Elyssa will not boot (SOLVED)

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Elyssa will not boot (SOLVED)

Post by Fornhamfred »

I have a Dell desktop on which is installed Windows XP and PcLinux 2007.

I have just installed Elyssa but after removing the Live CD the system returns to the PcLinux splash screen. I have installed Mint many times and each time Mint has installed its own splash with the other distros listed to boot as required. I have had a look at menu.lst on the mint partition and everything looks good.

Can anyone please explain why this is happening and how to correct it.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

Boot in to PCLinuxOS and post the output of

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l
Then run these commands one at a time in a terminal and post the output:

Code: Select all

sudo grub

Code: Select all

find /boot/grub/stage1
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Thanks for your reply.

The first item fdisk -l ( I assume this is l not 1 as 1 gives invalid option.
[root@localhost roger]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1913 4863 23703907+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1913 3194 10297633+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 3195 3449 2048256 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7 3450 4863 11357923+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 79656 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 40643 20484040+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 40657 60021 9759487+ 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb3 60021 79656 9896040 83 Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

sudo grub

No return - looking for an instruction

find /boot/grub/stage1
hd0,4
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

Two drives. Can you post a copy of your /boot/grub/menu.lst from Mint's partition?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
Fred

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fred »

67GTA,

Note that sdb has partition problems too. :-)

Fred
User avatar
newW2
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 821
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:24 am
Location: USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by newW2 »

Look at menu.lst for both Linux installs. The /boot/grub/menu.lst for PCLOS is being used ... and it is missing info for mint. The wiki has information on how to repair / setup grub http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... _your_grub
You can setup grub to boot from the partition that has Mint and add the boot information to menu.lst for PCLOS.
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Checking the Mint partition there is not grub file in Boot now. I did a re-install after I found this problem. Previously grub was there but with the same problem.

I also noted that sdb has partition problems and that is where the two partitions upon which Mint is installed. I do not understand what the problem is with the partitions but are there any suggestions as to what I should do now? As a note when installing Mint I have reformatted the partitions before installation.
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

Fred wrote:67GTA,

Note that sdb has partition problems too. :-)

Fred
I wasn't sure what you were referring to until now :D

This sounds like a big mess. Sdb doesn't show up via fdisk, so I assume it is a removable drive? You need to pick which distro you want to control the booting of everything. Then we will have to get all of the OS's added to it's /boot/grub/menu.lst. Also, the hard drive that the chosen OS resides on needs to be first in your bios boot order.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Sdb is a 40g harddrive partitioned as 20g FAT 32, two 10g Partitions for Mint.

Whenever I have installed Mint on other machines, the boot splash screen has been Mint with the other distros automatically listed in the mint menu.lst.

Previously when the grub was on the install on this machine, the Mint menu.lst listed Pclinux and Windows but the machine still booted from PcLinux. Adding Mint to the PcLinux menu.lst only resulted with an error and then booted back to PcLinux.

I think that I need to sort out the partitions on sdb and then re-install Mint. Is this correct or is there an easier solution?
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

PCLinuxOS has never been friendly to other Linux OS's, and adding them to grub. You probably installed Mint's grub to the same partition you installed Mint to. Your PC will boot to the hard drive that is listed first in your bios. If PCLinuxOS is on the first hard drive(bios order), then PCLinuxOS's grub menu will show when you boot which should be hda. Does that make sense? If you install Mint to sdb, and tell the installer to install Mint's grub to hda, then Mint's grub will show when you boot your PC. I can help you sort this out, but you need to decide which OS you want to control everything. There are a million ways to do it.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Thanks.

When I installed Mint I let it do a default installation and did not alter the grub installation, which is why I do not understand why there is no grub file in the boot folder. Should this not be so.

As far as which distro to use as grub, I am quite happy to stick with PcLinux. I have tried to add Mint to the menu list but it does not work.

Any help is gratefully received.
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

I'm sure we can get it going. I will need you to run

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l
again with all of the drives connected to be sure I have the big picture in front of me.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1913 4863 23703907+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1913 3194 10297633+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 3195 3449 2048256 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7 3450 4863 11357923+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 79656 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 40643 20484040+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 40657 60021 9759487+ 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb3 60021 79656 9896040 83 Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

I cannot see why hdb1 is noted as boot as this is a storage partition to be accessed from Linux and Windows.
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

What is sdb? Is it a USB drive? It isn't being listed. That might be part of the problem.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Sorry, hdb in PcLinux Sdb in Mint

OK Have chesked the partitions and re-installed. This is the PcLinux menu.lst
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/usr/share/gfxboot/themes/pclinuxos/boot/message
default 0

title PC Linux 2007
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PC_Linux_2007 root=/dev/hda5 acpi=on resume=/dev/hda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=/dev/hda5 failsafe acpi=on resume=/dev/hda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows XP Pro
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/hdb2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/hdb2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

and this is the Mint menu.lst

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-legacy-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

gfxmenu=/etc/grub/message.elyssa

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/sdb5 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd1,4)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdb5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=/dev/sdb5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Linux Mint, kernel memtest86+
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda5.
title PC Linux 2007 (on /dev/sda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PC_Linux_2007 root=/dev/hda5 acpi=on resume=/dev/hda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda5.
title failsafe (on /dev/sda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=/dev/hda5 failsafe acpi=on resume=/dev/hda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

After having removed the Mint live cd and rebooted the grub gave an error 21 message and froze.
User avatar
67GTA
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1301
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm
Location: Kentucky, USA

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by 67GTA »

I'm still confused about sdb. Is Mint calling hdb sdb? If that is the case, then just change the h's in Mint entry in the PCLOS grub menu to s's.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
User avatar
Fornhamfred
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1243
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Elyssa will not boot

Post by Fornhamfred »

Problem solved. Thanks for your help.

Following a link on the Ubuntu forum which suggested that the Bios settings may be incorrect, I checked the machine and the Primary slave was set to off. Resetting to Auto and then re-installing Mint as previous has sorted the problem. All distros are now booted from the Mint splash.
Locked

Return to “Installation & Boot”