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Offline nuxnerd7EZ

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MBR Problem
« on: February 25, 2010, 11:05:37 AM »
Spent 1 1/2 months visiting family in Atlanta.  Came baaack turned on Desktop and router.  Must have had a "spike" and lost my router. Installed replacement.  Thought I had lost Main drive(WinXP) as system would not boot.  Checked BIOS aand all seemed normal.  Rebooted Grub screen showed:

          PCLinuxOS
          PCLinuxOS(nonFB)?
          WinXp

Could not select anything but WinXP and windows booted without problems; evidently lost Grub/MBR..  Loaded up the Live CD and tried Redo MBR.  NO LUCK...............read some of the boot problems listed in this Forum so I checked fdisk -l, blkid and the MBR listed on Kwrite:


Disk /dev/hda: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x13e413e3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1       63931   513525726    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           63932       91201   219046275    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5           63932       91201   219046243+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd3e3d3e3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        1019     8185086   83  Linux
/dev/hdb2            1020        9730    69965626+   5  Extended
/dev/hdb5            1020        1528     4088511   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6            1529        5417    31238361   83  Linux
/dev/hdb7            5418        9730    34638660   83  Linux




[root@localhost guest]# blkid
/dev/hda1: UUID="644148144147621" LABEL="HP_PAVILION1" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hda5: UUID="4D2EF50CF486E8C4" LABEL="Windows" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hdb1: UUID="5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309" TYPE="reiserfs"
/dev/hdb5: TYPE="swap" UUID="62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270"
/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"



timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 3

title linux
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=0644148144147621 acpi=on resume=UUID=62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309 acpi=on resume=UUID=62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270 splash=silent
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309 failsafe acpi=on
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

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

I know this is a lot of info in one request for help but being a beginner I'm not able to decipher what I'm reading and how to correct my problem without re-installing PCLinuxOS and loosing all my files.  Please help!!!


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Offline menotu

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2010, 12:49:33 PM »
Quote
I know this is a lot of info in one request for help but being a beginner I'm not able to decipher what I'm reading and how to correct my problem without re-installing PCLinuxOS and loosing all my files.  Please help!!!

Hi nuxnerd7EZ;

Firstly don't panic - there are ways to retrieve your files from your drive (the LiveCD can be used for that) but before you go that route  I am sure someone on the forum will see your post and will be able to help you out

I'm still a relative newbie so I'm not very proficient in MBR / Grub type problems otherwise I would try to help but I don't want to do anything that would make it worse.

One of the forum members that is good at this is old-polack - he is simply superb in analyzing disk/grub type problems - but there are loads of others who have lots of expertise so have a little patience and I'm sure help will arrive  ;)

Edit: nuxnerd7EZ its better to have more info in the post than not enough!
« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 12:52:43 PM by menotu »
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2010, 12:56:18 PM »
First of all there is nothing at all the matter with your MBR or with Grub.

That said please post back what happens when you select to boot PCLOS.
If it begins to boot then press the Esc key so that you see what is happening. If it stops booting then post back the last five lines of information on the screen.

That should give someone sufficient info to help solve the problem.

I will go check through the detail of your post now to see if I can spot anything obvious.

regards.

EDIT
            It seems to me that the UUID is not correct for the partition you are trying to boot. You (IMO) will need to edit the boot line to enable booting.

Try booting from the second PCLOS boot option or even the third one first.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 01:01:15 PM by JohnBoy »
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Offline menotu

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2010, 01:12:36 PM »
JohnBoy

Being in-experienced in the ways of Linux I wonder if you can explain to me the end part of the lines below (marked in red)

There is no rush for this - just thought i'd try and learn a tad more!!

/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"

Specifically, what does the  "ext2" TYPE="ext3" mean (i.e. why is the ext2 then referred to as "ext3"

TIA
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2010, 02:55:56 PM »
Quote from: menotu on February 25, 2010, 01:12:36 PM
JohnBoy

Being in-experienced in the ways of Linux I wonder if you can explain to me the end part of the lines below (marked in red)

There is no rush for this - just thought i'd try and learn a tad more!!

