General :: Grub2 - While Trying To Install Debian "squeeze"
Feb 7, 2011
I have a dual boot system with windows XP on one drive and Debian "Lenny"on the second drive. I use the entire hard drive for the debian install. I decided to upgrade to "Squeeze" this weekend. The install went well until I got to the Grub installation. I received a message saying that "A step failed", continue and try another option. I elected to "finish the install" without Grub2. everything continued to go accordingly until it was time to boot into the new system. I was able to boot into Squeeze, but not back into windows. Does something have to be changed in the /etc/grub/menu.lst.? This has proven to be somewhat of a challenge and I sure could use some feedback here.
I have just upgraded from Lenny to Squeeze, and followed the D-I recommendation to upgrade to Grub2. However, the server will no longer boot - giving a 'missing operating system' error, so it's not getting very far in the boot loader process. I have read, in various location that Grub2 supports GPT, but my efforts to fix the situation have met with little success.
I have managed to boot the system using SuperGrub2 (recovery live cd) and can start up successfully from there. However, when I try to fix the grub installation using the Debian wiki recommendation, I'm met with:
<host>:/# grub-install /dev/sda /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: This GPT partition label has no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible!.
[code]....
The attached disk is 4.5TB of RAID 5 disk behind an Adaptec 5405 if that's useful.
The way I usually boot Linux distros, and this has worked for every distro I have tried up to Kubuntu 10.10, was to install Grub2 on an extended partition, run "dd if=/dev/sda5 of=linux.bin bs=512 count=1", and then adding that bin file to my Windows boot.ini. What usually happens after is that I get the Grub2 menu after selecting it from the Windows Bootloader.
The problem is, with the latest Squeeze AMD64, all I get when I do this is a static cursor and the computer is frozen and I have to hit the reset button.I mounted the Linux partition with Ext2IFS (mkfs.ext3 -I128 /dev/sda5 to get 128KB inodes), and I can see that the Squeeze installer did indeed install Grub2, because I can see the files in their respective directories.
Whenever I reboot, I get GRUB and the _ pinking, and that's it. With rescue cd I can have chroot shell, to troubleshoot I did the upgrade-from-grub-legacy and installed it to both /dev/sda and /dev/sdb In recovery I redid the upgrade-grub and grub-install commands but still have the same "GRUB and _ blinking".
Because the text "GRUB" and then nothing I didn't enouncter while googling, I need to ask here for further troubleshooting.
How can I restore or reinstall GRUB2 from squeeze installation? I tried various suggestions from various online articles (most of them for ubuntu), but I couldn't find a solution. Is there any solution, specifically for Debian? GRUB reinstallation from install cd, didn't worked as well. Since I couldn't boot at all, I restored GRUB1 and I'm posting from Lenny, but I can't access Squeeze this way (probably because I have squeeze's partition, ext4 formatted).
This is my specific solution to my specific problem. After updating to Squeeze from my prior Lenny distro (amd64 with whole disk encrytion using LVM2, dm-crypt, LUKS) everything went well - at first. I was duped like so many, thinking that all was well and I could remove the legacy-grub (aka: Grub1) and just use grub-pc (aka: Grub2). As soon as I removed the legacy-grub and rebooted my laptop, I was confronted with:
GRUB Loading stage1.5 GRUB loading, please wait..Error 15 At this point I wasn't sure if it was a Grub problem or a deeper encryption problem - especially after reading that some people had missing packages in Squeeze (lvm2, dm-setup, initramfs-tools, etc.)
Okay, the solution for me.
1. download and burn to disk: debian-live-6.0.0-amd64-rescue.iso[URL]..
2. scroll to and press enter/return on: text rescue
3. choose a root directory - for example: /dev/blah/root (I wrote down the list of possible /dev/.... for reference - this helped me remember where and what I had partitioned in Lenny)
4. choose: Execute a shell in /dev/blah/root
5. once in the shell, I discovered I needed to mount a few of those partitions that I had written down in order to get access to grub-probe, update-grub, grub-install, etc. You may not have to if your partitions are minimal. I you need to use other partitions, type (for example):
After an update on squeeze about a week or two ago, my console font turned green. I'm not exactly sure of the timing, because I switch between lenny and squeeze, and some time passed between the update and the reboot in squeeze.
