Dual Boot Problems with Win7: Reloc offset is...

[AixMint]

Hi,

please help me! I still have the 'reloc offset is out the segment' problem.

I read the discussion at

-> http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=39741

and went through the steps as given by

-> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2

under 'Dual Booting' to update grub2 and reinstalled MBR. It worked for a couple of weeks, but today the MBR is
corrupted again (or whatever is the reason for the error), after finishing a Windows backup yesterday evening.

My hardware: new DELL Inspiron Desktop (quad-core).

Does anybody has a working reliable solution? What's the technical problem behind the issue?
Is there a way to downgrade to some stable grub which works? (I don't need special features,
just dual booting with windows 7)

I am really frustrated, since Linux MINT is really wonderful, but reinstalling the MBR every second
week is not acceptable on the long run...

Best,

AixMint






After a complete reinstall

[Leppie]

unfortunately there's some windows applications that write to the mbr like dell Recovery Tools, DataSafe and Local Backup.

boot off your livecd, then issue this command to make an image of your mbr:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/bad_mbr  count=63

then restore grub2 like you've done before.
then make an image of your mbr again:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/good_mbr  count=63

post both bad_mbr and good_mbr so we can have a look at it.

[edie]

Dear all, I am having the same problem with a Delll Studio XPS 1340. Is it a problem related to GRUB2 (does GRUB legacy suffer of the same issue) ? I am going to post my data concerning the MBR in the two cases. Thanks
Edie

[Leppie]

Dear all, I am having the same problem with a Delll Studio XPS 1340. Is it a problem related to GRUB2 (does GRUB legacy suffer of the same issue) ? I am going to post my data concerning the MBR in the two cases.

dell applications like recovery tools and datasafe local backup write to the mbr which usually was unused. grub2 however occupies more disk space than grub legacy and apparently gets overwritten by these applications. to check which application it is on your system, you can either try to remove one of those applications at a time and restore grub2 to the mbr or follow the instructions and post the 2 mbr's.

[ArcherSeven]

Been on the Debian mailing lists that located this error, and I can confirm it is definetly related to the way Dell works, though my first thought is to blame the BIOS which itself is a small O.S. Not sure I'd call it a BIOS.

[Auld_Reekie]

Just had the same problem, which was specifically thanks to Dell DataSafe. First encountered the problem when Dell DataSafe did an update and restart and then Grub bailed at a very early stage leaving me with no interaction with the system at all.

After the panic subdued, and many hours googling, a restoration of Grub solved the problem. First thing I did after that was to log in to Windows 7 and uninstall Dell DataSafe - which of course, borked my MBR again! Doh! Thankfully, its a painless process to restore the mbr once I knew what I was doing.

Always read the more detailed topics for thorough advice, but Ill outline the solution that worked for me in case it helps others:

1. Boot up from live CD.
2. Open terminal.
3. Mount linux partition - sudo mkdir /mnt/mint; sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mint (Needed in order for grub-install to work).
4. Restore grub to the mbr: sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/mint /dev/sda

This installed a fresh copy of grub into the mbr but did not seem to pick up the correct configuration - on reboot, I at least managed to get to a grub> prompt rather than it just aborting, but there was no dual boot menu. Some research on manual booting taught me the following for booting from grub:

4.9 If you do not know which partition grub/kernel is installed on, use "find /boot/grub/stage1" to let grub locate it for you. This should return a partition locator in the form, (hdx, y). Use this value in the following commands.

5. root (hd1, 0)
6. "kernel (hd1, 0)/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sdb1" - vmlinuz<tab> will autocomplete.
7. "initrd (hd1, 0)/initrd" - initrd<tab> will autocomplete.
8. boot

This booted my Linux Mint install... and helped me relax a bit. The last steps I had to do were:

9. Once booted, open a terminal.
10. sudo update-grub2 - this regenerates the grub config data. This might not be needed, but I definitely did it so Im not sure if its essential. Its likely the previous config was still OK I think.
11. Restore grub to the mbr again with sudo grub-install /dev/sda - since we are booted/running from the correct install, there is no need for --root-directory.

After this, my system was restored. Im sure there might be some steps that arent quite essential, and probably a slightly more efficient solution, but it worked for me.

[spandey]

There is another way which does not require removing DELL datasafe or similar HP programs. Here are the steps:

1. While installing MINT don't install GRUB to MBR rather install in into the partition where MINT is. (use advanced option during install)
2.Copy files from GRUB4DOS to your C:\. Let GRUB4DOS boot GRUB2 menu. Here is the reference for GRUB4DOS http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/fil ... m#windows3

Yes it's not idle what Linux purist will expect but makes life much simpler.

[uilenspiegel]

Just to add to Auld_Reekie's post with some further details from my experience ...

A friend with a Dell 1545 and Windows 7 / Mint 8 dual boot was prompted to run Dell's DataSafe utility and ran into the same problem. The simple solution was to reinstall grub2, an operation for which there are several sets of instructions given here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 ... m%20LiveCD

For this case, the first of the approaches documented in the above doc worked perfectly. It was only necessary to boot using the LiveCD, bring up a terminal, figure out which of the /dev/sd** partitions was the Mint partition using

sudo fdisk -l

--- in this case, the Mint partition was /dev/sda5 --- and, given this information, run the following three commands:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
sudo reboot

in order to get the grub menu working again on startup. Then, after booting into the Mint partition, a final

sudo update-grub

brought everything up to date. Very simple once you have the instructions. And I get the impression that if this approach doesn't work, one of the other two will.

[mike cahill]

I've just used uilenspiegel method to repair a broken grub on a duel boot dell insperon, within 4 boots, it was broken again, I've deleted dell's "datasafe" program, touch wood, it seems to be working! thanks uilenspiegel for a simple fix, , little things like this make a newbie feel welcome, I would have been stuck without the forum
cheers
Mike