mint 10 will not boot after install [SOLVED]

[loecx]

a happy new year

Have installed mint 10 on my 2 computers. Both 2 computers fail, after the install, to boot mint.
Have studied the problem thoroughly, but it is beyond me to find a solution.

1. mint 10 live dvd has been burnt on k3b, taking the usual precautions to get a good dvd

2. installed the live dvd on the hard disks of both my computers after setting up the future mint 10 partitions :
- formatting and ext3 file systems with the pq partition manager of my win xp and old me o.s.
pq partition manager is the sole instrument for handling my partitions
- for booting my opensuse 11.3, debian 6.0, win xp and possibly other linux systems, I use the pq boot manager

3. during the install procedure of linux 10, I made the following partitioning choices :
- /dev/sd3, formatted primary ext3 partition, mount point /boot
- /dev/sda8, formatted logical ext3 partition, mount point /
- /dev/sda9, formatted logical ext3 partition, mount point /home
- swap partition is already present
- did make the choice for /dev/sda3 as the boot partition

4. restarting after the install, I choose via the pq boot manager to boot mint 10
- the grub2 boot menu becomes visible with all my operating systems
- when I choose to boot mint 10, I get the following errors : "file not found" and "you need to load the kernel first"
- starting my other o.s via the grub2 boot menu (grub.cfg) poses no problems

5. After other nasty experiences with grub2, I ask you, is it possible to use grub2 on an other location as the mbr ?
If the answer is yes, where goes the install procedure of mint 10 in the fault?

Thanks

[willie42]

Someone else may have a better solution but as for me I use regular Grub. i have had a bad taste of it when trying to load LMDE. So that is that I recommend. you might also want to try super grub. http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/57240

I may try it later but as long as Regular Grub is working and I have no one to tell me that the others work better I stay with what I know works

hope this helped

[loecx]

yes willy, I agree with you

- my opensuse 11.1, uses grub 97 (legacy), no problems
my debian 6.0 (testing) changes from the default grub2 1.98, to lilo when installing grub2 to a logical partition, no problem
my opensuse 11.3 has wisely stayed with with grub legacy, so no problems when not installing to the mbr

- I tried the grub2 super disk, but same error messages resulted as mentioned in my previous post

- grub.cfg is there and working correctly, but, I think, finding initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic and/or vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic is the problem
but I see, using a live cd, that initrd.img and vmlinuz are present on my /media/sda3 partition as /media/sda3/initrd.img and /media/sda3/vmlinuz

- an answer on my question if it is possible to problemless install grub2 to a logical or primary partition is still valid
with linuxmint 10, there is only grub2 available

thanks for your respons

[wayne128]

5. After other nasty experiences with grub2, I ask you, is it possible to use grub2 on an other location as the mbr ?
If the answer is yes, where goes the install procedure of mint 10 in the fault?

Yes, instead of asking installer to write boot code to MBR (/dev/sda , /dev/sdb)
select to write boot code to partition that you install Mint 10.

Then you need to amend the Master Boot Loader , which resides in MBR to boot to this partition, either directly or indirectly by a process called chainloading

I use Grub legacy as Master Boot Loader, and use chainloading very often. The grub legacy's stanza for chainloading to /dev/sda18 is below:

title Mint10 at sda18
root (hd0,17)
chainloader +1

[loecx]

Wayne, thanks for your respons

If I understand you correctly, you are saying :
Install a linux operating system and choose as location for the boot loader the mbr.
The bootlader can either be grub legacy or grub2
This being done, you can always adjust the boot menu's via established procedures

I, certainly, will go this way. Grub2 is there to stay. I will try this on a "safe" computer. Later, when time permits.

But now the solution for my stated problem,
Today, I downloaded the updated version of mint-debian 10 2011.01. I originally started with mint-debian 10 2010.12.
Mint-debian10 2010.12 appeared flawed, the live dvd brought forward a black screen and stuck.
Then I went for mint 10, which after install would not boot (the stated problem)

Now, the updated mint-debian 10 2011.01 dvd worked flawlessly. Installing no problem, easy and clear instructions. Excellent work.
Partitions the same as before, /dev/sda3 for /boot, /dev/sda8 for / and /dev/sda9 for /home. Boot loader location, primary /dev/sda3.
After install, I choose via my usual pq (power quest = symantec) boot manager the linuxmint 10 os. Via the grub 1.98 boot menu, I could
go where I wanted, no problems

Mint-debian 10 2011.01 is an excellent piece of work. Thanks to its team. And thanks to you, who reacted kindly to my question.
I still think, that there is something wrong with the boot loader install of mint 10 (ubuntu ?)