During the update, I was asked if I wanted to keep my altered /etc/grub.d/00_header or take the package maintainer's version. I took the PM's version, knowing I'd lose my edit (set gfxpayload=1024x768x16). When I add that line to the new 00_header, run update-grub and reboot, the console font is the size I want, but it's a dull green. Reminds me of my first computer. How do I get it back to white and keep the 1024x768 resolution?
Currently booting with grub-legacy and chainloading grub2. If I boot entirely with grub-legacy, and pass vga=791, the console font will be white. It doesn't matter which kernel I use. Currently, I'm running 2.6.32-3-686. Same behavior exists if I use 2.6.30-2-686. If I use 1024x768x8 I get a dull gray instead of dull green.
I recently installed Debian Squeeze on Acer Aspire 5542 , it has a Ati Radeon HD 4200 graphics card
I want to install the fglrx drivers , I apt-get install fglrx-driver, fglrx-glx & fglrx-control , The packages & dependencies download fine but when apt tries to install them the fglrx-modules-dkms fails .
The message above occurred with GEdit running in background and while attempting to use yahoo mail in Iceweasel. System froze and I rebooted.
While Iceweasel has been the browser used the most since installing the system and has been the program in use during the freezes, Epiphany was also tested and was far less functional, with rendering failures occurring with nearly each modification of a page, though not all fatal. With Epiphany, re-rendering and reloading of a page was only accomplished by using my mouse wheel, other input methods left a gray, unusable screen.
My installation was complicated by the following factors and goals: dual-boot capability with the idea of loading another linux flavor such as Ubuntu onto a partition. retain 2 "legacy" ReiserFS data partitions used under Debian Etch. use 1 ReiserFS partition as /home
What suggestions do you all have on stopping these system freezes and errors?
Other possibly useful factors:
I chose "Expert" (graphical) install as it seemed the only way to enable dual-boot capability.
I loaded the ReiserFS compatibility modules during the system install.
I chose the "highlighted" kernel during the install out of 4 choices. The kernel I chose is Linux version 2.6.32-5-686 (Debian 2.6.32-31) (ben@decadent.org.uk) (gcc version 4.3.5 (Debian 4.3.5-4) ) #1 SMP Tue Mar 8 21:36:00 UTC 2011 - however I cannot rule out the possibility that one of the other 3 kernels wouldn't have worked better.
I chose to enable the version of the system that had the most options for hardware compatibility instead of a more limited, smaller system customized to my hardware.
The default system settings for inactivity would log me off, as ppropriate. Because of a pattern of problems awakening from sleep mode, on 5/13 3am I changed the log off setting to never to avoid errors when the system should awaken. But still yet another freeze at on 5/13 at 22:49 while multiple windows were open.
I finally took the plunge and let my debian squeeze install update from grub 1 to grub2. I am not sure if it is working correctly. When it first rebooted I saw it chain load from the grub 1. It went to another screen that said grub 2 and it hung there for awhile and then displayed "fd0 not found" or something like that. Then it jumped to the new grub2 menu screen and booted the os. I went ahead and ran the command "upgrade-from-grub-legacy" and choose all harddrives.
It displayed this:
GRUB Legacy has been removed, but its configuration files have been preserved, since this script cannot determine if they contain valuable information. If you would like to remove the configuration files as well, use the following command:
how to install Dropbox for Debian Squeeze from source.Please read everything before you begin. I prepared it as I installed Dropbox for my own system. Please Note: I use sudo, you may have to use root or 'su' from the command line. If you don't know the difference between sudo and su, then you shouldn't try this until you know. At the time I did this, the lastest dropbox version was 0.6.7.
I have been using linux for a few years but I am merely an end-user and many things are still beyond me. I have a machine booting XP and Ubuntu 9.10 with grub2. I would like to try Debian as an installed os, and I have used the netinstall and put Debian on sda6.
