[SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

will.price94 · 2012-02-26 10:35:33

Hi, I'm having a little issue with grub2 at the moment, I have Arch installed on seperate /home / and /boot partitions, I installed Ubuntu using the "alongside" option in the installer which has added an option to boot into Arch on the grub bootup screen. However when I boot up into arch I get the follow message:

Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/hda3
[ numbers] usb 1=-4.2: device descriptor read/all, error -3
ERROR: Unable to find root device '/dev/hda3' .
You are being dropped to a recovery shell

Then I am promptly dropped into a recovery shell.
My root device should be at /dev/sda5, not quite sure what's happened there.
Any ideas on how to get this fixed? I think ubuntu has /boot on it's own parition, along with the rest of /.

Last edited by will.price94 (2012-02-26 12:11:04)

DSpider · 2012-02-26 11:06:32

hda is an IDE drive.
sda is a SCSI drive (SATA).

Do you have both on your system? Or is Ubuntu getting it wrong?

# sudo fdisk -l

will.price94 · 2012-02-26 11:07:47

DSpider wrote:

hda is an IDE drive.
sda is a SCSI drive (SATA).
Do you have both on your system? Or is Ubuntu getting it wrong?
# sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x568055d5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   146802687    73297920    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       146802688   148828159     1012736   83  Linux
/dev/sda4       148830206  1465147391   658158593    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       148830208   344139775    97654784   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       344141824   781250559   218554368   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       781252608  1257244671   237996032   83  Linux
/dev/sda8      1257246720  1456762879    99758080   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1456764928  1465147391     4191232   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004c41c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048  2930276351  1465137152   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500299395072 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930272256 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005d269

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048  2930272255  1465135104   83  Linux

Ubuntu is getting it wrong, I have 2 SATA drives and an external USB drive.

DSpider · 2012-02-26 11:16:50

In a multi-drive, multi-partition setup, you really should consider using UUID's instead of labels or sd[x][y] because things can get confusing. They're much more accurate.

will.price94 · 2012-02-26 11:34:13

DSpider wrote:

In a multi-drive, multi-partition setup, you really should consider using UUID's instead of labels or sd[x][y] because things can get confusing. They're much more accurate.

I was thinking that just as I was browsing for solutions. Once I can get back into Arch I'll sort the whole mess out. But currently I need to prioritise booting back into Arch as I need to compile a LaTeX document and Ubuntu doesn't have package I need, and I'd rather do it in Arch than download the packages from CTAN.

will.price94 · 2012-02-26 12:12:15

Bleughh. Sorry, I was just being stupid. It was a nice simple fix, turns out that GRUB2 had set Arch to boot using root=(0,hda3) or something like that, I just amended to sda5 and booted up fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-26 10:35:33

[SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

#2 2012-02-26 11:06:32

Re: [SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

#3 2012-02-26 11:07:47

Re: [SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

#4 2012-02-26 11:16:50

Re: [SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

#5 2012-02-26 11:34:13

Re: [SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

#6 2012-02-26 12:12:15

Re: [SOLVED]Ubuntu 11.10 broke grub2, can't boot into arch

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