Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

Fails to boot after installation

Ask for help with issues regarding the Installations of the Debian O/S.
Message
Author
NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Fails to boot after installation

#1 Post by NickC »

Hi All,

My first install of Debian so forgive me if I miss something obvious.

Just installed Debian Squeeze using graphical install, standard options. Problem is after installation the system won't boot, just gets to a certain point and drops the monitor output and appears to lock-up. I have tried recovery mode, messages scroll past the screen but I can't see what the last line was before it failed.

The only 'non-free' driver required was for the NICs: rtl_nic/rtl8168-2.fw which I obtained from firmware-realtek_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb.

Just incase it give us any clues the basic hardware is:
AMD Phenom X6
NVidia Quadro NVS 295

How can I trace the cause of this?

Thanks,

User avatar
ZACHARiAS
Posts: 57
Joined: 2011-12-21 01:58
Location: Lisbon

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#2 Post by ZACHARiAS »

please do tell us:
a) Version of debian
b) more hardware spec: i.e. if its a laptop, desktop, etc.
Image
Image
Image

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#3 Post by NickC »

Version: debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso

Hardware:
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5
CPU: Phenom II X6, 2.8GHz, 9.0Mb total cache
RAM: 2 x 4Gb DDR3, 1600Mhz
HDD: 2 x SATA, 500Gb & 1Tb
Floppy - Sony MPF920
Graphics: nVidia Quadro NVS295
DVD - Pioneer DVD106S/2 (region free)
DVD Writer: Lite-on LH-20A1S11C
SCSI: Adaptec ASC29320A

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#4 Post by NickC »

Don't know if relevent but been poking about and found Graphical rescue mode. Booted that and went to Interactive shell on /dev/sdb5.
Here is the last bit of output from dmesg:
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.15.0-ioctl (2009-04-01) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
__ratelimit: 86 callbacks supporessed
FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
EXT2-fs: sdb5: couldn't mount because of unsupported features (4).
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdb5, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete
EXT3-fs: mounted filesyatem with ordered data mode
Are any of these relevent?

User avatar
ZACHARiAS
Posts: 57
Joined: 2011-12-21 01:58
Location: Lisbon

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#5 Post by ZACHARiAS »

NickC wrote:Don't know if relevent but been poking about and found Graphical rescue mode. Booted that and went to Interactive shell on /dev/sdb5.
Here is the last bit of output from dmesg:
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.15.0-ioctl (2009-04-01) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
__ratelimit: 86 callbacks supporessed
FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
EXT2-fs: sdb5: couldn't mount because of unsupported features (4).
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdb5, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete
EXT3-fs: mounted filesyatem with ordered data mode
Are any of these relevent?
maybe its the kernel. try to run debian wheezy, see how it goes.
Image
Image
Image

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#6 Post by NickC »

Hmm.. that means downloading the whole DVD again which means geting that jigdo thing to work again. When I tried earlier to use jigdo to update my .iso image, just to test it, it failed with:
error while reading file debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso, file will be ignored (no such file or directory) - but it certainly is present!

Anyone know if it is possible to get jigdo to just download the changes between debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso and debian-testing-amd64-DVD-1.jigdo, does that sound possible? That is assuming I find out how to get jigdo update working.

User avatar
ZACHARiAS
Posts: 57
Joined: 2011-12-21 01:58
Location: Lisbon

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#7 Post by ZACHARiAS »

NickC wrote:Hmm.. that means downloading the whole DVD again which means geting that jigdo thing to work again. When I tried earlier to use jigdo to update my .iso image, just to test it, it failed with:
error while reading file debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso, file will be ignored (no such file or directory) - but it certainly is present!

Anyone know if it is possible to get jigdo to just download the changes between debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso and debian-testing-amd64-DVD-1.jigdo, does that sound possible? That is assuming I find out how to get jigdo update working.
i always use netinstall or business card mate.
im sorry i cant help you more. my debian knowledge isnt dat good yet.
Image
Image
Image

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#8 Post by NickC »

Completely fresh install of wheezy now completed. But won't even try to boot due to a GRUB error! Is there some way to reinstall the GRUB bootloader only, I don't thing I have the energy to go through another four hour install again.

