[Solved] Latest update broke grub

urza9814 · 2013-06-29 12:39:31

I just updated my laptop and went through the whole issue with upgrading the filesystem package following the instructions on the main archlinux.org, and now my system boots directly to a blank grub> prompt. I have no idea how to even begin diagnosing this; I've never had an update screw with the bootloader before, and I have no idea where to even begin fixing this. Any suggestions?

Last edited by urza9814 (2013-06-29 12:57:07)

graysky · 2013-06-29 12:44:06

Without error messages I am just guessing: boot from a live CD, chroot into the install (mounting all relevant partitions like /boot) and regenerate your grub.cfg.

Trilby · 2013-06-29 12:44:30

Please search before posting - there are *many* posts on exactly this.

You need to rename you /boot/menu.lst.pacsave to /boot/menu.lst

hokasch · 2013-06-29 12:46:29

search the forums, this has come up a lot. in short, pacman renamed your menu.lst and you have not dealt with it - you can boot back into your system by typing "configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst.pacsave" (obmit /boot if it is a seperate partition, grub shell has tab compeltion). Then either rename back menu.lst and install grub-legacy, or upgrade to grub2.

graysky · 2013-06-29 12:55:42

Oh, the OP is using grub-legacy ...

urza9814 · 2013-06-29 12:56:40

Ah, yeah that did it. Thanks and sorry for repeating the problem; I checked the latest topics and didn't see anything, guess I should have searched first too. I didn't realize how old this update was.

clownfish · 2013-06-30 19:50:59

Just had the same issue and got it solved. During the last update grub got replaced by grub2. Yes, I should have looked at all packages listed during the update. But it's a really bad and in my oppinion a dirty move of arch and the grub2 package maintainers to rename the menu.lst. Arch again disappointed me. How many times did I need to repair the system which did not boot after an update in the last five years? Don't know, I guess it's more than ten times. Robust, solid, strong - that are words I can't say about arch anymore. It's really annoying if that happens on your homeserver which has no connection to a screen. Even more annoying if the builtin graphics chip (GMA3600) doesn't work after BIOS POST, so you have to disassemble the server and put the harddisk into another PC. - read my next post for the reason I striked this through.
If someone else meets this show stopper, here is a short step by step solution which worked for me. I could not find any other thread about this - don't know which ones you mean.

Boot from Arch LiveCD.
Mount your installation to /mnt
Mount your boot partition to /mnt/boot if you have a separate boot partition.
chroot to your system:
```
# arch-chroot /mnt
```
grub-mkconfig did not do the job for me, so I converted the old menu.lst like described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … onfig_file by this command:
```
# grub-menulst2cfg /boot/grub/menu.lst.pacsave /boot/grub/grub.cfg
```
Install grub2 into the MBR like grub before, described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … ode_region (replace /dev/sdX with the disk where to install it):
```
# modprobe dm-mod
# grub-install --recheck /dev/sdX
```
Send a little prayer and reboot the system

Again: I'm really disappointed by Archlinux.

Last edited by clownfish (2013-06-30 20:24:59)

graysky · 2013-06-30 19:59:29

@clownfish - Arch devs didn't rename anything; grub-legacy uses menu.lst while grub uses grub.cfg. This is clearly spelled out on the wiki. Step 5 you outline above is not the recommended way to generate a cfg file. Rather than using a static workaround as you have, you should try to understand why the recommended method does not work for your system which will save you trouble in the future when you need to regenerate the cfg file perhaps after changing partitions, or playing with another kernel/distro whatever.

Last edited by graysky (2013-06-30 20:00:44)

clownfish · 2013-06-30 20:11:24

Yes I need to give it some more time the next few days. According to another thread I found now, I think the generated grub.cfg did not work because i don't have systemd-sysvcompat installed. For now I'm just happy that I got it solved temporarily.

And maybe everybody should ignore the first paragraph of my posting above. It's arch, no one said it's robust, solid or strong... it's arch. It's like a newborn baby: It gives you sleepless nights, it often drives you crazy, you bang your head against walls. But when it once smiles at you, you forget all the bad times and appreciate the good ones.

