been able to get Windows up by using SuperGrup2, but I will try your suggestion tomorrow. Thanks again, nice to know that there is someone out there that can help.

Clarence

[gold_finger]

Clarence,

My suggesting for getting the DVD to boot should work, but the commands I want you to run won't actually fix anything. They should reveal info we need to then give proper commands to fix problem. At least, that's my hope.

[Clarence]

gold-finger,
everything worked as you said; it looks like seagate does have a swop file, my question now is how can I NOT have my swop file on seagete, it is very slow?

Here are the results:

Model: Generic- Multi-Card (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2045MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 126kB 2045MB 2045MB primary fat16


Model: SanDisk Cruzer Micro (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 4110MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 98.3kB 4092MB 4092MB primary fat32


Model: Seagate FreeAgent Go (scsi)
Disk /dev/sde: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 260GB 260GB primary ntfs
2 260GB 320GB 60.0GB extended
5 260GB 316GB 56.0GB logical ext4
6 316GB 320GB 4024MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Model: HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GT32N (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 1383MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: mac

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 8192B 24.6kB 16.4kB Apple
2 115MB 124MB 9306kB EFI


mint@mint ~ $

[gold_finger]

Just to review and clarify so I know exactly what your problem is:

Can you boot into Windows at all right now?
Can you boot into the Seagate external drive with Mint on it right now?
On your latest post, were you booted up with the DVD or were you booted into Seagate drive?
If you boot computer with Seagate external attached and hit F12 for boot menu, are you able to choose and boot from it?



Did you post the complete output from that parted -l command?

I don't see anything there for /dev/sda, which should be the computer's internal hard drive (presumably with Windows OS on it). All I see are 2 USB sticks, the external Seagate drive and the DVD. Did you just skip posting the sda info, or did it not show up when you ran the command?

If command doesn't show sda, then open computer case and make sure the wire connections to the internal drive did not come loose. Check both connections to the drive and follow wires to where they connect to motherboard and power supply too -- making sure all connections are snug. Reboot computer without DVD and see if Windows now boots.


I'm a bit confused when you say:

everything worked as you said; it looks like seagate does have a swop file, my question now is how can I NOT have my swop file on seagete, it is very slow?

Are you saying that you were able to boot to the installed system on the Seagate drive? I was assuming that you couldn't do that and that you were trying to boot back up with the DVD to try fixing problem.

For now, don't worry about the swap partition. Unless you have a very minimal amount of RAM, it most likely doesn't get used at all and is not the cause of slow performance.

[Clarence]

Gold_finger,

Can you boot into Windows at all right now?

I boot into windows by using Super_Grub2 repair disk. In the Everything menu it lists the Operating systems and in my instance it lists Windows Vista and I highlight it and hit enter and may windows 7 operating system is loaded.

Can you boot into the Seagate external drive with Mint on it right now?

No.

On your latest post, were you booted up with the DVD or were you booted into Seagate drive?

I booted into Linux from the Linux live disk. I booted into Windows from SG2.

If you boot computer with Seagate external attached and hit F12 for boot menu, are you able to choose and boot from it?

I just tried and the screen just sits there, blank, and has for 10min, so I don't it will boot.

Did you post the complete output from that parted -l command?

I selected all of the data, copied it to a flash drive, etc.

I am so temped to reboot into Linux Mint Live DVD and reinstall it but not using Seagate, just the main hard drive. I am afraid that I will lose Win7 if I do, what do you think?

[gold_finger]

Very strange that your internal hard drive did not show up in the parted -l output!

Do you have an internal drive, or is everything (including the Windows OS) on the Seagate drive?

Since you need SuperGrubDisk for booting Windows, sounds like you need to repair Windows boot with rescue disk or something. Not sure of process, but if you Google for that for your version of Windows I'm sure you'll find plenty of posts. (When you start process of fixing Windows booting, DO NOT have the external Seagate drive attached to the computer.)

To get the external Seagate drive to boot when chosen from the boot menu, do the following:

* Attach Seagate drive prior to starting computer
* Boot with your live Mint DVD again.
* I'm assuming that there is an icon on desktop for Seagate drive, but it should not be mounted. Leave it unmounted. If it is mounted, unmount it.
* Open a terminal and type following command to find out which device name goes with that Seagate drive. You are looking to see if it is still /dev/sde, or if it is now called something else.

Code: Select all

sudo blkid -c /dev/null

Or you could run sudo parted -l again if you find that easier to read.


For rest of commands below I'm going to refer to it as sde. If you found out that it is called something else, substitute the appropriate name in place of sde.

Mount the root partition on Seagate drive to the live Mint environment

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sde5 /mnt

Install grub to the MBR of the Seagate drive

Code: Select all

sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sde

Unmount the root partition

Code: Select all

sudo umount /mnt

Close the terminal, shutdown the computer, and remove the live DVD.

With Seagate drive attached, start computer again and use the boot menu to select booting from the Seagate drive.

