[RESOLVED] Recover ext4 GRUB

[opticyclic]

I had Vista on NTFS, then reparitioned and installed Mint on ext4
I have subsequently had to reinstall Vista which has removed GRUB.

I didn't think this would be an issue as I have a SuperGrub disk and a PuppyLinux USB stick.

However, neither of those can find the grub install to fix it.
I suspect that this has something to do with ext4.

I don't have my LiveCD and can't get to it for about 2 weeks.
I'm also on a rather limited internet connection at the moment so can't really download it again.

Any suggestions?

[Aging Technogeek]

I noticed this when I first installed Gloria on ext4 Partitions. Grubs written on ext3 do not recognize ext4 partitions. The only thing I found was to make sure, in multiboot installs, that the last version installed was on an ext4 partition. Then the active grub would see and list all of my Linux partitions.

In your situation, I would say that you need a copy of the Gloria live CD to reinstall Grub to an ext4 partition. There may be another way to handle the problem, but I haven't found it yet. Possibly someone with more extensive Grub knowledge will read this and respond.

[DrHu]

I didn't think this would be an issue as I have a SuperGrub disk and a PuppyLinux USB stick. However, neither of those can find the grub install to fix it. I suspect that this has something to do with ext4.

I suspect that this has something to do with ext4
I think that could be..

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-con ... ystem.html

• Use blkid to get UUID.
  How do I boot from ext4 (/boot)?
  If you have converted /boot file system (or / used for /boot), update /boot/grub.conf (/boot/grub/menu.lst). Open file and find out current kernel config file and append the following: rootfstype=ext4

--even though these notes are about converting ext3 to ext4, I think the howto boot section will still apply to ext4 & grub.

[viking777]

The one and only time I tried to use ext4 I was greeted with a message that said something like "a bootable partition cannot be placed on an ext4 filesystem". Which made me think "What the hell use is ext4 then?"

I know nothing whatsoever about it, I am just telling you what occurred.

[opticyclic]

I got my Linux Mint LiveCD then realised it was v6 without ext4 support!
Help was at hand though from a newer version of Puppy!

I created my bootable USB stick using Unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
However, the version of Puppy Linux in the drop down doesn't include ext4 support.
BUT you can download the 5.x series iso (~110MB) which does have support and point Unetbootin at that.
http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads

Then after booting into Puppy I was able to mount the ext4 partition and do the old restore GRUB trick

Code: Select all

grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit

And get back to Mint to post this

I might keep the Puppy USB stick for a while too as it was fun to play with (even though some of the apps aren't as pretty)