EDIT: Just to clear things: I don't have the AUR package grub-legacy. I had grub 0.97 installed since years (i think i installed the system about 3 years ago) and it was updated to 2.00 during the last pacman -Syu. As I don't know the exact way pacman works, I can't say if there is a better way for the grub maintainers to prevent issues like this. At least the developers should write a little yellow post-it, stick it somewhere on their screen and think about issues like this some day.

Last edited by clownfish (2013-06-30 20:20:02)

hokasch · 2013-06-30 20:19:05

clownfish wrote:

I could not find any other thread about this

e.g.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=165721
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=165744

Also you are of course free to chroot in, but if you would have looked at the solution above - no need to go through the trouble of booting up a live cd, you can just boot from the grub console.

clownfish wrote:

But it's a really bad and in my oppinion a dirty move of arch and the grub2 package maintainers to rename the menu.lst. [...rant...]

Stop the trolling.

clownfish · 2013-06-30 20:22:55

hokasch wrote:

Also you are of course free to chroot in, but if you would have looked at the solution above - no need to go through the trouble of booting up a live cd, you can just boot from the grub console.

I found this thread after I solved it. Before I was just stuck with "grub >" and could not find anything.

clownfish · 2013-06-30 20:29:28

hokasch wrote:

Stop the trolling.

An opinion about the behaviour of a system which is used by thousands of users isn't trolling. An update without any error message which breaks your system should be considered as a bug. I agree if you think that I used a stupid wording to express this.

Last edited by clownfish (2013-06-30 20:30:59)

Trilby · 2013-06-30 20:33:08

clownfish wrote:

At least the developers should write a little yellow post-it, stick it somewhere on their screen and think about issues like this some day.

I was 'bitten' by this same thing - so I was in your same spot. But blaming others - particularly the devs - just strikes me as odd.

I'm sorry you didn't get the message, but the dev team did far more than put a post-it note up. There was a front page news item when grub was dropped from the repos about a year ago and there have been countless forum discussions about it over the past year. There were announcements over all the arch mailing lists, etc, etc.

Short of hiring a sky-writer to fly through your town and going door-to-door with pamphlets, everything was done to get the word out.

http://teenjokes.student.com/joke.php?id=489

clownfish · 2013-06-30 20:50:17

Got the message. I was really frustrated and did not want to offend anybody. The devs do a great job and I'm sorry for the words above.

Kind of a funny fact about your linked story about the flood: there was a flood in our country three weeks ago and the water was 1m high in our cellar. No chance to avoid it. Shit happens.

graysky · 2013-06-30 21:05:12

clownfish wrote:

It's arch, no one said it's robust, solid or strong... it's arch. It's like a newborn baby: It gives you sleepless nights, it often drives you crazy, you bang your head against walls. But when it once smiles at you, you forget all the bad times and appreciate the good ones.

In my experience, Arch is the epitome of the three adjectives you used to in the first sentence I quoted. If you don't know how to use it, and if that is truly your assessment of Arch, you might be better off learning on a distro that is more newb friendly.

Trilby · 2013-06-30 21:07:55

clownfish wrote:

I was really frustrated ... The devs do a great job and I'm sorry for the words above.

We've all been there. I can't speak for the devs, but no one seems to hold grudges around here - flood water under the bridge

(not sure how well that pun will work if "water under the bridge" is too much of an American idiom).

clownfish · 2013-06-30 21:10:37

Edit: removed my own post, it's enough now

Last edited by clownfish (2013-06-30 21:13:09)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-06-29 12:39:31

[Solved] Latest update broke grub

#2 2013-06-29 12:44:06

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#3 2013-06-29 12:44:30

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#4 2013-06-29 12:46:29

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#5 2013-06-29 12:55:42

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#6 2013-06-29 12:56:40

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#7 2013-06-30 19:50:59

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#8 2013-06-30 19:59:29

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#9 2013-06-30 20:11:24

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#10 2013-06-30 20:19:05

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#11 2013-06-30 20:22:55

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#12 2013-06-30 20:29:28

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#13 2013-06-30 20:33:08

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#14 2013-06-30 20:50:17

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#15 2013-06-30 21:05:12

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#16 2013-06-30 21:07:55

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

#17 2013-06-30 21:10:37

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke grub

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