Grub rescue ?

[broadw]

Hello everyone... First I'm a real novice at Linux, so pardon me for stupid questions.

For 7 months, I've had a great dual boot system (Win XP and Mint 8 ) working perfectly on my Asus
1005 HAB. There have been no issues whatsoever. I have not tried tinkering with the GRUB, nor have
I done any other installs or upgrades on the operating systems (neither Win nor Mint).

This morning, when I tried to turn on the netbook, I got the classic:

Grub Loading >

Unkonwn File System >

Grub rescue >

I assume the partition corrupted somehow. I have read others' post about this problem, but I'm at a loss what to do
next. I have been able to boot the Mint 9 LXDE Live CD, and that's where I'm stuck.

Can anyone advise me what to do next, or point me to where I can get some direction, in terms that a noob can understand?
I wouldn't mind upgrading to Mint 9, but I do want to keep all of my Windows files as is. I have alot of programs installed
there I would like to keep! I don't mind losing the programs I installed nor the data, since I didn't have too many applications
going there.

Thanks!

[viking777]

I Don't know what can cause something that abrupt except for hardware failure, but lets hope it isn't. I am sure there are a hundred different ways to tackle the problem. Reading between the lines of your post it seems that the Windows install is more important to you than the Linux one, if this is so then the first solution that springs to my mind is simply to restore the Windows mbr with a windows disk and the fixmbr command (google "restore windows mbr" if you are not sure how to do that). If after doing that you still get an error then I would suspect a hardware problem. If windows boots however all you need to do then is to install Mint 9 from your live cd which will take care of the dual boot and reformat the partition that you have Linux installed on which might solve the problem for you.

Another thing you could try is to use gparted partition editor from your live cd to run a disk check on your Linux partition. (start gparted, right click on your Linux partition, if it is mounted then click 'Unmount' - but it shouldn't be - then click on 'check')

[dawgdoc]

It is possible some Windows updates may have broken Grub. Additionally, have you made any changes to your bios? Under the Grub 2 errors, in the first link below, I found this, but you may want to stay with re-installing Grub instead.

Grub shows rescue prompt (and does not continue to boot)

You may have a buggy bios and the location of your /boot/* files is not under the 1024 cylinder boundary. Create a small partition on the beginning of the disk, mount it as /mnt/b, cp -av /boot/* /mnt/b; umount /mnt/b; mount /dev/small_partition /boot; grub-install /dev/<device>.

You could use your liveCD to reinstall Grub.

Grub2 Ubuntu Tutorial
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

The Grub 2 Guide (formerly Grub 2 Basics)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

GRUB 2 Introduction
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1285897

[broadw]

Thanks for the help, guys... unfortunately, nothing is working, and I'm spending hours on the web trying to find a solution.

One thing... I'm using Mint 8. Is that still using Grub 1, or is it on Grub 2 also? Mint 8 is what's installed on the hard drive, as well as the LiveCD I'm using as I try to fix things.


Thanks again! And btw, I did not make any changes to my BIOS.

[oobetimer]

Thanks for the help, guys... unfortunately, nothing is working, and I'm spending hours on the web trying to find a solution.

One thing... I'm using Mint 8. Is that still using Grub 1, or is it on Grub 2 also? Mint 8 is what's installed on the hard drive, as well as the LiveCD I'm using as I try to fix things.


Thanks again! And btw, I did not make any changes to my BIOS.

Check the linux-partitions via live-CD using GParted or command-line..

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l 

.....eg sda5

sudo fsck /dev/sda5

...or

sudo fsck -fyc /dev/sda5

Mint 8 is using grub2 ..

[broadw]

Thanks oobetimer... I tried and ran into some difficulty. I'm now starting to wonder if I have the correct partition ID'd. I thought Linux was installed in sda3, but I'm starting to have my doubts. Here is the log from terminal:

BEGIN:

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0bf6260

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 10968 88100428+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 18815 19452 5124735 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 19453 19457 40162+ ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda4 10969 18814 63022995 15 Unknown

Partition table entries are not in disk order

END


This netbook was ran Windows XP as its sole OS originally, then I installed
Mint 8 under the dual boot. I know I gave the Mint partition smaller
partition size than Windows.

Next, here is what happened when I tried your other commands. Essentially,
I ran fsck on all 4 of the partitions to see what the feedback was:

BEGIN

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck /dev/sda3
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda3

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck /dev/sda4
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda4

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsckn with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
fsck: fsck.ntfs: not found
fsck: Error 2 while executing fsck.ntfs for /dev/sda1

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck /dev/sda2
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
dosfsck 3.0.7, 24 Dec 2009, FAT32, LFN
/dev/sda2: 1314 files, 917240/1278681 clusters

END

To me it now looks like sda2 is the only partition responding. Does that mean
Mint must be installed on sda2 then? I was pretty sure it was Windows XP that
was sda2, but I'm not sure of anything now. If you have any suggestions, please
reply!