During the installation I was asked where to put grub...as I did not want to mess up the mbr which has grub 2 I choose to install Debian's grub to itself on /dev/sda6 ...maybe because of the usb-netinstall menu.lst eneded up with (hd 1,5) I changed to 0,5.
Anyway the problem is...after running update-grub from Ubuntu's grub2, Debian shows up, but will not boot. It seems to go most of the way through loading the kernel then Hangs at, "Begin: waiting for root files..."
I want to install VGA driver on debian squeeze. my VGA is "Intel Corporation 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller".I do not know which driver I must install for this VGA.Does Linux recognize related driver ?
I have created a system using four 2Tb hdd. Three are members of a soft-raid mirrored (RAID1) with a hot spare and the fourth hdd is a lvm hard drive separate from the RAID setup. All hdd are gpt partitioned.
The RAID is setup as /dev/md0 for mirrored /boot partations (non-lvm) and the /dev/md1 is lvm with various logical volumes within for swap space, root, home, etc.
When grub installs, it says it installed to /dev/sda but it will not reboot and complains that "No boot loader . . ."
I have used the supergrubdisk image to get the machine started and it finds the kernel but "grub-install /dev/sda" reports success and yet, computer will not start with "No boot loader . . ." (Currently, because it is running, I cannot restart to get the complete complaint phrase as md1 is syncing. Thought I'd let it finish the sync operation while I search for answers.)
I have installed and re-installed several times trying various settings. My question has become, when setting up gpt and reserving the first gigabyte for grub, users cannot set the boot flag for the partition. As I have tried gparted and well as the normal Debian partitioner, both will NOT let you set the "boot flag" to that partition. So, as a novice (to Debian) I am assuming that "boot flag" does not matter.
Other readings indicate that yes, you do not need a "boot flag" partition. "Boot flag" is only for a Windows partition. This is a Debian only server, no windows OS.
Bit cretinous but how do I safely install squeeze, the testing version of Debian,to replace my Debian Lenny 5 backports current version?st shove something into apt/sources or whatever it's called and then 'aptitude safe-upgrade' or something?
There is a java program depends on jre 1.5, but, it seems no such package on apt server. I downloaded a bin file from java official page, but the installation couldn't complete.
i screwed up a good debian install with wine. before i do it again i want to know what the best way to get and install wine . AMD 64, toshiba L645D laptop with 3G ram. ATI radon openGL . I read several pages and seems they suggest to compile from source (which i can do i think). others say to use aptitude .
I'm a user of dropbox, I use it to save my pc. Today I've discovered that I do not have Dropbox installed.I tried to install it quickly, but I was unable. I receive astrange error, that seems like if I'm using a newer library.Are there some repo than I can add to try to install Dropbox by the aptitude or apt-get command?
Code: root@debian:/# apt-get install firefox Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package firefox is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source E: Package 'firefox' has no installation candidate i always get this when installing firefox. is there a way? so with flash.
I have a laptop with 2 HDDs, 1x SSD (/dev/sda, Windows 10 Pro x64) and 1x HDD (/dev/sdb, 3 primary partitions: boot, root, swap; 1 logical partition: home).I used the Debian Stretch Alpha D1 Netinstall ISO x64 by transfering it to a USB stick with DiskImage Writer.The installation went perfectly fine. I chose GRUB to be installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb, as I want all my Linux Stuff on that second disk. The plan is to boot the second disk manually through the BIOS whenever I want to work with Debian. My Windows disk is kept unaware of anything "linuxy".
After the install was complete and I booted my /dev/sdb through the BIOS, a blinking cursor on a black screen was the result. And I don't mean a GRUB Rescue prompt.IMHO, Grub appears to not have been installed, although I chose it to be installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb at the end of the installation.