/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"

Specifically, what does the  "ext2" TYPE="ext3" mean (i.e. why is the ext2 then referred to as "ext3"

TIA


As I understand it, "SEC_TYPE" means secondary type. Ext3 partitions can also be mounted as ext2, because ext3 is just ext2 with a journal

This might give some more information
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalling_file_system
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Offline arjaybe

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2010, 04:23:41 PM »
You might be looking at the wrong menu.lst.  Your grub screen showed PCLinuxOS but the menu.lst says title linux.  If this was the right menu.lst then the grub screen would say linux, not PCLinuxOS.  I agree about the uuids.  The one for linux (the first one) in menu.lst is for one of your ntfs partitions.

I also agree that there's nothing wrong with your mbr or, except for some minor configuration, grub.  If there were then nothing would boot.
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Offline menotu

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2010, 03:33:23 AM »
Quote
As I understand it, "SEC_TYPE" means secondary type. Ext3 partitions can also be mounted as ext2, because ext3 is just ext2 with a journal

This might give some more information
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalling_file_system


Many thanks JohnBoy, much appreciated.
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Offline nuxnerd7EZ

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2010, 09:43:59 AM »
Let me first thank menotu, JohnBoy and arjaybe for their quick response....Thank You!!!

Now to my problem.  It is a Grub problem; not MBR aas WinXP works fine.  When I listed the grub menu and said I could select only Windows that was a fact.  The reason was because I use wireless Keyboard?Mouse.  Found my old KB/Mouse and now I can select from the Grub listing.  Neither of the PCLinuxOS listings will start up.  I get a error 17: cannot mmount selected partition.

I next did a reboot and hit escape after clicking PCLinuxOS and wrote down the last several lines as suggested.  This is the listing:

Mounting root filesystem ReiserfsFS: hda1: warning: SH-2021: reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on hda1

mount: error mounting /dev/root on/ sysroot as reiserfs: Invalid argument
Setting up other filesysytems.
setup root: moving /dev failed: nosusb file or directory
setup:: error mounting /proc: no such file or directory
setup: error mounting /sys: no such filre or directory
switching to new root and running init.
switchtroot: /dev does not exist in new root
Booting has failed

Don't  know if this is any help.............as I am not program trained and just learning Linux.  Having fun though!!


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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2010, 12:36:45 PM »
I don't want to be picky but do need to be clear about something.
Grub is installed to your MBR, and for it to display your boot screen it reads files from whichever partition was used as its 'root' when it was installed.
In your case, you can see the boot options page and can make a selection, so Grub is actually functioning. You can boot Windows from the relevant Grub option, so all is OK there too.

Grub reports:

17 : Cannot mount selected partition
      This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the
      filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB.


Now you have four Linux partitions listed ...  hdb1, hdb5, hdb6, hdb7  (hdb2 is the  Extended container for hdb5, hdb6, hdb7)
hdb5 is the Swap partition, so that is identified correctly.

hdb1 is reported as Reiserfs and the other two as ext3.
From your boot menu it would appear that you are using Reiserfs for the root partition.

It appears Grub does not recognise it so a couple of suggestions .....

boot a live CD and do a file system check on that partition maybe using fsck.reiserfs

In view of the suspected events that caused this situation I also suggest you do a file system check on the other Linux partitions, also using fsck.

Having checked, and maybe repaired some of the partitions, it would be a good idea to check their UUID and edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst  file to ensure it is using the correct UUIDs.
Then try to boot again from the HDD.

Of course if hdb1 is not your root partition of the Linux install then that would change things somewhat.

If you wish, when editing the menus.lst file on hdb1, you could change the UUIDs to the dev nodes of the partitions which should work also .......  /dev/hdb? ..... " ? " representing the partition number.

Hope that helps a bit.

regards.
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Online Old-Polack

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2010, 02:25:05 PM »
Quote from: nuxnerd7EZ on February 25, 2010, 11:05:37 AM
Spent 1 1/2 months visiting family in Atlanta.  Came baaack turned on Desktop and router.  Must have had a "spike" and lost my router. Installed replacement.  Thought I had lost Main drive(WinXP) as system would not boot.  Checked BIOS aand all seemed normal.  Rebooted Grub screen showed:

          PCLinuxOS
          PCLinuxOS(nonFB)?
          WinXp

Could not select anything but WinXP and windows booted without problems; evidently lost Grub/MBR..  Loaded up the Live CD and tried Redo MBR.  NO LUCK...............read some of the boot problems listed in this Forum so I checked fdisk -l, blkid and the MBR listed on Kwrite:


