grub error 18

[Clay Weber]

On Sunday 20 September 2009 08:16:35 pm Christopher Chan wrote:
> Goh Lip wrote:
> > Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:
> >>> I take it that you now have no problem booting after the
> >>> root...setup... from the livecd.
> >>
> >> Yup.
> >>
> >>> Grub legacy have precisely some problems not only with LBA cylinder but
> >>> also with newer bios. Instead of trying to fix your grub, I suggest you
> >>> convert your grub legacy to grub2. After all, karmic will default to
> >>> grub2. sudo apt-get install grub-pc
> >>
> >> the weird grub file somehow gives me the impression that grub2 is
> >> installed? What grub does the LiveCD for Jaunty use?
> >
> > Livecd? I don't know without popping in the livecd. you can check by
> > going to /boot/grub/  and see if there is menu.lst or grub.cfg, maybe
> > both. But it doesn't really matter, right? Livecd grub is always quite
> > empty, just to start up the cd. The more important point is your
> > installed jaunty partition. If you have meaningful entries in grub.cfg,
> > then it is installed. There should also be meaningful entries in
> > menu.lst whether grub2 is installed or not.
> >
> > If you have installed grub2, you can always reinstall if you did not
> > follow up on the instructions where it wasn't installed to mbr giving
> > rise to your problem. If it wasn't installed, okay, install it.
> 
> Let me make it CRYSTAL CLEAR. Jaunty booted up fine after the first
> installation. However, after updating the packages to whatever latest
> versions available, it apparently keeps messing up grub whenever it is
> shutdown or rebooted. I have done nothing at all with grub or grub2
> manually. I have not had a chance to check yet but I get the impression
> my problems stem from grub2 since I see comments and other stuff besides
> menu entries in the grub configuration file.
> 
> At this moment, it would seem that the LiveCD probably installs grub but
> the updates snuck in grub2. When I next get my hands on that box, I will
> verify what package(s) of grub are installed. Now if someone can tell me
> what script messes around with grub/grub2 during shutdown, I will
> happily file a bug report since I have no other Jaunty installation
> lying around.
> 

Jaunty installs grub 1 by default, you would have to explicitly install the 
package grub-pc yourself in order to get grub2, so grub2 is not an issue here. 
Even with updates.

have you tried repairing grub after finally getting jaunty booted via the 
livecd?

Can  you boot into safe mode, where there is an option to repair grub?

The grub error 18 is saying that the partition you are trying to boot from is 
in a portion of  your drive that your system's *bios* doesn't support/can't 
see. But as you were able to boot before, this is definitely clouding the the 
problem's causes. Perhaps the partition table has become corrupted?

-- 
Clay Weber
http://kubuntuforums.net
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