Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

leercrak · 2011-02-12 17:35:40

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            3367        5429    16571047+  83  Linux                   --this was going to be gentoo but now it just holds grub
/dev/sda2            5430        9202    30306622+  83  Linux                     --/root
/dev/sda4            9203        9729     4233127+   5  Extended               --unused space
/dev/sda5    *      9263        9274       96358+  83  Linux                        -- /boot
/dev/sda6            9275        9553     2241036   83  Linux                        -- /home
/dev/sda7            9554        9729     1413688+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

When starting up i get something along the lines of
Grub 1.5 loading
Grub error 15

and then it hangs and never displays the menu.

contents of /dev/sda5 ( the boot partition)

System.map26  kernel26-fallback.img  lost+found  x86test_zImage.bin
grub          kernel26.img           vmlinuz26

contents of grub

e2fs_stage1_5     jfs_stage1_5       stage1           vstafs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5      menu.lst           stage2           xfs_stage1_5
ffs_stage1_5      minix_stage1_5     stage2_eltorito
iso9660_stage1_5  reiserfs_stage1_5  ufs2_stage1_5

menu.lst

title Scan for /boot/menu.lst
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /menu.lst
configfile /boot/menu.lst
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

Last edited by leercrak (2011-02-12 22:43:52)

litemotiv · 2011-02-12 17:47:52

It could be that the fourth partition (sda5 in your scheme) should be (hd0,3) in grub instead of (hd0,4).

leercrak · 2011-02-12 17:54:06

I can't remember which sda i had it set to boot from but i've tried setting sda2, sda4 and sda5

I'll go try to change it to (hd0,3) and set it to boot from sda5.

leercrak · 2011-02-12 18:05:50

I still got an error 15 and the boot menu was never displayed.

I also don't have a device.map file in grub

And this is interesting

grub> root (hd0,2)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> root (hd0,5)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> root (hd0,4)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> root (hd0,3)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

grub> setup (hd0)

Error 12: Invalid device requested

grub>

Last edited by leercrak (2011-02-12 18:14:40)

Kruppt · 2011-02-12 18:22:58

leercrak wrote:

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            3367        5429    16571047+  83  Linux                   --this was going to be gentoo but now it just holds grub
/dev/sda2            5430        9202    30306622+  83  Linux                     --/root
/dev/sda4            9203        9729     4233127+   5  Extended               --unused space
/dev/sda5    *      9263        9274       96358+  83  Linux                        -- /boot
/dev/sda6            9275        9553     2241036   83  Linux                        -- /home
/dev/sda7            9554        9729     1413688+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

When starting up i get something along the lines of
Grub 1.5 loading
Grub error 15

and then it hangs and never displays the menu.

contents of /dev/sda5 ( the boot partition)

System.map26  kernel26-fallback.img  lost+found  x86test_zImage.bin
grub          kernel26.img           vmlinuz26

contents of grub

e2fs_stage1_5     jfs_stage1_5       stage1           vstafs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5      menu.lst           stage2           xfs_stage1_5
ffs_stage1_5      minix_stage1_5     stage2_eltorito
iso9660_stage1_5  reiserfs_stage1_5  ufs2_stage1_5

menu.lst

title Scan for /boot/menu.lst
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /menu.lst
configfile /boot/menu.lst
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

Try this in menu.lst instead:

# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

Kruppt

leercrak · 2011-02-12 18:29:05

But would editing the menu.lst help if the menu doesn't even show when i boot up?

I'm trying to say that when i boot up it does the laptop manufacturer splash and then goes to load grub and gets an error 15 and never even displays anything to let me choose a boot option. It just hangs while it says grub loading... error 15.

I'll brb while i try the modified menu.lst.

edit: nothing was different.

Last edited by leercrak (2011-02-12 18:38:12)

theapodan · 2011-02-12 19:13:22

Grub usually doesn't start failing out of the blue, have you made some config changes or plugged in a usb drive or deleted partitions or something lately? Have you ever successfully booted with this grub configuration?

At the very least, this line from your menu.lst is wrong:

configfile /boot/menu.lst

since your menu.lst is in /boot/grub, according to your directory listing.
Also, since grub doesn't understand mountpoints, it doesn't know where /boot is at boot.