Disk /dev/hda: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x13e413e3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1       63931   513525726    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           63932       91201   219046275    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5           63932       91201   219046243+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd3e3d3e3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        1019     8185086   83  Linux
/dev/hdb2            1020        9730    69965626+   5  Extended
/dev/hdb5            1020        1528     4088511   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6            1529        5417    31238361   83  Linux
/dev/hdb7            5418        9730    34638660   83  Linux




[root@localhost guest]# blkid
/dev/hda1: UUID="644148144147621" LABEL="HP_PAVILION1" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hda5: UUID="4D2EF50CF486E8C4" LABEL="Windows" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hdb1: UUID="5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309" TYPE="reiserfs"
/dev/hdb5: TYPE="swap" UUID="62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270"
/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"



timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 3

title linux
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=0644148144147621 acpi=on resume=UUID=62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309 acpi=on resume=UUID=62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270 splash=silent
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309 failsafe acpi=on
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

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

I know this is a lot of info in one request for help but being a beginner I'm not able to decipher what I'm reading and how to correct my problem without re-installing PCLinuxOS and loosing all my files.  Please help!!!


If that is your correct menu.lst, and there is some doubt, your first linux stanza is basically trying to boot from your Windows partition, but even that's wrong as the number in the stanza has an extra 0 at it's beginning. (note the UUID numbers highlighted in red.) The second menu stanza has what seems to be the correct UUID number, but as pointed out, the title entries don't jive with what you report as the menu options offered to you. The menu options are always what is entered in the title line of the menu.lst stanzas, so something in your posting is in error. You need to check that out before we can offer any real help. Editing the wrong file won't help anything.
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Offline nuxnerd7EZ

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2010, 03:49:21 PM »
[root@localhost root]# blkid


/dev/hda1: UUID="644148144147621" LABEL="HP_PAVILION1" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hda5: UUID="4D2EF50CF486E8C4" LABEL="Windows" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hdb1: UUID="5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309" TYPE="reiserfs"
/dev/hdb5: TYPE="swap" UUID="62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270"
/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3

Re-checked blkid and this is the readout.  Hope this helps!


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Online Old-Polack

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2010, 07:15:58 PM »
Quote from: nuxnerd7EZ on February 27, 2010, 03:49:21 PM
[root@localhost root]# blkid


/dev/hda1: UUID="644148144147621" LABEL="HP_PAVILION1" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hda5: UUID="4D2EF50CF486E8C4" LABEL="Windows" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/hdb1: UUID="5a9f184b-0d5b-483a-a08b-1d4ced1bf309" TYPE="reiserfs"
/dev/hdb5: TYPE="swap" UUID="62a13517-a616-4d82-9417-15e1db523270"
/dev/hdb6: UUID="5c501da1-84de-4bfa-8578-1efddc7a9c28" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdb7: UUID="677b7d0d-fe42-40ce-9b43-44ab8e16509a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3

Re-checked blkid and this is the readout.  Hope this helps!


What's needed is a posting of the correct /boot/grub/menu.lst.
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Offline nuxnerd7EZ

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2010, 12:38:32 PM »
Thanks JohnBoy and Old Polack for your help.  My probllem is being a Noob(or maybe a Dummy) but I'm not swift with the command line and do not seem able to get a copu of menu.lst to send.  Sorry about that but this old timer is trying to learn linux the hard way.  Can you show me how to find menu.lst???  Would be appreciated to no end.


Nuxnerd7EZ
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Offline pirate

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2010, 12:57:27 PM »
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: MBR Problem
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2010, 01:06:28 PM »
Quote from: nuxnerd7EZ on February 28, 2010, 12:38:32 PM
Thanks JohnBoy and Old Polack for your help.  My probllem is being a Noob(or maybe a Dummy) but I'm not swift with the command line and do not seem able to get a copu of menu.lst to send.  Sorry about that but this old timer is trying to learn linux the hard way.  Can you show me how to find menu.lst???  Would be appreciated to no end.


Nuxnerd7EZ

What you need to view is the menu'lst file that resides on your Reiser partition HDB1
To do so you will need to navigate to it using a live CD .... using the My Computer icon on the desktop (I think) and navigating to the correct partition to display its contents.

You should be able to open the file using Kwrite by rightclicking on it.
You can then copy and paste the contents into a post on this forum while running live.

Hope that helps ....... not using KDE3 here so am unsure what the icons are called ....... so easy to forget .......
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