Re: debian 6.0 boot failure after update to grub2
On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:44:49 +0200
Philipp Überbacher <hollunder@lavabit.com> wrote:
>
> I tried manual mounting from busybox:
> mount /dev/sda1 /root
> fails with Invalid Argument
>
> mount -t jfs /dev/sda1 /root
> fails with No such device
>
> So this is what happens during boot as well. I found a post suggesting
> that it might be a missing driver because the device is there. I tried
> modprobing a couple of modules in busybox, but nothing I tried helped.
>
> initramfs.conf is set to most and I rebuilt it a couple of times.
>
> Ideas please?
>
>
A wild guess, but you sound just about ready for that:
A few months ago, I copied (offline) a Lenny installation to a new
drive, and then tried to install grub (-legacy) to the MBR from the
running system. No luck, though it might be that I did not find the
right method. Anyway, I removed the working drive, moved the cables,
then booted from a CD and tried to restore the MBR to the new drive.
There are instructions for doing that everywhere on the Net, the only
problem being that they didn't work for me. Once I could see what I was
doing I tried a few syntax variations, still with no luck.
Trying different boot media, I got several different failure messages,
mostly to do with files and folders not being found, when they were
clearly visible to the rescue OS, and I was able to mount the hard
drive partitions and even write to them.
I know grub has its own disc drivers, and I guessed that the version
installed on the hard drive was not the same as the rescue version. So
I tried every grub-legacy boot medium I had and eventually found one
that worked. I can't remember now what it was, but it was either the
last CD Knoppix I have, 3.9, or an old Ubuntu. Most recent live distros
use grub2, which was no use at all.
So it looks to me that grub is changing quickly (as was grub-legacy),
and to make a successful rescue you need to be using a grub version
which is the same as or very close to the one on the hard drive.
As it happens, a couple of years ago I had your problem on Sid. The
two-grubs-in-series booting was working OK, so I ran the command to
upgrade fully to grub2 and the drive never booted again. I reinstalled
Sid, which was fine with a new grub2. Had I had the time then, I might
have investigated further and found the grub version issue, which was
almost certainly what stopped me repairing things. I assumed then that
if the SuperGrub2 disc didn't work, nothing would.
Never used to have this trouble with lilo....
...though of course in the last few years before grub appeared, lilo
was very mature and stable. I still have a tomsrtbt floppy...
--
Joe
Reply to: