Boot problem with dual system [SOLVED]

[riki]

EDIT
I see you figured out part of the solution on your own. Good going! You can skip the first paragraph and go directly to reinstalling Grub.

The reason you can't claim the 110 GB freed up by deleting sda2 is that you are working from the LMDE partition. That means this partition is mounted and Gparted will not work on a mounted partition. Sorry, I forgot that when I was writing the procedure for you. To claim that 110 GB, you must boot from the install CD and run Gparted from the live desktop. That will let you unmount sda1 and resize it.

You installed Mint 10 after LMDE so Mint 10 rewrote Grub to look to Mint 10 on sda6 for boot instructions. You will have to reinstall grub using the live CD.

To reinstall grub, try the procedure here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2?action=show&redirect=GRUB2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

You already know the partition you are using, sda1, so you do not need to do the first step of running fdisk -l to find it.

The next step is to enter in terminal "sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt" (without the quotes)

Next run "sudo grub-install -- root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda" (no quotes)

Remember you are running from the live CD so there will be no request for a password.

Once the last command has run and the terminal has returned to the prompt, Close the terminal and shutdown the live CD session.

After removing the CD and letting the computer turn off, reboot. If everything worked, you should boot into LMDE. Once there, open a terminal and enter "sudo update-grub" just to make sure grub is properly set.

Followed your instructions with Julia live CD and when rebooting I get the same grub rescue error.

[riki]

There was an error in your second command (space after --). On reboot at first everything seems to work but when press ENTER nothing happens, screen frozen, have to turn off machine manually. The highlighted entry reads: Linux Mint 9, 2.6.32-26-generic (/dev/sda1) and the top line entry: GNU GRUB version 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3-1mint1.

[riki]

I can only see two ways out of this one:

1. Fresh LMDE reinstall on entire disk.

2. Reinstall JULIA alongside LMDE so that I can have access to LMDE.

Please advise if there is a third option to boot LMDE as it stands now, i.e. frozen boot screen. Thanks.

[lauren]

Hi riki!
Last night, meditating on the two important, unsolved problems in this forum, I found the cause of both related problems: in your case the erasure of a relevant file of Julia (in the other case, the damage).
You first installed LMDE with boot loader into MBR (system files on LMDE partition), then you installed Julia, choosing as boot loader device MBR (or you did not change the boot loader device and MBR was automatically the target). As you deleted the Julia partition, the boot/grub/grub.cfg was deleted; after rebooting GRUB2 was searching grub.cfg and could not find it, so no operating system could start (in the grub.cfg were saved the details of LMDE to start).
So what to do?
1. Reinstall Julia and GRUB2
2. Fresh installation of LMDE
3. Try to fix Grub
I prefer 3.
But we must know some details:
a) LMDE has Grub1 (exactly Grub 0.97 or Grub legacy I suppose);
I will open a thread in the forum.
lauren

[riki]

This is really getting too complex for me to understand. I have found a way to boot LMDE! By keeping key "e" pressed before pushing the start button it boots LMDE. But back to square one if I reboot: screen freezes and ENTER doesn't work. So at this stage I am lost...

[lauren]

Hi riki!
Please wait, I hope that I soon can specify suggestion 3.
lauren

[riki]

Refreshing gives this:

riki@riki-desktop ~ $ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for riki:
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found Debian background: linuxmint.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

[riki]

This is the version:

riki@riki-desktop ~ $ grub-install -v
grub-install (GNU GRUB 1.98-1ubuntu5-1mint2)

[lauren]

Hi riki!
The answer in the forum is: LMDE comes with GRUB2.
At the moment I'm writing a suggestion how to restore your LMDE - booting from your live medium you used to install LMDE.
lauren

[riki]

Hi riki!
The answer in the forum is: LMDE comes with GRUB2.
At the moment I'm writing a suggestion how to restore your LMDE - booting from your live medium you used to install LMDE.
lauren

I only have JULIA live CD. I no longer possess the original LMDE CD. Shall I burn a new one?

[lauren]

Hi riki!
You need the same medium you used to install LMDE; if you had burned a CD and don't have it, you must burn a new one.
The suggestion after having checked the download with md5sum and burning an image of LMDE:
1. Boot to the Live Desktop LMDE
2. Open a terminal and type:

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1

then:

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sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

afterwards:

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sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

3. Reboot, in the Grub menu choose your Mint Debian
4. Open a terminal and run:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

lauren

[riki]

OK Lauren. I am in the process of downloading a new LMDE ISO and will let you know how I get on with your instructions as soon as I burn the DVD. Much appreciate your help.

[lauren]

Hi riki!
You installed LMDE from a DVD or CD? To avoid problems, it should be the same medium you burn now!
lauren

[riki]

Hi riki!
You installed LMDE from a DVD or CD? To avoid problems, it should be the same medium you burn now!
lauren

My original LMDE install was with a CD. Now, I am downloading with a DVD because the ISO is over 700MB. Does it make any difference?

[lauren]

Hi!
Sorry, I don't know! I hope, it's no problem.
I restored GRUB2 several times, but always had the medium from which I had installed Linux.
lauren

[riki]

Lauren,

Well, I don't know how it has worked but I was able to reboot to LMDE after following your instructions, however, on the third entry of your instructions I got: "cannot find a device for /mnt/boot/grub (is /dev mounted?)" Perhaps you can explain.

[lauren]

Hi riki!
1. You could not reboot without live medium and see the Grub menu?
2. If yes, after running

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

type

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sudo mount

to see which partitions are mounted.
lauren

[riki]

Hi riki!
1. You could not reboot without live medium and see the Grub menu? Yes I did reboot normally without the live DVD.
2. If yes, after running

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

type

Code: Select all

sudo mount

to see which partitions are mounted.
lauren

[riki]

riki@riki-desktop ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
[sudo] password for riki:
mount: mount point /mnt/sda1 does not exist
riki@riki-desktop ~ $ sudo mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/riki/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=riki)

Hope you can decipher the above!

[riki]

This is how my HD looks now: