Mageia 3 install -> Grub error 15, no boot at all

[fgoldstein]

We downloaded both the full and live versions of the new Mageia 3 and started the install. The machine has two hard drives:
sda has 400 GB, and the Windows system partition (/sda1) (plus a data partition /sda2) -- we don't want to touch these
sdb has 2 TB, a big Windows data partition, and room for Linux.
So we asked the full installer to put Mageia on sdb.

During the first attempt, gparted threw up an error. Installation did not complete, but the MBR was gone and the machine won't boot Windows, let alone Mageia. I think it's hanging with Grub Error 15.

So we rebooted from the live disk. It saw the partitions, still intact. But the boot setup tool just hung.

We reinstalled, this time from the live disk, again onto blank space on sdb. This time we didn't invoke gparted at all; the installer found empty space (/ is /sdb8). The process sort of completed and it let us specify the partitions to go into Grub. But when we tried to use it, still Grub Error 15. No boot, nothing.

I think we can pull out the Windows 7 disk and recreate the MBR, if we have to. But that won't get Mageia working. Any ideas to get Grub straight? Thanks.

[gohlip]

still Grub Error 15. No boot, nothing.

Error 15 in grub-legacy means "file not found" (you will not have this problem if you installed with grub2)

So, at the grub menu, change all instances of (hd0,7) to (hd1,7) [or (hd1,7) to (hd0,7) - unlikely though]
And sda8 to sdb8 [or sdb8 to sda8 - unlikely though]

and boot up.
Then amend your menu.lst accordingly.

Note however, once in a while, you will get this same message and you'll have to change too (and after the said changes, you may still not boot up because the BIOS has rechanged the numbering also).

Again, (you will not have this problem if you installed with grub2).
Your choice. Good luck.

[edit] you should also do the changes for Windows entry. [but in reverse - sdb<->sda, hd1<->hd0]

[doktor5000]

Out of curiosity, why do you use gparted when you can use the Mageia partitioning tool?
Some partitioners often conflict, as they have small differences how they handle and edit partition tables.
Check e.g. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4255

[fgoldstein]

Gohlip, no menu comes up. The boot sequence goes straight to an error, never showing the choices. Where is the grub menu? Do I reboot from the CD and look in /sdb8, the / partition, for it in the usual place? I'm wondering if the problem is that the setup program or this Grub can't cope with having two drives with the boot partition on the second and Windows on the first.

[jkerr82508]

Where did you install the Grub boot-loader? The boot-loader is not the same thing as a boot partition. Do you actually have a separate boot partition? Mageia does not create one by default, but places the /boot directory in the / (root) partition.

Usually the boot-loader should be installed to the MBR of the disk that the BIOS recognises as the boot disk. In your case I would expect that to be sda. It may be possible to set sdb in your BIOS as the boot disk, in which case you would place the grub boot-loader in the MBR of sdb, and re-map the Windows partition in menu.lst, so that Windows is unaware of the change in boot order.

It might be easier for someone to help if you reproduced here your /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

Jim

[gohlip]

Gohlip, no menu comes up. The boot sequence goes straight to an error, never showing the choices. Where is the grub menu?

When starting up computer, keep "tapping" the <esc> key. The the grub menu will appear.
Instructions (at bottom) to edit will appear, then modify and boot (again follow instructions to boot)
(sorry, cannot recall instructions (edit and boot) for grub menu - haven't touched grub-legacy for years)

note- after edit, do not press <esc> key, it will revert back to the (wrong) original grub menu instructions.

[gohlip]

Out of curiosity, why do you use gparted when you can use the Mageia partitioning tool?

@fgoldstein, I do wonder that, but I think you mean the partitioning steps, not gparted program itself.

Some partitioners often conflict, as they have small differences how they handle and edit partition tables.
Check e.g. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4255

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html

Changes you make to the partition table do not take effect until you issue the write (w) command. Here is a sample partition table:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/re-read-t ... ystem.html

Without reboot you will NOT able to create filesystem on your newly created or modified partitions with the mke2fs command.

[fgoldstein]

jkerr, the Grub loader was installed on /sda, in the MBR. If we don't figure this one out directly, the next step will be to use the Windows 7 recovery process to reinstall its boot loader, so at least that would be usable, but then we'd still have to find a working Grub in order to use Mageia.

I'll try the esc-key method when home later. But I'm a bit dubious, because it goes from the BIOS display to "error 15" right away and at that point it looks red-button dead.

And it probably wasn't gparted but the Mageia partitioner, to select partitions. Only existing partitions were used (we had a broken old MEPIS partition and some spare space on /sdb.) Having looked at the forum, I'm glad we haven't tried to use diskdrake to change partitions. I think the original partitioning was done by Win7, when we added the big drive.

[fgoldstein]

I tried the esc trick but it didn't work. Grub gave an error ending in 1.5 and then the error 15.

It booted into Knoppix (handy recovery CD) and we tried grub-install. It fails too:
"The file /media/sdb8/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly. "
Note that the menu.lst file is correct when I look at it from a live CD.