Thank you!

[dawgdoc]

Try this in terminal, to get a clearer picture of your file system

Code: Select all

df -h

[broadw]

OK here is what I got. I don't have the ability to interpret it.

BEGIN

mint@mint ~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs 498M 19M 479M 4% /
none 491M 272K 491M 1% /dev
/dev/sr0 596M 596M 0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 578M 578M 0 100% /rofs
none 498M 0 498M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 498M 20K 498M 1% /tmp
none 498M 308K 497M 1% /var/run
none 498M 0 498M 0% /var/lock
none 498M 0 498M 0% /lib/init/rw

END

Can anyone see anything?

[breaker]

Hey, those are some helpful commands for troubleshooting your boot issue, however, there is a script that will show you much more, and help us help you solve your issue, or make recommendations. Please download and run (it can be done from a Live CD also) the boot info script. It will create a file called RESULTS.TXT. Please post the entire contents into a message or code tags (preferred).

From your sudo fdisk -l, it looks like something possibly went wrong with your partition table. Could be hardware, could be software. If you have the resources, and it is important enough, I would clone the drive for later data recovery. You can also use testdisk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk) to try to recover, but do this on your cloned drive, not the original, unless you really know what you are doing with the software.

Anyway, here's a forum post about how to download and use boot info script http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1291280

Just know where your stuff downloads, then you can use a terminal to run it.

Good luck!

EDIT: P.S. From the grub rescue prompt, there are a few commands you can try. Use help, ls, ls (HD0,1)/ etc....

[broadw]

Thanks, Breaker! OK your instructions worked well for me... here is the text of RESULTS.txt after I ran that script:

BEGIN

Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows XP: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda3: _________________________________________________________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda4: _________________________________________________________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0bf6260

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 176,200,919 176,200,857 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 302,246,910 312,496,379 10,249,470 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 312,496,380 312,576,704 80,325 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda4 176,200,920 302,246,909 126,045,990 15 Unknown


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 6C648DAC648D7A1A ntfs
/dev/sda2 CCED-990E vfat PE

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


END

If anyone can make heads or tails of this, please let me know!

Thanks again everyone!

[viking777]

One thing smacks me in the face like a wet kipper:

Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.

But you have only got 4 partitions

And two of those have an unknown filesystem.

Maybe this script uses some obscure numbering system where 5=4 I don't know about that.

The good news is that your windows partition seem fine so if you wanted to follow the suggestion I gave in my original reply to this post then it would almost certainly work. You may however prefer to wait to see if someone comes up with a simpler solution.

Just out of interest what do you think you have (or used to have) on partitions sda3 and sda4? Presumably one of them was Linux but what was the other? Or did you have two Linux partitions? Whatever the answer is they are pretty obviously corrupted so in my opinion you may as well reinstall Linux anyway and just choose one or both of those partition as the target.

I repeat the concern expressed in my first post I don't know what can cause two complete partitions to corrupt like this simply by switching off the computer then rebooting next morning.

[dawgdoc]

Yes, I saw that about partition 5.

The other thing that catches my eye is aufs (AnotherUnionFileSystem) Mint does not use aufs by default, I do not recall if aufs is even an option for Mint. I did find this about it.

Several Linux distributions have chosen aufs as a replacement for UnionFS, including:

* Knoppix live CD Linux distribution - since the end of 2006, "for better stability & performance"[3]
* Slax (and Linux-Live scripts in general) since version 6[4]
* Xandros Linux distribution, available in the ASUS Eee PC model 901.
* Arch Linux 2009.08 onward[5]

Did your netbook start with Xandros, and is it still available? Or have you tried another distro other than Mint recently?

The thought had crossed my mind that Mint or Grub was on a USB drive or SD card that had been removed. But that should have given a /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc instead of sda5. If Mint is not on the removable media, like Viking777, I think you may be at a reinstall.

[broadw]

Thanks for looking at the results guys! I'll try to answer the questions you raised.

I was pretty sure that it was Linux on sda3, but I can't swear to it. I did this all automatically with the Mint 8 install program back in early January. I think you are right when you say whatever it was, it's corrupted now.

My netbook never had Xandros on it (an older Asus netbook of mine did, however). This netbook came factory installed with Windows XP, and that's it. About 5 days after getting the netbook, I installed Mint 8 via the Live CD (same CD I'm using now) way back in January, and haven't messed with anything since. It worked great until now, and I never had any desire to try another distro. So, the only two OS's that have been on here are WinXP and Mint 8.

