0

I had Xubuntu installed on my laptop on hard disk drive /dev/sda on partition /dev/sda1.

Something bad happened and when I restarted my laptop, a black screen appeared with "kernel panic" message.

So I decided to install Lubuntu from a live CD. I installed it on /dev/sda5 (it has a 6 GB size).

It was initially a swap partition, but I decided that I didn't need to have a swap partition, because I have 2 GB RAM.

So, I installed Lubuntu without problems. After a restart, a black screen with the following message appeared:

no such partition
grub rescue>

So I booted again from the live CD and changed the boot partition to /dev/sda5 in fdisk. After a restart, I can only see the GRUB command line.

fdisk -l shows:

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: 0x000c212c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 18706 150253568 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 18706 19458 6034433 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 18706 19458 6034432 83 Linux

How can I repair GRUB to be able to boot to /dev/sda5 with Lubuntu?

Peter Mortensen
  • 2,318
  • 5
  • 23
  • 24
xralf
  • 117
  • 9

1 Answers1

2

If you are able to see the GRUB menu coming up during boot, you can interrupt it with a key press.

Then select your Lubuntu entry, press e and check root, kernel showing all to sda5.

GRUB uses another naming scheme internally, so sda5 would be hd(0,4).

Then b to boot that entry.

If you only see the GRUB rescue screen, you can try the following to boot into your Lubuntu on sda5:

root hd(0,4)
kernel /path/to/vmlinux root=/dev/sda5
boot

Once booted, check with GRUB commands that you boot into Lubuntu each time.

Peter Mortensen
  • 2,318
  • 5
  • 23
  • 24
derchris
  • 471
  • 2
  • 7
  • I'm not sure what I can see after restart. It's not Grub menu and it's not rescue screen. It's grub command line now. OK, I will try the commands you advise in grub command line. Could you tell me what is /path/to/vmlinux? thank you – xralf Mar 26 '11 at 19:43
  • It's the path to the kernel boot file. Should normaly be in /boot/. – derchris Mar 26 '11 at 19:46
  • *root hd(0,4)* was OK *kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda5* writes *error: unknown command 'kernel'.* – xralf Mar 26 '11 at 20:01
  • I tried `linux` command instead of `kernel` command. I'm not sure which version of vmlinuz I chosen (there were more options). After the `boot` command I was in my Lubuntu, but the touchpad and internet connection wasn't working. I rebooted and I was again in grub command line instead of grub menu. – xralf Mar 26 '11 at 20:27
  • It worked now. I had to copy the `vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic` (I used bad version of kernel before) to the `/boot` directory in `/dev/sda1` and then I used the command `linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda5`. But after restart I always have to play with the grub command line. I suppose that solution is in your sentence `Once booted check with Grub commands that you boot into Lubuntu each time.` Could you please explain how do you think it? thank you – xralf Mar 26 '11 at 21:48
  • grub-mkconfig should create a config file with the correct values once your system is loaded – derchris Mar 27 '11 at 01:10