It should work this time.

[Clarence]

I entered:
sudo mount /dev/sdd5 /mnt
sudo grup-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdd

system reply:
grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of '/cow'.
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error rerported.

[gold_finger]

I'm not familiar with SuperGrubDisk, but from your output it does appear to be showing two drives. Presumably, hd0 is the internal drive and (from what you wrote) msdos3 looks to be the one that I'm guessing you boot from because it appears to be the Windows OS system partition. Looks like it sees hd2 with partition msdos1 -- Seagate drive with what I'm guessing is a partition that you use for Windows data files.

That's all fine.

I still don't know why that internal drive didn't show up in the parted -l output. Don't recall every seeing that happen before. It should be able to see all drives connected to the system.

As far as getting the Seagate drive to boot is concerned, none of the above matters much. Just go ahead with instructions above and that should get it booting into your installed Mint. Just make sure you confirm the right device name for it before proceeding. If you don't have the same number of USBs connected as you did when you ran parted -l before, then there is a good chance that it won't be referred to as sde anymore. It might be sdd, sdc, or something else.

[Clarence]

I entered:
sudo mount /dev/sdd5 /mnt
sudo grup-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdd

system reply:
grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of '/cow'.
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error rerported.

Boot from seagate didn't work.

I will use SG2 to provide you with info sometime tomorrow.

[gold_finger]

I entered:
sudo mount /dev/sdd5 /mnt
sudo grup-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdd

"grup" should be "grub" -- but I think you just mis-spelled it when reporting back here; not when you entered commands in terminal. Other than that, what you did looks correct and should have worked.

You're using the same Mint disk that you used to install originally on the Seagate drive, right?

Don't know why you got that error. Usually that happens if you forget to mount the root partition first, but looks like you did ("sudo mount /dev/sdd5 /mnt"). I'm not sure what problem could be at this point. Sorry.

Maybe someone else will have better idea.

P.s.
Try grub commands one more time. If still doesn't work, might be best to do the installation again. If you do that:

* Boot DVD and start installer
* On "Installation Type" screen, choose "Something else".
* On partitioning screen, select the partition that Mint is installed to now -- /dev/sdd5 (unless device name changed again).
* Click "Change" button
* Use as = Ext4 file system
* Mount Point = "/" (root)
* Size = leave it the way you have it now.
* Format Box - check to format the partition (that will wipe out the bad install first)
* You don't need to do anything at all with the swap partition. Installer will see it and automatically use it again.
MOST IMPORTANT:
* Device for boot loader installation = /dev/sdd (not sdd5, just sdd)

* When done with that, click to finish installation.

[austin.texas]

You said you can boot into Windows using SuperGrub2. Does it also give you the option of booting into Mint?
I have used SuperGrub2 many times, and it always gives me access to any linux distro I have installed on any drive.

[Clarence]

Hi Austin,

You said you can boot into Windows using SuperGrub2. Does it also give you the option of booting into Mint?
no it does not!
I have used SuperGrub2 many times, and it always gives me access to any linux distro I have installed on any drive.

absolutily strange! Am backing up some data from windows, after that I will try what gold-finger has suggested. Do you know of any way to print/save the output of SG2 results windows??

Thanks,

[austin.texas]

Do you know of any way to print/save the output of SG2 results windows??

No, there is no way that I can see.

[Clarence]

OK guys, here are the screen photo's of SuperGrup2; the Everything++ screen died and never completed, took about 10+ min and just hung. They can be enlarged on your end I hope.

[austin.texas]

When the DELL opening window appears I can see the F12 and F2 options printed in the lower right corner as is normal. I am using a Logitech 400 wifi keyboard & pad which worked just fine during the linux set up proceedure. However, as the screen appears I press the FN key and the F12 key but the screen produces the grub rescue message. Have done this several times alternating between F keys but the same thing always happen: the grub rescue.

You can try F12 using a wired keyboard instead of a wireless keyboard.
It could be that when you use F12 you have to choose USB-HDD to access the Seagate.

gold_finger wrote:
Did you post the complete output from that parted -l command?
Clarence:
I selected all of the data, copied it to a flash drive, etc.
You can use Firefox on the live DVD to post to the forum.

I agree with gold_finger that you should have the info on sda included in the output from the sudo parted -l command.

Suggestion: How about if you simplify things, and disconnect all drives except the one Mint in installed on, and see if you can get Mint installed and working on that one first?

[Clarence]

Good news!!
reinstalled from live disk and when it told me there were attached disks I quit the install, removed seagate drive and a flash drive and started the DVD installation over. Tried to follow gold-finger's advice but didn't find the data he referred. Every thing looked good so I backed out of the 'other' and let Linux install. I ran Linux and installed updates and then logged out. Got back into Windows but it is not working quite right. Strange things are happening but, I am in windows now sending this message so maybe it will work correctly in time.
Thanks gold-finger and austin.texas!