I'm all for a Mint reinstall, but I want to preserve the Windows XP partition, so that is where I will need your help. Btw, do you guys think I should move up to Mint 9 now?

The main question I have with that process is how and where do I install it? I tried reinstalling 8 last week, but this is what happened. When I get to the manual partition part of it (if I choose the 'erase and use the entire disk' it would put Mint on the whole drive, and erase Windows which I don't want to do), I'm told the following:

Windows XP Home Edition is on /dev/sda1 using 84gb

They don't say what is on sda4 but it takes up 60.1gb, so I'm guessing that is where Mint is.

Win NT/2000/XP is on sda2, using 4.9 gb. Btw, this 'OS' if that is what it really is, always came up as an option under the grub boot up menu I'd get every time I turned on the computer, but I never chose it as an option, since I never really knew what it was. This just appeared from the moment I installed Mint 8 on the system with the LiveCD.

sda3 is only 39.2 megabytes (not gigabytes), and it doesn't ID that either.

On the next screen, I'm at the 'Prepare partitions' point in the installation, with:

Device Type Mount point Format? Size Used
dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs 90214 MB unknown
/dev/sda4 64535 MB unknown
/dev/sda2 fat32 5247 MB 3767 MB
/dev/sda3 41 MB unknown

And at the bottom of the screen, when I select the /dev/sda line from above, I have 2 options open to me - either 'New Partition Table...' or 'Revert'. When I select either sda1, sda2, sda3, or sda4, the options I get are "Change", "Delete", or "Revert."

This is where I'm frozen like a deer in the headlights! I don't want to do anything that will louse up Windows, so what do I do here?

Thanks again!

[viking777]

Well since sda3 is an unknown filesystem and sda4 is so small as to be pretty useless, I would combine the two. To do this I would use the live cd. Boot from the live cd and start gparted (called partition manager in the menu I believe). It will show you a pictorial diagram of your disk. Right click on the partitions sda3 and sda4 (check the sizes to confirm you have the correct ones) and elect to delete them. Click apply. Now when you reinstall you will see an option to 'Use unallocated space' to install linux to. Since you know that your Windows partitions are not unallocated space you can be absolutely sure that they will not be touched.

It is slightly more long winded but gives you more security to know you are not making costly mistakes.

And yes, you should use Mint9.

[dawgdoc]

In all probability the 5Gib /sda2 is a winXP restore partition. If you look at it with Windows Explorer it will probably either be hidden or show up as D: and be labeled as Restore or Asus something. If it is hidden you may be able to get the label name by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Disk Management (this is WinXPs partition information tool.)

Many manufacturers build a restore parition instead of providing restore disks or OS and application disks. Since a netbook does not really have a built in option to create your on restore disks you do not want to get rid of this partition. That is unless you have abandoned WinXP altogether. Did a restore USB thumb drive or SD card come with the netbook at purchase? (just curious)

[broadw]

I can't get Windows running yet, so I'm afraid I can't open anything up with Windows Explorer.

I was successful in deleting all the data on the 4th partition, so I do have that open on the hard drive to install Mint 9 onto.
I deleted the 4th partition inside the install Mint process... I can't get Gparted running on the Live CD, even though I downloaded
it from the Software Manager.

However, when I run install from the LiveCD I do NOT have an option to install onto existing free space.

I'm still left with the "Erase and use the entire disk" or "Specify partitions manually."

Now I'm left with the same options I pasted above. It is listing 4 partitions again:

Device Type Mount point Format? Size Used
dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs 90214 MB unknown
/dev/sda4 64535 MB unknown
/dev/sda2 fat32 5247 MB 3767 MB
/dev/sda3 41 MB unknown


And at the bottom of the screen, when I select the /dev/sda line from above, I have 2 options open to me - either 'New Partition Table...' or 'Revert'. When I select either sda1, sda2, sda3, or sda4, the options I get are "Change", "Delete", or "Revert."

When I select sda4, and select "Change", there is a "Use As" menu, with many options, ranging from Ext4 journaling file system, to ReiserFS journaling file system, swap area, and FAT16 or FAT32 file system. At the bottom of this "Edit Partition" screen, I get Mount Point: with an empty box next to it. I also get a " Format the partition" with an open check box next to it. If I don't select anything here, the next screen tells me, "No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu."

So I'm stuck here, trying to figure out how and where to install Mint, and what to do about the 4 partitions. In the meantime, I'll download the Gparted ISO file from Sourceforge and burn it onto a CD, so I can have that to use later.

Thanks again!

[demoka]

Download Super Grub Disk from here http://developer.berlios.de/project/sho ... p_id=10921 and see if you can get into your computer.

