Re: Problems reinstalling grub/lilo (they always hang at boot time ...)

On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:10:55 +0200, Olaf wrote:

Douglas Mayne wrote:

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:55:41 +0200, Olaf wrote:

Douglas,

I'm pretty sure I did not change anything in the /boot/grub directory. I
actually had backups of the bootsectors (first 512 byte of the harddisks)

Do you mean the bootsector of a partition or the MBR of the disc? The
first 512 bytes of the entire disk is the MBR (master boot record).

Yes this is what I am referring to.

and they were unaltered (or do these only contain the partition table?).

The _MBR_ of a disk contains id signatures, boot code, and space to define
four primary partitions.

The _bootsector of a partition_ contains id signatures, boot code, and
filesystem parameters.

Which of these did you compare and verify they had been unaltered?

I only compared the MBRs of the disks with the backups that I had.

I did reinstall the files in the /boot/grub directory via grub-install
but the loader still hangs.

Do the "stage" files exist at the /boot/grub directory? Does grub-install
report any errors? I looked closer at your first post, and you say that
/dev/hdb1 is a boot partition; therefore, look for the grub directory
relative to /dev/hdb1 (/grub, not /boot/grub). BTW, what environment is
available when you boot with the rescue CD? Are you working directly with
your setup, or is it using a "live CD" where you have to manually mount
your partitions, etc.

Yes the stage file exist in the /boot/grub (or /grub from /dev/hdb1 point of
view). Is there anyway I can verify that they are ok (e.g. calculating a
checksum or something similar).

I am using a live CD (SysRescCD) and I need to mount my partitions.


I used to load grub from the XP bootloader (and not the other way around
as you suggested),

OK, the fact you can't boot XP any more is a good clue to what is broken
on your system. Because XP's loader is set to control the bootup, is the
Windows menu displayed which offers choices to start XP or Ubuntu?

Yes I get the choice menu and I can select either OS, but as soon as I press
enter the computer hangs ...

but for now I'm happy if I can directly boot from the disk where the
grub boot loader is located (/dev/hdb).

<snip>

Note: comments inline.

Also, please don't top post replies.

Some readers don't support inlining :( e.g. google groups UI ...

The fact that the boot menu is displayed indicates that the Window's
boot drive bootsector is ok. However, the fact that neither Windows or
Linux will load (using the Windows loader) indicates something is
probably wrong with the windows partition's ability to read more files
beyond the bootsector and ntldr (these are not broken because the menu is
displayed.) Have you made any changes to your BIOS settings, or crashed
Windows recently? Because you have two discs, I think chances are good
that whatever has damaged your system, it is isolated to one disc or the
other. All clues point to your Windows partition being damaged. I am
assuming you haven't damaged your system by making a mistake in the
recovery process or by attempting to change something else just before the
failure.

You should also rule out hardware failure. There are some tests
which you can perform on your hard discs. Do you have the hard disc
manufacturer's diagnostic CD for your hard discs? Most diagnostic CDs have
read only tests which do simple checks to verify your hardware is working.
If you don't have that disc, you can use the GNU/Linux command dd.


I could post a grub bootable CD image if you think that would help.

--
Douglas Mayne
.

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