GRUB Problem after 10.04 LTS upgrade to latest kernel

[cspaltro]

I've read through similar posts and solutions posted by bcbc, they look quite simple. However, I am having a very similar problem but I do not have a Wubi install. I'm running a dual boot system with WinXP on sda1 and Ubuntu 10.04LTS (kernel 2.6.32-26-generic) on sda5. After running the upgrade my grub is jacked. My system will not boot into either system and just gives me the grub-rescue> prompt. When I boot into the Ubuntu Live CD the system acts like /dev is not mounted but it clearly is because I can browse it using the "Places" window.

I noticed something odd when I ran grub-rescue>ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos6) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1)

In the past my drives were represented by hd0,5. I'm confused as to where this msdos5 came from and I can't find any posts about it.

My grub error reads
error: symbol not found: 'grub_putchar'.

I assume that my grub.cfg file is incorrect or one of the templates responsible for generating the cfg file. I try to re-install GRUB 2 but I can't access sda5 because the system thinks that I'm not mounted to it or it can't find it.

I'm a beginner but capable of interpreting the technical instructions... can anyone identify my problem or help me fix this. I'm also curious as to why this happens every time I upgrade my kernel... I've been through this before but can't seem to find the applicable code to fix what is wrong in the forum.

Thank you

[carl4926]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...0from%20LiveCD

[sikander3786]

If you can't figure it out from the link posted above, please post the output of bootinfoscript as per instructions here.

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net

It would tell us exactly about your boot setup and we'll be able to advise more efficiently.

Please wrap the output using proper code # tags from the post menu. [/code] at the end and [code] at the beginning.

Thanks.

[drs305]

I noticed something odd when I ran grub-rescue>ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos6) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1)

In the past my drives were represented by hd0,5. I'm confused as to where this msdos5 came from and I can't find any posts about it.

This is the new way Grub2 identifies partitions using the MS-DOS partition table. It's normal with recent versions of Grub2.

My guess is you are going to have to reinstall Grub2 by 'chrooting' into your Ubuntu partition from the LiveCD. We can wait for your RESULTS.txt, but the link I'd provide for the chroot procedure is in my signature line: G2-Chroot.

[garvinrick4]

Put in a live Cd (install cd and choose try ubuntu) get internet working and open a terminal and copy and paste these commands. They just get you into root (chroot) of sda5 with internet and fix dependencies, install grub in sda looking in sda5 for grub files, update and upgrade and then unmount sda5. Without internet connection you can install grub and update-grub just cannot update and upgrade:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt && sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev && sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts && sudo mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys && sudo mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc && sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf && sudo chroot /mnt

grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/media/mnt /dev/sda

dpkg --configure -a

update-grub

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

exit

sudo umount /mnt/dev/pts && sudo umount /mnt/dev && sudo umount /mnt/proc && sudo umount /mnt/sys && sudo umount /mnt

Now shutdown and restart and boot into Ubuntu and:

sudo update-grub

[cspaltro]

garvinrick4... trying your instructions and ran into a problem.

I booted to a live CD, achieved internet connectivity, and opened a terminal windo. I successfully executed the first line of code. However the second line

 
grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/media/mnt /dev/sda

resulted in the following response:

 
mkdir: cannot create directory '/media/mnt/boot': No such file or directory

I double checked my entry and it is exactly as you posted.

This is getting very frustrating. Thank you everyone for your help... any ideas now?

[sikander3786]

garvinrick4... trying your instructions and ran into a problem.

I booted to a live CD, achieved internet connectivity, and opened a terminal windo. I successfully executed the first line of code. However the second line

 
grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/media/mnt /dev/sda

resulted in the following response:

 
mkdir: cannot create directory '/media/mnt/boot': No such file or directory

I double checked my entry and it is exactly as you posted.

This is getting very frustrating. Thank you everyone for your help... any ideas now?

Insteading of guessing your setup, I would still like to see the output of bootinfoscript as mentioned above.

Or if you don't want to post that, try this great tutorial here.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

[cspaltro]

I'll grab it... just a few minutes... working on two computers here since my problem computer won't boot into anything.

[cspaltro]

Here are the results of my boot_info_script

                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 (,msdos5)/boot/grub.
 => Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb
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:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
sda5: _________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  Grub 2
    Boot sector info:  Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sda5 and 
                       looks at sector 41885285 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, core.img is at this location on /dev/sda and 
                       looks on partition #5 for /boot/grub.
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /grub/core.img 
                       /boot/grub/core.img
sda6: _________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________
    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:   
=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System
/dev/sda1    *             63    40,965,749    40,965,687   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2          40,965,750   117,210,239    76,244,490   5 Extended
/dev/sda5          40,965,813   112,262,219    71,296,407  83 Linux
/dev/sda6         112,262,283   117,210,239     4,947,957  82 Linux swap / Solaris

Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
102 heads, 38 sectors/track, 4041 cylinders, total 15663104 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System
/dev/sdb1    *          2,192    15,663,103    15,660,912   b W95 FAT32

blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________
Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         
/dev/loop0                                              squashfs                                 
/dev/sda1        3C743B27743AE376                       ntfs                                     
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sda5        ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925   ext4                                     
/dev/sda6        851b4f52-7ae2-477f-ab1b-427e5e9ede23   swap                                     
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdb1        9CCE-F377                              vfat       PENDRIVE                      
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos" 
============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================
Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options
aufs             /                        aufs       (rw)
/dev/sr0         /cdrom                   iso9660    (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0       /rofs                    squashfs   (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda5        /mnt                     ext4       (rw)
/dev             /mnt/dev                 none       (rw,bind)
/dev/pts         /mnt/dev/pts             none       (rw,bind)
/dev/sdb1        /media/PENDRIVE          vfat       (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=999,gid=999,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush)

================================ 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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}
function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=30
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-26-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro   quiet splash
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-26-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-26-generic ...'
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro single 
 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro   quiet splash
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-24-generic ...'
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro single 
 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro   quiet splash
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-22-generic ...'
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro single 
 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.31-21-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro   quiet splash
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.31-21-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.31-21-generic ...'
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 ro single 
 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,5)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925
 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
 insmod ntfs
 set root='(hd0,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 3c743b27743ae376
 drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
 chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ===============================
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=ea114f50-e47c-4ef0-841e-bfddc26d7925 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=851b4f52-7ae2-477f-ab1b-427e5e9ede23 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================

  21.2GB: boot/grub/core.img
  22.0GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
  28.6GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic
  30.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-22-generic
  31.6GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
  32.9GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
  27.2GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic
  30.6GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic
  31.3GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
  29.5GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic
  21.4GB: grub/core.img
  32.9GB: initrd.img
  31.6GB: initrd.img.old
  29.5GB: vmlinuz
  31.3GB: vmlinuz.old

[sikander3786]

The problems seems to lie here.

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  Grub 2
    Boot sector info:  Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sda5 and 
                       looks at sector 41885285 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, core.img is at this location on /dev/sda and 
                       looks on partition #5 for /boot/grub.
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /grub/core.img 
                       /boot/grub/core.img

Taking the chroot and purging and re-installing Grub would definitely fix the problem. And that is well explained in the thread I linked above. drs305's signature > G2-Chroot.