Another solution is to install Linux Mint9 and when you choose your mount point do not select to format the partition,this way all your files will be preserved and you will have new working system,this has worked for me so far and I am sure it will work for you as will.

Choose your mount point where you have Mint 8 Helena and install Mint 9 Isadora and do not select to format it just select it and install the rest I described above.

You can try this too and you learn a lot from this as will... http://rescatux.berlios.de/wiki/Main_Page

[broadw]

GOT IT WORKING!!!!

Thanks guys, I got it working now!! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, that's for sure!

After I burned the gparted ISO, I booted that up as a LiveCD, deleted partitions 3 and 4.

I shut down Gparted, then booted up the Mint 9 DXLE LiveCD. Installed Mint 9 on the new, now open 64GB of space on the
hard drive, and it looks like everything is working.

In the Bonehead Department, I had a 1TB external drive hooked up for backing up everything before I deleted sda3 and sda4.
I didn't turn it off, and the first time I installed Mint 9, I wound up installing it on the 1TB extrernal drive, not my netbook's
hard drive... DOH! I let it complete, and then shut it off, and reinstalled it onto my hard drive, and now everything is working great
Mint and Windows XP. THANKS AGAIN!

The whole thing took me 3 hours tonight though. I love Linux Mint, but when things start to go wrong, it is painful and extremely
time consuming for a newbie. We literally have to rely on the kindness of strangers like you, and your help is greatly appreciated!

Speaking of which, I would like to learn more about Linux now (and Mint especially, of course). The Mint manual is nice, but it is
basic and I'd like to learn more about commands and their structure. I have been working with computers since I was a kid in the
80s, so I have some experience with older OS's. Do you have any recommendations for reading (online or book form), to help
me get into this? Someday I hope to be able to help people like you guys did for me, so I can return the favor.

Now if I could just get the microphone and webcam working with my Asus 1005HAB, I would literally delete Windows XP altogether!
It didn't work under Mint 8 either, so I'll just keep at it.

Thanks again for your great help, and let me know if you can point me in the right direction for learning more about Linux.

[breaker]

GOT IT WORKING!!!!

Thanks guys, I got it working now!! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, that's for sure!

After I burned the gparted ISO, I booted that up as a LiveCD, deleted partitions 3 and 4.

I shut down Gparted, then booted up the Mint 9 DXLE LiveCD. Installed Mint 9 on the new, now open 64GB of space on the
hard drive, and it looks like everything is working.

In the Bonehead Department, I had a 1TB external drive hooked up for backing up everything before I deleted sda3 and sda4.
I didn't turn it off, and the first time I installed Mint 9, I wound up installing it on the 1TB extrernal drive, not my netbook's
hard drive... DOH! I let it complete, and then shut it off, and reinstalled it onto my hard drive, and now everything is working great
Mint and Windows XP. THANKS AGAIN!

The whole thing took me 3 hours tonight though. I love Linux Mint, but when things start to go wrong, it is painful and extremely
time consuming for a newbie. We literally have to rely on the kindness of strangers like you, and your help is greatly appreciated!

Speaking of which, I would like to learn more about Linux now (and Mint especially, of course). The Mint manual is nice, but it is
basic and I'd like to learn more about commands and their structure. I have been working with computers since I was a kid in the
80s, so I have some experience with older OS's. Do you have any recommendations for reading (online or book form), to help
me get into this? Someday I hope to be able to help people like you guys did for me, so I can return the favor.

Now if I could just get the microphone and webcam working with my Asus 1005HAB, I would literally delete Windows XP altogether!
It didn't work under Mint 8 either, so I'll just keep at it.

Thanks again for your great help, and let me know if you can point me in the right direction for learning more about Linux.

LOL. That explains it. Glad you got it sorted! Try the Linux Documentation Project http://tldp.org/. Also, just Google around about whatever you are trying to solve or learn.

P.S. Here's some Linux related urls, I found them useful, YMMV;

The first ones are mainly about GRUB...

http://planetstephanie.net/2009/05/27/g ... scue-mode/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1291280

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

http://grub.enbug.org/Manual

http://grub.enbug.org/CommandList

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB2

http://blog.p-mt.net/archives/644/comme ... omment-628

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1288604

http://maketecheasier.com/mastering-gru ... 2009/11/19

http://linuxtopia.org/online_books/syst ... /ch08.html

The ever useful grub4dos - http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

The dd command - http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/ddcommand.htm

lol - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=475709

P.S. I go to a bookstore sometimes and read mags like Linux Format, it has some good info about Linux, you could learn something that way also. I don't know about which books are good, maybe someone else does.

cheers!

[dawgdoc]

and let me know if you can point me in the right direction for learning more about Linux.

take a look at this thread, it contains links to many tips, how to, and guide pages. It was set up to point people in the right direction.