I have booted from Knoppix and established that I have the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 - ntfs
/dev/sda2 - ntfs
/dev/sda3 - extended
/dev/sda5 - ntfs
/dev/sda6 - ntfs
/dev/sda7 - ntfs

/dev/sdb1 - ntfs
/dev/sdb2 - extended
/dev/sdb5 - ext3, boot
/dev/sdb6 - linux-swap
/dev/sdb7 - root?

What do I need to do to install GRUB to /dev/sdb5?

Thanks,

User avatar
kiyop
Posts: 3983
Joined: 2011-05-05 15:16
Location: Where persons without desire to improve themselves fear to tread, in Japan
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#9 Post by kiyop »

NickC wrote:Completely fresh install of wheezy now completed. But won't even try to boot due to a GRUB error!
What error message is shown?
NickC wrote: Is there some way to reinstall the GRUB bootloader only,
There are many ways.
The shortest way may be to use Super Grub2 Disk.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
NickC wrote:I have booted from Knoppix and established that I have the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 - ntfs
/dev/sda2 - ntfs
/dev/sda3 - extended
/dev/sda5 - ntfs
/dev/sda6 - ntfs
/dev/sda7 - ntfs

/dev/sdb1 - ntfs
/dev/sdb2 - extended
/dev/sdb5 - ext3, boot
/dev/sdb6 - linux-swap
/dev/sdb7 - root?

What do I need to do to install GRUB to /dev/sdb5?
If you install Grub2 code onto the partition boot record of /dev/sdb5, you may be unable to boot Grub2 directly.
First, BIOS try to find the bootable device (usually, MBR of /dev/sda, /dev/sdb). The order can be set by BIOS configuration.
You should configure so that partition boot record of /dev/sdb5 is chainloaded.

Instead, you can install grub2 code onto MBR of /dev/sdb or /dev/sda. It is simpler for especially a newbie.
But be careful! You do not mention about the OS's installed on your two hard disks.
If /dev/sdb contains some boot loader, installing grub2 code onto the MBR of your second hard disk (/dev/sdb) destroy the boot loader in the MBR.

I do not know about Knoppix. You do not mention version of Knoppix.
Maybe you can install grub2 code by using your knoppix, though I am not sure.

If you cannot solve the problem by yourself, execute boot info script while knoppix is booting, and post the contents of the generated RESULTS.txt.
boot info script:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Last edited by kiyop on 2012-02-16 23:52, edited 1 time in total.
Openbox, JWM: Jessie, Sid, Arch / Win XP (on VirtualBox), 10
http://kiyoandkei.bbs.fc2.com/

User avatar
ZACHARiAS
Posts: 57
Joined: 2011-12-21 01:58
Location: Lisbon

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#10 Post by ZACHARiAS »

Image
Image
Image

User avatar
kiyop
Posts: 3983
Joined: 2011-05-05 15:16
Location: Where persons without desire to improve themselves fear to tread, in Japan
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#11 Post by kiyop »

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 53#p418097
ZACHARiAS wrote:do a clean install of debian.
after that if XP is not visible on grub try this:

Code: Select all

1)  # sudo apt-get install os-prober

2)  # sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3) add the following line after # GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
 # GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

4)  # sudo update-grub2
How can he run "sudo apt-get install os-prober" or so when he cannot boot debian installed on his hard disk? :?:
Openbox, JWM: Jessie, Sid, Arch / Win XP (on VirtualBox), 10
http://kiyoandkei.bbs.fc2.com/

User avatar
nadir
Posts: 5961
Joined: 2009-10-05 22:06
Location: away

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#12 Post by nadir »

kiyop wrote: How can he run "sudo apt-get install os-prober" or so when he cannot boot debian installed on his hard disk? :?:
live-CD and chroot
"I am not fine with it, so there is nothing for me to do but stand aside." M.D.