The correct way to reference this would be (hd0,4)/grub/menu.lst

It really seems like something is fundamentally borked in your grub installation, and you might just reinstall grub from a working grub installation and then write a menu.lst from scratch.

Edit: I'm an idiot, the configfile directive doesn't even make any sense in menu.lst since that IS the config file. What are you trying to accomplish with that?

Last edited by theapodan (2011-02-12 19:14:45)

leercrak · 2011-02-12 19:21:37

Well see i was installing gentoo and during that time i used gentoos /boot which was on sda1 (as it replaced the windows partition that was on sda1) and so the /boot was not a seperate partition from gentoo and I used it.

Well i realised how i disliked gentoo and how i couldn't even boot the kernel because it was saying something about unable to mount root partition VFS

so i could boot arch from gentoos grub but i wanted to keep the splash image so i just moved the image to the sda5 boot (the original) and then edited the grub.conf to detect the image and then i deleted sda1 and made sda5 back to the original boot and thats where it started.(i did delete the splash image and the extra line in menu.lst to detect it but it didn't help)

right now im installing gentoo on sda1 (3rd time, gonna use genkernel this time) because i know that new grub will work.

the way i see it is: its not the menu.lst but some core piece is missing for grub to start.

Kruppt · 2011-02-12 19:27:30

leercrak wrote:

But would editing the menu.lst help if the menu doesn't even show when i boot up?
I'm trying to say that when i boot up it does the laptop manufacturer splash and then goes to load grub and gets an error 15 and never even displays anything to let me choose a boot option. It just hangs while it says grub loading... error 15.
I'll brb while i try the modified menu.lst.
edit: nothing was different.

Is the grub folder on sda1? (/boot/grub)
and kernel&initrd on /dev/sda5 in /boot

or is

grub folder on /dev/sda5 (/boot/grub)
and kernel&initrd in /boot on /dev/sda5
and was it originally installed to /dev/sda5 or /dev/sda1?

Also looks like your missing the device.map file.
create a device.map file with
(hd0) /dev/sda
and place it in the grub folder

Kruppt

leercrak · 2011-02-12 20:13:49

Originally the grub folder and kernel&initrd were on sda5 and it was /boot

And im still not quite sure how to make and configure the device.map file.
when you said create a device.map file with
(hd0) /dev/sda
and place it in the grub folder

Does the mean type grub and then enter "(hd0) /dev/sda"

and what if i just did a "touch device.map" and then edited it?

theapodan · 2011-02-12 21:31:43

Reinstall grub:
Bootloader installation

Kruppt · 2011-02-12 22:10:14

leercrak wrote:

Originally the grub folder and kernel&initrd were on sda5 and it was /boot
And im still not quite sure how to make and configure the device.map file.
when you said create a device.map file with
(hd0) /dev/sda
and place it in the grub folder
Does the mean type grub and then enter "(hd0) /dev/sda"
and what if i just did a "touch device.map" and then edited it?

This will create the file.
Boot up a livecd and type commands as follows in root console/terminal:

mkdir /mnt/sda5
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
echo "(hd0) /dev/sda" > /mnt/sda5/boot/grub/device.map

If that doesn't work with the menu.lst edit I posted earlier.
Just reinstall grub to MBR and /dev/sda5.

Kruppt

Last edited by Kruppt (2011-02-16 05:10:05)

leercrak · 2011-02-12 22:43:24

I just installed Gentoo on /dev/sda1 and configured grub and i can boot arch.

However its a whole different story trying to get gentoo to even compile the genkernel or custom kernel.

Anyways my problem is solved by having it boot from sda1.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-12 17:35:40

Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#2 2011-02-12 17:47:52

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#3 2011-02-12 17:54:06

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#4 2011-02-12 18:05:50

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#5 2011-02-12 18:22:58

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#6 2011-02-12 18:29:05

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#7 2011-02-12 19:13:22

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#8 2011-02-12 19:21:37

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#9 2011-02-12 19:27:30

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#10 2011-02-12 20:13:49

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#11 2011-02-12 21:31:43

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#12 2011-02-12 22:10:14

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

#13 2011-02-12 22:43:24

Re: Grub doesn't load with an error 15 [SOLVED]

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