Googling around, I notice somewhere that grub-legacy, which Mageia seems to use, only understands root partitions with 128-byte inodes. The root partition /sdb8 is 12 GB ext4 and according to tune2fs, its inodes are 256 bytes. The partition was originally created b MEPIS. Maybe it likes the bigger inodes? That's at least one theory. Though I thought it was reformatted as part of the Mageia install. Maybe not. Would this have an easy fix?

[gohlip]

fgoldstein, I'll write in 2 parts. This is the first.

I tried the esc trick but it didn't work. Grub gave an error ending in 1.5 and then the error 15.

It is dubious it won't work, especially you can get a grub error message. But anyway, are you at the grub prompt after this error message? If yes, proceed as follows...

Code: Select all

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Let us know and assume it is (hdx,y)
Substitute x,y for the output you get above

Code: Select all

grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> kernel /boot/vmlinuz nokmsboot
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img
grub> boot

[edit] - forgot "nokmsboot", sorry. corrected above

[gohlip]

This is the second part.

It booted into Knoppix (handy recovery CD)
.
.
Note that the menu.lst file is correct when I look at it from a live CD.

Boot in Knoppix live and let us know the output of
# fdisk -lu
and the first entry of Mageia 3 menu.lst

note: we take it that Mageia is in /dev/sdb8?

[mikeumo]

I may have the same problem:

I upgraded from Mageia 2. Several hard drives. No windows or other OSes. I used mgaonline applet to upgrade and it gave me a segfault related to pango at the end. But, as it says in errata, I should ignore it and reboot. So I did. But now system constantly reboots after (successful) POST. No grub menu.

Can someone help, please?

Mikhail.

[wintpe]

i would at this point boot from the mga3 dvd assuming your origional install was a
full dvd install and not a live.

the mga dvd will find an existing os and offer to upgrade it. (make sure you select upgrade and not install)

this will address any missing bits, take you to the last part of the build, then install the boot loader for you.

regards peter

[jkerr82508]

An "upgrade install" can also be launched using the boot.iso.

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Boot.iso_install

Jim

[doktor5000]

Boot in Knoppix live and let us know the output of
# fdisk -lu
and the first entry of Mageia 3 menu.lst

fdisk -lu gives:

Code: Select all

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *   204796620  3072013559  1433608470    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2      3072016332  3907024064   417503866+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb3              63   204796619   102398278+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb5      3072016384  3105380564    16682090+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb6      3268038753  3272135264     2048256   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7      3105384448  3268038689    81327121   83  Linux
/dev/sdb8      3272138752  3297325184    12593216+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb9      3297329152  3305502269     4086559   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb10     3305504768  3907024064   300759648+  83  Linux


The menu.lst file in the Mageia sector / , which is sdb8, begins:

Code: Select all

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,7)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title linux
kernel (hd1,7)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=b65827fe-e702-4ad0-bf43-c
30f1cf7ef26  splash quiet resume=UUID=ba254c56-bdef-49d8-96e5-b58f17be4c10 vga=7
88
root (hd1,7)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

Which looks correct to me, but grub doesn't find it.

[gohlip]

Yes you're right, it does look correct.

But... I wonder where's the output for sda (in "fdisk -lu")?
Hope it's there but you didn't print it. (is there a swap there too?)

Now, at Knoppix livecd, you can amend this Mageia menu.lst (but keep a copy of the original so that you can revert if you have to: like copying to a file menuold.lst).
But first confirm Mageia fstab (/etc/fstab) to see if entries are correct. Also recheck UUID with "# blkid" that UUID's are correct in fstab and menu.lst.
Temporarily comment out swap in Magiea's fstab.

o First add "nokmsboot"
o remove suspend=
o remove splash quiet

Code: Select all

title linux
kernel (hd1,7)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=b65827fe-e702-4ad0-bf43-c
30f1cf7ef26  nokmsboot ro vga=788
root (hd1,7)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

comment out

Code: Select all

# gfxmenu (hd1,7)/boot/gfxmenu

Good luck.

[gohlip]

Send this separately so as not to distract from the required 'core action'.

It is best to work from the grub> prompt so that we can find if 'stage1' is there so that it can be booted at all (despite having correct menu.lst).
Also at this grub prompt, we can find if indeed "initramfs" has done its job. (And it's more convenient to work with than booting up Knoppix each time. )

Anyway, if the previous message fails (ie, the sym-link to vmlinuz and initrd.img didn't work) we can modify menu.lst to point directly to the actual kernel and initrd files as follows...

Code: Select all

title linux
kernel (hd1,7)/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.13-desktop-1.mga3 BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=b65827fe-e702-4ad0-bf43-c
30f1cf7ef26  nokmsboot ro vga=788
root (hd1,7)
initrd /boot/initrd-3.8.13-desktop-1.mga3.img

My kernel above is 3.8.13-desktop-1.mga3: yours might be different, but you can check from Knoppix live.

[edit] And if you haven't done the previous message, it is better to modify to this one first. (saves time, no need to boot Knoppix twice)
[edit2] Check if stage1, *stage1_5, stage2... is there in Mageia /boot/grub/
[edit3] slight distraction - hidden menu - check menu.lst contains "hiddenmenu"; if yes, comment out, but it may be a bug
but hopefully commenting out gfxmenu may help, (commenting out gfxmenu does no harm)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=468526
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.p ... 02591.html