User avatar
ZACHARiAS
Posts: 57
Joined: 2011-12-21 01:58
Location: Lisbon

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#13 Post by ZACHARiAS »

kiyop wrote:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 53#p418097
ZACHARiAS wrote:do a clean install of debian.
after that if XP is not visible on grub try this:

Code: Select all

1)  # sudo apt-get install os-prober

2)  # sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3) add the following line after # GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
 # GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

4)  # sudo update-grub2
How can he run "sudo apt-get install os-prober" or so when he cannot boot debian installed on his hard disk? :?:
im learning as well seensei.tks for your light :)
Kudos
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
kiyop
Posts: 3983
Joined: 2011-05-05 15:16
Location: Where persons without desire to improve themselves fear to tread, in Japan
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#14 Post by kiyop »

nadir wrote:
kiyop wrote: How can he run "sudo apt-get install os-prober" or so when he cannot boot debian installed on his hard disk? :?:
live-CD and chroot
I know. But it may be difficult for NickC.
Furthermore, in live cd circumstance, the following command should be modified properly.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 53#p418097
ZACHARiAS wrote:do a clean install of debian.
after that if XP is not visible on grub try this:

Code: Select all

1)  # sudo apt-get install os-prober

2)  # sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3) add the following line after # GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
 # GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

4)  # sudo update-grub2
I think Super Grub2 Disk is easier, and getting information on his problem is 1st thing to do.

nomodeset or some kernel option relating to graphics or acpi=off or so may solve his problem.
Furthermore, I am not sure he has a debian live cd. I remember he hesitated to download iso.
NickC wrote:Hmm.. that means downloading the whole DVD again which means geting that jigdo thing to work again. When I tried earlier to use jigdo to update my .iso image, just to test it, it failed with:
error while reading file debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso, file will be ignored (no such file or directory) - but it certainly is present!

Anyone know if it is possible to get jigdo to just download the changes between debian-6.0.4-amd64-DVD-1.iso and debian-testing-amd64-DVD-1.jigdo, does that sound possible? That is assuming I find out how to get jigdo update working.
But I am not sure if he has live CD/DVD.

To NickC,

Do you have any live-debian CD, DVD or USB?
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/
Openbox, JWM: Jessie, Sid, Arch / Win XP (on VirtualBox), 10
http://kiyoandkei.bbs.fc2.com/

User avatar
nadir
Posts: 5961
Joined: 2009-10-05 22:06
Location: away

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#15 Post by nadir »

kiyop wrote: Furthermore, I am not sure he has a debian live cd. I remember he hesitated to download iso.
He probably hasn't got a super-grub-CD neither.
Any Debian based distro will do, and if one hasn't got one, one should download one as soon as possible (which is now, not later, but now).
"I am not fine with it, so there is nothing for me to do but stand aside." M.D.

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#16 Post by NickC »

Don't happen to have a Debian live CD or DVD so would have to download that. I do however had a Knoppix boot CD available which I recently downloaded is that any help?

User avatar
kiyop
Posts: 3983
Joined: 2011-05-05 15:16
Location: Where persons without desire to improve themselves fear to tread, in Japan
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#17 Post by kiyop »

I am not sure whether "grub-install" does well in chrooting from knoppix to debian, because I have never done such a thing.

The size of Super Grub2 Disk is only 2MB, while debian live cd image is by far larger.
You can dd the image to USB flash or CD-R from linux or:
http://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#record-unix
If you want to make Super Grub2 Disk from Windows, you can refer to
http://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#record-windows

With Super Grub2 Disk, the only thing you must do to try to boot debian installed on your hdd is:
1) Boot with Super Grub2 Disk.
2) Select "Detect any Operating System"
3) Select detected debian.
That is all.

If you prefer chrooting, read the following:
In debian, I chroot like the following:

Open terminal and to get root privilege,

Code: Select all

su -
and type root password.
In some live system,

Code: Select all

sudo su -
may help instead.

To confirm the device file name of your installed debian partition,

Code: Select all

blkid
You mentioned that /boot partition is /dev/sdb5 and I guess that /(root) partition is /dev/sdb7. I assume so.
To chroot, (because I do not know well where should be mounted on with Knoppix.)

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt2
mount -t auto /dev/sdb7 /mnt2 -o rw
mount -t auto /dev/sdb5 /mnt2/boot -o rw
mount --bind /dev /mnt2/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt2/dev/pts
mount --bind /sys /mnt2/sys
mount --bind /proc /mnt2/proc
chroot /mnt2 /bin/bash
You can modify above "auto" to a certain name of the filesystem, such as ext4, ext3, and so on. The filesystem must be shown in the output of "blkid" command.
I am not sure whether knoppix and debian use same device file name system or not.
I heard that knoppix is a derivative from debian. I hope they use similar device file name system.
If not, executing the above may harm your system. I am not sure.

