boot error 15

[Taco.22]

I installed kernel 2.6.38.8 into an updated OB but have come up with error 15, no file found on boot.  I tried the restore grub from live cd but no go.  Before I really start to mess with the system, is there a simple way to restore the menu.lst?

[Old-Polack]

I installed kernel 2.6.38.8 into an updated OB but have come up with error 15, no file found on boot.  I tried the restore grub from live cd but no go.  Before I really start to mess with the system, is there a simple way to restore the menu.lst?

Show us the contents of your menu.lst and we can probably show you what to fix. 

[Taco.22]

Here is the menu.lst

timeout 4
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 resume=UUID=72f377e8-5ac8-4cea-94f5-67bac7c903ba splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 resume=UUID=72f377e8-5ac8-4cea-94f5-67bac7c903ba
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 failsafe
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20

[Old-Polack]

Here is the menu.lst

timeout 4
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 resume=UUID=72f377e8-5ac8-4cea-94f5-67bac7c903ba splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 resume=UUID=72f377e8-5ac8-4cea-94f5-67bac7c903ba
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252 failsafe
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20

It doesn't appear that the kernel installation completed properly. The last item in the process should have been the addition of a named stanza at the bottom of the list. There's no evidence of that stanza.

From the liveCD, log in as root, open a terminal and enter the following commands;

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /here /there           <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/sda1 /here           <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /here/boot |grep vm                 <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /here/boot |grep init                 <Enter>

Post the results of the last two commands. Include each prompt, command, and result.

[melodie]

Hi Taco, Hi Old-Polack,

O-P : what stanza are you talking about ?

I would just replace the "uuid" number by /dev/sda1 (if Grub is on "(0,0)") (UUID might have changed... Taco have you done something else, such as moving partitions around ? )

I can show my menu.list for a comparision. PCLinuxOS is on partition /dev/sda6.

I have first PCLinuxOS, then Archlinux (ArchCtk), then Windows. Here is my menu.lst:

Code: [Select]

timeout 6
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/sda6 quiet acpi_apic_instance=2 acpi=force splash=silent vga=864
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img

title  Archctk
root   (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3c8a11f6-987a-4c92-b857-8b63426878e4 ro quiet 
initrd /boot/kernel26.img


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

title 2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs root=/dev/sda6 quiet acpi_apic_instance=2 acpi=force splash=silent vga=864
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs.img

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20
After Windows, the last kernel which was installed (I can get rid of this block now, as it's the default boot) and then the new entry brought by the latest updates : a boot to memtest. Nice by the way ! I'm happy we have it now !

So for Taco : if you have your distro on first partition of first hard drive, setup to master, I would try to edit the first block test and replace "root=UUID=long number" by

Code: [Select]

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/sda1 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
For a test it's also possible to remove resume : provided you didn't end on a hibernation last time you have shutdown the machine.

O-P : it's fun, I don't see what "here" and "there" can be in your command lines ? Such as "/mnt" ? Taco, I hope you understand better than I do.

Regards,
Mélodie

[Old-Polack]

Hi Taco, Hi Old-Polack,

O-P : what stanza are you talking about ?

The last stanza that gets added when a new kernel is installed.

I would just replace the "uuid" number by /dev/sda1 (if Grub is on "(0,0)") (UUID might have changed... Taco have you done something else, such as moving partitions around ? )

I can show my menu.list for a comparision. PCLinuxOS is on partition /dev/sda6.

I have first PCLinuxOS, then Archlinux (ArchCtk), then Windows. Here is my menu.lst:

Code: [Select]

timeout 6
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/sda6 quiet acpi_apic_instance=2 acpi=force splash=silent vga=864
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img

title  Archctk
root   (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3c8a11f6-987a-4c92-b857-8b63426878e4 ro quiet  
initrd /boot/kernel26.img


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

[color=blue][b]title 2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs root=/dev/sda6 quiet acpi_apic_instance=2 acpi=force splash=silent vga=864
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs.img[/b][/color][/quote]

This would be the relative stanza I was speaking of.

[quote]
title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20
After Windows, the last kernel which was installed (I can get rid of this block now, as it's the default boot)

Which block are you speaking of?  

and then the new entry brought by the latest updates : a boot to memtest. Nice by the way ! I'm happy we have it now !

