SOLVED - MBR problem

[Maurice]

On my machine I have PclinuxOS dual booting with Windows XP. At a bit of a loose end yesterday I installed a second Pclos 2012. I could boot into this second one but got into strife when I tried to boot back into my original production Pclos.

So, after a lot of trial and error using my livecd and repeatedly redoing the mbr to no avail, I finally deleted the second copy. But now I can't boot into the original setup.

So I got out my livecd again to redo the mbr. However, before the mbr page appeared I got an error message

KDE Crash Handler  -- Executable kdeinit4 pid 3742 Signal aborted.

I closed this message and went ahead and redid the mbr. However after removing the livecd and trying to start Pclos it failed to start, filling the screen with verbiage and flashing Num lock and Caps lock lights.

I kept a copy of the menu.lst but its on the setup that I can't open. Bit of a Catch22 situation.

If anyone can help I would much appreciate it.

[Maurice]

I managed to get into my original Pclos and here is the menu.lst

timeout 6
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e quiet nokmsboot vmalloc=256M acpi=on
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

It seems the main stanza is missing and I am getting the nonfb version.

Can anyone suggest what that should be?

Thank you

[agmg]

Try adding the entries in red in your menu.lst:

timeout 6
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e failsafe vmalloc=256M
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e quiet nokmsboot vmalloc=256M acpi=on
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

And this one if you also want memtest in GRUB:

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20

[Maurice]

That did it agmg,

My menu.lst now reads

timeout 6
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e quiet nokmsboot vmalloc=256M acpi=on
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=b8e7e7d3-e9cd-4c0c-9d3b-4c191a8dd92e failsafe vmalloc=256M
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20

However the nonfb stanza did not appear in the boot time menu. But that doesn't matter as I never used it.

Many thanks for another quick resolution to the problem.

Pity there's no such fix for your country's problem in the EU

[agmg]

You are welcome, Maurice

It's normal for the non-fb entry to not appear in GRUB.

Quoting from my article for PCLOS Magazine:

linux-nonfb(/boot/vmlinuz)

This entry is for booting the system without using the Framebuffer driver. Framebuffer mode utilizes the vesa capabilities of your video card for displaying graphics. This option is used for troubleshooting problems related to that mode. The Graphical Boot Menu (GRUB) is displayed in your screen using the Framebuffer driver. So, if you are seeing GRUB, there is no reason to worry! This entry won’t appear in your boot menu (you can hit Escape to go to "text" mode and see all 3 options).

As for the other thing:

Pity there's no such fix for your country's problem in the EU

Thanks for that. It's a long and painful problem and I'm not very optimistic for a resolution...

[Just17]

However the nonfb stanza did not appear in the boot time menu.

True it does not ......  because the title name has a '-' in it .....  so change

title  linux-nonfb

to

title  linux_nonfb

in the menu.lst file and it will appear in the Grub list.

[agmg]

I didn't know that.
Was the entry named this way on purpose?

[Just17]

I didn't know that.
Was the entry named this way on purpose?

Not to my knowledge ...  I thought it more likely that a change in the programme parsing the entries caused it to no longer be displayed.

[Maurice]

I like these extra posts after I've marked - SOLVED. They always teach me a little more. Now, after all these years with PcLinux, I finally know what Grub means. Plus the recondite bit about non-fb. You learn something new every day in these forums.

Many thanks fellas.