After successful chroot, you can install grub2 code onto MBR of second hard disk by

Code: Select all

grub-install /dev/sdb
If you want to install grub2 code onto MBR of first hard disk,

Code: Select all

grub-install /dev/sda
But, be careful.
If you execute "grub-install /dev/sd?" ("?" is a or b), the boot loader written on the MBR is destroyed.
You can backup the code on the MBR of the first hard disk (/dev/sda) by

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 of=/mbrbackup
before you run "grub-install".
You can increase above "1" to "63" or so, if you want to backup more than one sector.
I know that grub-isntall to MBR writes more than one sector for "MS-DOS partition table" system.

Even if you can successfully install and configure Grub2 code, you may be unable to boot debian due to some problem like that observed before (although now you have installed wheezy while you installed stable at that time.)
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 81#p420571
NickC wrote:My first install of Debian so forgive me if I miss something obvious.

Just installed Debian Squeeze using graphical install, standard options. Problem is after installation the system won't boot, just gets to a certain point and drops the monitor output and appears to lock-up. I have tried recovery mode, messages scroll past the screen but I can't see what the last line was before it failed.

The only 'non-free' driver required was for the NICs: rtl_nic/rtl8168-2.fw which I obtained from firmware-realtek_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb.
I should again mention that I have never chroot from Knoppix to Debian. Thus chrooting from Knoppix to Debian may be dangerous. I am not sure.
You should wait Guru's reply.
Or you can use Super Grub2 Disk, which I suggest to use,
or
download debian live cd and use it.

One another way is to use Boot Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/
but it is also very large like debian live cd.

And again I suggest you to run "boot info script" (you can run while knoppix is booting) and post the contents of the generated RESULTS.txt.
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Openbox, JWM: Jessie, Sid, Arch / Win XP (on VirtualBox), 10
http://kiyoandkei.bbs.fc2.com/

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#18 Post by NickC »

Super Grub 2 iso now downloaded and written to CD, like you say very quick to download.

Boot to Super Grub2 Disk 1.99b1, select Detect any Operating System and:

Code: Select all

error: unrecognised fs. - repeatyed 12 times
Only OSs listed are:

Code: Select all

Windows Vista (hd0,msdos1)
Windows Vista (hd1,msdos1)
I guess these correspond to my installed Win 2003 & Win 2008.

So for some reason Grub2 can't see either Debian which is on the same disk as Win 2008 or Arch which is on it's own disk.

Next option is to download Rescatux from Grub2, see if that works...
Nope that just freezes at Boot from CD/DVD:

What about just doing the Grub install bit from the Debian install DVD, let me try that...
Running Debian installer, select Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk, unfortunately this depends upon perviously performing Install the base system, which inturn depends upon partition didks, which depends upon detect disks. Argg... nope thats not going to work unless I reformat the partitions again and because there is no quick format option that takes hours.

User avatar
kiyop
Posts: 3983
Joined: 2011-05-05 15:16
Location: Where persons without desire to improve themselves fear to tread, in Japan
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#19 Post by kiyop »

Boot with Knoppix Live CD and download boot info script and execute it and post the contents of generated RESULTS.txt.

And execute the following in terminal and post the results, while booting with Knoppix Live CD.

Code: Select all

sudo su
grub-install -v
EDIT at 12:50 2012/2/19 in JAPAN:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 81#p420799
NickC wrote:Completely fresh install of wheezy now completed. But won't even try to boot due to a GRUB error!
What is shown when you boot without live cd (knoppix)?
Is there "grub rescue>" or so?
Can you type something or is it totally freeze (no response)?
Openbox, JWM: Jessie, Sid, Arch / Win XP (on VirtualBox), 10
http://kiyoandkei.bbs.fc2.com/

NickC
Posts: 129
Joined: 2012-02-09 17:56

Re: Fails to boot after installation

#20 Post by NickC »

Yes grub rescue> prompt but don't know where to go from there.

I have encountered this a few times now with other linux distros as well, it seems as if linux just can't co-exist happily in a multi disk environment. I have many disks in caddies which get plugged in and out depending on what I am doing that day. Coming from the windows world I have for many years just relied on being able to change the order of drives in the BIOS to choose which MBR to boot from, I just assumed that could still be done with linux. It appears not.

Post Reply