So for Taco : if you have your distro on first partition of first hard drive, setup to master, I would try to edit the first block test and replace "root=UUID=long number" by

Code: [Select]

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/sda1 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
For a test it's also possible to remove resume : provided you didn't end on a hibernation last time you have shutdown the machine.

O-P : it's fun, I don't see what "here" and "there" can be in your command lines ? Such as "/mnt" ? Taco, I hope you understand better than I do.

Regards,
Mélodie

The /here and /there are mount point directories to be used while troubleshooting. They are about as short as they can be, to save extra typing, when having to enter numerous commands to check/compare various files and directories.

Their use should have been obvious when the second command given was to mount the installed / partition on the /here mount point.

[Taco.22]

old-polack,
Sorry to sound thick, but where am I locating the here and there directories, and what do I call them?

melodie,
I have just the one partition on a 6gb drive as I am setting up to remaster the Astronomy edition.  So it is set up just to create a bootable iso.

[Old-Polack]

old-polack,
Sorry to sound thick, but where am I locating the here and there directories, and what do I call them?

melodie,
I have just the one partition on a 6gb drive as I am setting up to remaster the Astronomy edition.  So it is set up just to create a bootable iso.

You are locating them in the / partition of the liveCD, and you call them /here and /there.

The command that creates them names them, and the name locates them. They will last only until you reboot to the installed system, as they only exist in memory.

[Taco.22]

That's all a cute trick!  The unplumbed depths of linux - I'm going to spend a lifetime on this.  Here is the result of your instructions -

[guest@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost guest]# mkdir /here /there
[root@localhost guest]# mount /dev/sda1 /here
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Oct 25  2010 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4 11:14 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep init
[root@localhost guest]#

[melodie]

That's all a cute trick!  The unplumbed depths of linux - I'm going to spend a lifetime on this.  Here is the result of your instructions -

[guest@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost guest]# mkdir /here /there
[root@localhost guest]# mount /dev/sda1 /here
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Oct 25  2010 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4 11:14 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep init
[root@localhost guest]#

Taco,
Your vmlinuz symlink points to the older kernel. This is probably why grub returns the 15 error. You have to change the symlink...

/Edit : I suppose you are trying to boot to the newer kernel ? → 2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs

While you have a root terminal, if you type "blkid" in it, and bring back the output, we will also be able to see what are the numbers for each partition, and if the uuid is not the right one in your original menu.lst (the one you copied at the beginning of the thread), we will fast see it.

O-P : the block I talk about is referring to the block text in the menu.lst. (And I still don't get what should have been the use for a directory "there" as Taco had just to mount /dev/sda1 on "here" and act in the same "here" directory...  )

[Taco.22]

Hi melodie,

I may have done the wrong thing - I installed the later kernel whilst uninstalling the earlier one.  Probably should have installed one, then removed the other when things were proved to work.  Anyway, here is the output of your request -

[guest@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost guest]# blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="ec2ec898-9f68-4169-a31a-7fc006c7a252" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="72f377e8-5ac8-4cea-94f5-67bac7c903ba" TYPE="swap"
/dev/ramzswap0: TYPE="swap"
[root@localhost guest]#

Is it is simple as replacing what is in my menu.lst with what is above?
 

[Old-Polack]

That's all a cute trick!  The unplumbed depths of linux - I'm going to spend a lifetime on this.  Here is the result of your instructions -

[guest@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost guest]# mkdir /here /there
[root@localhost guest]# mount /dev/sda1 /here
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Oct 25  2010 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4 11:14 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep init
[root@localhost guest]#

Your vmlinuz is a link to a kernel that no longer exists. You have no initrd image for the one kernel that does exist.

Why has the old kernel been removed? You now have no means to boot your installed system.  