I've been reading a little, searching for a bug in the installer, but I found only a vague mentioning of such an issue: Grub missing if Debian installed on a multi-hdd system through USB stick. The solution was to get Super Grub2 Disk, and use it to boot my Debian. It worked as expected and the system booted.
i have debian lenny installed, download the debian-507-i386-netinst.iso and installed with the VirtualBox virtual machine, the network is working, when i run the apt-get update downloading the cache:
I am wanting to install Chromium-browser in Squeeze. I notice that it is in the stable repos, but it seems to be fairly out of date. I was wondering how difficult it would be to install it from the unstable repos and what the consequences of that might be?
A Linux user for about 10 years, distro hopping for half of them. Finally found peace with PCLinuxOS (great distro), and MintLinux. When Mint went over to Debian, I thought why not try the original, so here I am.Booted the dvd, checked everything was working well (excellently, actually), and started the install over an existing PCLinuxOS system (dual booting with XP). First time installed while inside the gnome system, from the desktop icon, second and subsequent times from the welcome screen after boot (only text modes were available).In all cases, everything goes fine until I partition and install the packages. Partitioning is no secret to me, unless there is a "Debian way" of doing it: went through "guided partitioning," and chose the existing PCLinuxOS partitions, 37 Gb for /, ext3 (tried ext4 later with same results), and 2 Gb for swap, both on sda (sda1 and sda5). This is a full hard-disk, just for Linux. The other disk is for XP (sdb).
Tried formatting existing partitions, erasing contents of disk, and keeping as is. In all cases, when partitioning is done, the system installation fires up and I see all packages being transferred (up to 100%). Then I have a pop-up window telling me to continue to package manager, which I do, but then I get a message saying that I am trying to install on an "unclean target," over an existing installation (even after fully erasing the disks). It asks whether to continue or not and, whatever I do, I'm taken back to system install again, and see the progress go up to 100% and the same question again.
If I go back to the install menu and ignore the message, jumping to installing grub, I get an error message saying that grub install has failed, and that's it. I can't progress further because of these error messages.If I ignore all and boot without the live dvd, I get a prompt and nothing else, and I can't even use XP. Basically, I'm stuck unless I install another distro again to have a working system.First searched this forum and Google to get answers to this problem, but couldn't find anything applicable to my case.
I burned an .iso of a recent Squeeze Live DVD - KDE edition. I was checking it out but I'm not sure it's reliable for installing.I was wondering if anyone has tried it or could comment.I noticed a few things that was a bit disconcerting.One, there were a lot of 'question marks' in the kickback menu.Is that normal?Two, when you (I) try to reboot the system or otherwise 'leave' the live state, it doesn't reboot properly.Some distributions will 'shut down' and then give you a prompt for taking out your CD or DVD and then there is some script or program that reboots the machine for you. But, the Debian Live DVD I used didn't do that. It's a recent one, dated Dec. 20.What happened is that it just looped back and re-started.There was no prompt or even much of a delay. I couldn't open the optical drive tray at any time.I had to cold restart the machine so I could take the DVD out.
I was disappointed since I thought it is a good project and a worthwhile venture to try and have a live media option for installing the later editions of Debian such as Squeeze or if they can keep up progress, whatever edition it's at.I am a bit hesitant to try this version for a true install so I am wondering what others say.I thought I should go for the 'desktop Squeeze/Testing AMD-64-KDE' CD ISO instead?There's no live media but I have tried the live DVD so it looked okay other than the two issues mentioned.
I want to give Debian a try in a VM (4.0.2) on Ubuntu 10.10,I use the netinst 64.Everything runs fine and it downloads it all but, when gets time to install it, I get an installation error...
I am trying to load Debian Squeeze from a net install CD on an old Wallstreet laptop. I am using BootX in OS 9.2. The problem I have is after the install gets to the bootloader section I tell it to continue without a bootloader, then open a shell so I can mount the Mac hard drive and copy the kernel and image file to the correct places. However, the Mac drive does not show up using df. I tried mounting to /dev/hda8 ( I know this is where the Mac HD is supposed to be) but get device not found error. I recall in previous version (etch) installing from full CD I had the option to install hfsutil, but I did not get that option with this netinstall CD. I changed the debconf priority to low hoping I would get more options of software to install but to no avail. Any ideas on how to get the kernel and image file to the Mac hard drive?
