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#1 2010-05-02 21:48:52

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Boots into grub shell

Hello everyone big_smile

I am brand new to arch, and have just attempted my first netinstall. The installation seemed to run smoothly, and I followed along on the beginner installation guide. I finished the installation and rebooted, and this is where the problem comes in. I assume I must have made some kind of an error while installing grub, because the computer loads into a kind of grub shell, which looks like this...

GNU GRUB version 0.97  (638K lower / 980928k upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device / filename. ]

grub>

I'm not quite sure what I need to do from here. After a quick google I found http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB, and skimmed untill I got to something that looked relevant.

The following example is for systems with a separate /boot partition:

grub> find /grub/stage1

I let the installer auto partition my external hard drive, and I'm nearly positive it added a 100mb boot partition. I thought this might help locate some kind of a file that GRUB was missing for whatever reason, but the output of the above command is:

Error15: File not found

If someone could help me get the boot loader up and working that would be awesome! As a sidenote, I am (at least attempting) to dual boot windows and arch.

All help is appriciated big_smile


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#2 2010-05-02 23:03:59

grey
Member
From: Europe
Registered: 2007-08-23
Posts: 679

Re: Boots into grub shell

"nearly positive"? Well, just to make sure do find /boot/grub/stage1.


Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

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#3 2010-05-02 23:29:44

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

I already have, it returns:

Error 15: File not found

Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#4 2010-05-02 23:46:01

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

I have tried mounting the kernel by

kernel=/vmlinuz

*TAB*

The error

Error 17: cannot mount selected partition

is given


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#5 2010-05-03 07:55:29

grey
Member
From: Europe
Registered: 2007-08-23
Posts: 679

Re: Boots into grub shell

unplugged23 wrote:

I already have, it returns:

Error 15: File not found

Then something really did go wrong during installation of grub.
To check if the find command works (and to find your boot partition), do find /vmliuz26 and find /boot/vmlinuz26. If neither works, I would start over.


Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

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#6 2010-05-03 21:18:49

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

I've already tried a couple installs all ending in the same result. This time I am going to do a slow burn to cd media, instead of using a usb. I am also going to try to use the core download instead of the net install although I doubt that has much to do with anything.

I'll get back to you after my next install smile


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#7 2010-05-03 22:51:04

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

I just reinstalled arch, and it seems to have gone better this time. I can mount the kernel and boot, which quickly ends in a kernel panic because it cannot load root. I know how to mount root, but I have not because I don't know where it is. (hdx,x) I would appriciate it if anyone could explain to me all of the steps I need to take to get a sucessful boot from here.


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#8 2010-05-03 23:02:48

SoleSoul
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2009-06-29
Posts: 319

Re: Boots into grub shell

Hi.
The kernel panic is probably caused by a missing or wrong parameter in the "kernel" line. It should be something like:

root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2
initrd /kernel26.img

change the "2" in /dev/sda2 to your real root partition number.

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#9 2010-05-04 00:17:02

grey
Member
From: Europe
Registered: 2007-08-23
Posts: 679

Re: Boots into grub shell

unplugged23 wrote:

I would appriciate it if anyone could explain to me all of the steps I need to take to get a sucessful boot from here.

This isn't how things usually work around here.


Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

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#10 2010-05-04 03:04:36

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

grey wrote:
unplugged23 wrote:

I would appriciate it if anyone could explain to me all of the steps I need to take to get a sucessful boot from here.

This isn't how things usually work around here.

I'm very sorry smile

I'm new to the forums, so I have yet to become familiar with these kinds of things. I appreciate your help and am doing my best to follow along wink

SoleSoul wrote:

Hi.
The kernel panic is probably caused by a missing or wrong parameter in the "kernel" line. It should be something like:

root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2
initrd /kernel26.img

change the "2" in /dev/sda2 to your real root partition number.

Thanks, I'll try and repair the kernel line, and get back to you asap.


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#11 2010-05-05 01:10:25

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

Ok, To provide more information about my set-up...

I am currently using 2 different hard drives. I have windows already installed on /dev/sda, and I am trying to install arch on /dev/sdb. There has always been a boot partition on the windows disk at /dev/sda2, and I am pretty sure that this is what most other linux distro's I have installed used to boot. I am not quite sure how to set this up in arch, because it won't let me set up /dev/sdb without a boot partition.

This leads me to a couple of questions:

What should I do about the boot partitions? I know I have to create a boot partition on /sdb2, but do I have to use that one?

Once I have determined which boot partition I am using, where do I install grub. For example, lets say that I want to install grub to the windows disk. Would I install grub to /dev/sda, or should I install it to /dev/sda2 where the boot partition is located.


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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#12 2010-05-06 03:45:25

unplugged23
Member
Registered: 2010-05-02
Posts: 49

Re: Boots into grub shell

Ok, I wiped the windows install to make the installation easier, and am using only one hard drive (/dev/sda). I succesfully went through the installation and installed the boot loader. And for the first time when rebooting after the installation I recieved the boot selections screen, containing arch, and arch fall back. I happily chose arch, and it began running through the start up. After a point things stopped, and I examined the console on the screen finding:

Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Pid 1, comm:kinit Not tainted 2.6.30-ARCH #1

This was followed by a 'call trace' containing some miscelaneous garble. I'm not sure what this means, what do I need to do to fox this? In case it help I belive the kernel line looked like this:

title  Arch Linux (Main)
root   (hd0,0) 
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img

I'm not sure if this is relevant or not, but I installed the bootloader to /dev/sda.
Thanks for any help! big_smile


Don't worry, the worst is yet to come. smile

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