Example:

What you should have is something like this;

[root@fatman ~]# ls -l /boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      31 Jun  4 16:30 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2059312 Oct 21  2010 vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2236528 Mar 15 13:15 vmlinuz-2.6.37.4-pclos1.a64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2190672 Mar 15 14:28 vmlinuz-2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2378416 May 10 15:09 vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-pclos1.a64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330928 May 23 04:27 vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-pclos1.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2358000 Jun  4 02:52 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs

[root@fatman ~]# ls -l /boot |grep init
-rw------- 1 root root 6064307 May 29 15:58 initrd-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5084551 May 29 15:58 initrd-2.6.37.4-pclos1.a64.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5086718 May 29 15:58 initrd-2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5079193 May 29 15:58 initrd-2.6.38.6-pclos1.a64.img
-rw------- 1 root root 7985270 May 29 15:59 initrd-2.6.38.7-pclos1.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5089596 Jun  4 16:30 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs.img
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      34 Jun  4 16:30 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs.img

Note: All previously installed kernels are still present so I can boot to any one of them, should the default kernel fail to boot, for any reason.

[Old-Polack]

O-P : the block I talk about is referring to the block text in the menu.lst. (And I still don't get what should have been the use for a directory "there" as Taco had just to mount /dev/sda1 on "here" and act in the same "here" directory...  )

And why would you want to remove it? It's there for a reason... so that you can still boot to that kernel once it is no longer the default... like when you install a newer kernel, and for some reason it doesn't work... like what Taco.22 is experiencing, right now. There couldn't be a more obvious example of why that's a very bad idea.

The mount point /there is because I plan ahead, in case there is more than one partition that needs to be mounted. Taco.22 didn't say he had only one partition until after my post.

[melodie]

And why would you want to remove it? It's there for a reason... so that you can still boot to that kernel once it is no longer the default... like when you install a newer kernel, and for some reason it doesn't work... like what Taco.22 is experiencing, right now. There couldn't be a more obvious example of why that's a very bad idea.

Because the first block texts already boots to this kernel, and therefore it's no longer useful. I am not worried about boot failiures, I have other means to boot in case of problems (and I generally keep 2 kernels in my system long enough to be sure about what I am doing if I remove the older one).

In case of problem : I can boot to the distribution which is installed next to it, or boot to a live usb, or a live CD and in the 3 cases chroot the partition that bothers, configure internet on it, install a package, update, edit files...

Well, I must also say I never met with such problems since I use PCLinuxOS. It's such a strong OS !

The mount point /there is because I plan ahead, in case there is more than one partition that needs to be mounted. Taco.22 didn't say he had only one partition until after my post.

Ok.

Now about Taco's vmlinuz : he does have an initrd, it shows in the output of the command line you asked him:

[root@localhost guest]# ls -l /here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Oct 25  2010 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4 11:14 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs

Therefore Taco can remove the symlink "vmlinuz" and make a new one that points to the right initrd.

Taco : about the menu.lst, you can leave the number for the root=UUID=number as they are the same in the menu.lst and in the output of blkid, but for some reason, the swap (=resume) is not good. In menu.lst either change for the one you have in the blkid (swap) or just remove it. Anyhow for a remaster you don't need the resume: It will be removed and recreated, I think. And I suppose you don't suspend/hibernate while working on a remaster, do you ?

O-P : to recreate his symlink, can Taco do it directly or is it better to chroot first ? This is the only point I'm not sure of... in doubt and for myself, I would chroot, but maybe it's not necessary ?

Taco : next time you install a new kernel, I suggest you REBOOT to the new one before removing the older one. (Or it's as if you saw a branch you are sitting on )

Regards,
Mélodie


/EDIT: UUID numbers are both good. I had not looked well enough. Only the symlink to initrd (vmlinuz with kernel number) must be changed.

[Taco.22]

Hi all, I got the "Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post"  whilst trying to post this!!

Obviously I have done the wrong thing.  Because this setup is only to produce a bootable iso I replaced one kernel with another.  Under normal circumstances I would install one and then maybe remove the other if all is OK.  I seem to have taken a shortcut that doesn't work.  As to why it all happened in the first place - I made a number of coasters trying to create and burn an iso before I discovered that a newer kernel was required.  It was whilst I was installing said kernel that I discovered that mylivecd works with the older kernel with the outdated command of -lzma.  Duh!  And yes, I know, that was in the forums somewhere.  Obviously I missed that!

Well, I must also say I never met with such problems since I use PCLinuxOS. It's such a strong OS !

Trust me, if there is a way to break something, I'll find it