Grub issue

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 24 Oct 2009, 09:23

So i was using linux and suddenly power failure occurred. After this insident i can no longer boot to any OS because grub gives me error 17. So i googled a bit and as i understand grub can't read linux disc thats why it gives this error. So my question is: can i somehow make it work without repartitioning linux drives? (btw i fixed windows mbr so that i can go on-line)

Post by **bad_brain** » 24 Oct 2009, 12:54

you can fix GRUB by using a Linux live CD (Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux or Knoppix for example, all very small distros and downloaded very fast...but of course every other distro that is using GRUB as boot manager works too):

- boot the CD
- open a shell (or boot into textmode)
you need to know what HDD and what partition Linux is installed now, keep in mind that the count starts at zero, so the first HDD and the first partition is hd0,0....first HDD 2nd partition is hd0,1...2nd HDD first partition is hd1,0 and so on. in my following example I will use the first HDD and the first partition, edit it for your needs!
- ok, now open a shell and type "grub" to enter the GRUB manager, then enter:

Code: Select all

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
exit

then simply reboot and your GRUB menu should appear again as usual...

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 13 Nov 2009, 05:54

Hmm i think that linux partition is corrupted

(Thats what happened after the power failure)

Post by **bad_brain** » 13 Nov 2009, 07:14

hm, do a filesystem check:

Code: Select all

fsck /dev/sdb5

if you are a little lucky fsck will repair it...

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 13 Nov 2009, 11:15

So that means that i can say goodbye to my linux install

?

Code: Select all

fsck.ext2: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/sdb5

Post by **bad_brain** » 13 Nov 2009, 12:03

not yet. it is possible the partition table is simply messed up.
run:

Code: Select all

fdisk -p

this will output the partition table, compare it with the table in /etc/fstab:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/fstab

if the entries in fstab are different correct them...

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 13 Nov 2009, 12:07

Ok i will check that out. By the way i always wanted to make my own distribution based of debian but i didn't want to mess up my current system setup. So i was thinking that maybe i could build it in VmWare and then create a dvd install. Would that method work?