HELP I destroyed my wife's computer (while upgrading to Feisty -- UUID Grub issue)

Wed Apr 25 03:51:27 UTC 2007

On 04/24/2007 07:05 PM, Chanchao wrote:
> Seems I cheered to early yesterday about how easy it is to upgrade to
> Feisty... Indeed I upgraded the Mrs's laptop but thought everything was
> well.  Serves me right.
> 
> When I start it up it boots into Grub normally, but then when starting
> Ubuntu it complains about not being able to find/mount the root block
> and then dies with a kernel panic.
> 
> I then downloaded the Feisty Live/Installer Cd initially fully intending
> to just wack the lot and do a fresh install, but curiosity led me to
> check the menu.lst in grub and find out it too caught a bad case of
> using UUIDs.. I already had loads of trouble with those in fstab when
> upgrading to Edgy.  (Why is this even necessary, using UUIDs when the
> old method worked fine and the new one clearly doesn't work fine in all
> cases yet)
> 
> So what do I do?  I tried to change from root=UUID=blabla to
> root=/dev/hda2 (I assume it's HDA2 not SDA2, on the Live Cd is showed as
> SDA but that could be just a live-CD-thing?  It's not a SCSI disk or
> anything, just a plane old harddisk in a laptop. 
> 
> Still it didn't work.  I think I tried all likely options
> like /dev/hda2, /dev/sda2, etc.  (Why doesn't the upgrade to Feisty
> leave a backup of the original menu.lst file by the way..)
> 
> As a separate issue, Feisty is the first Ubuntu live CD that DID NOT
> boot up properly on that same laptop. Failed to start GDM showing crap
> about the Xserver and asking me if I want to see log info..   In the end
> got it tow work by specifying VGA and 16 colors, even though it then DID
> end up properly with full resolution and full colors.   Weird.
> 
> Was Feisty really ready for release?  It works as reliable as everything
> before it after installation/upgrade, however it seems we made backward
> progress on the installation/upgrade process itself.
> 
> Cheers,
> Chanchao
> 
> 

Here is a copy of mine following the Edgy to Feisty upgrade on this
machine. Note that I have 2 hard drives and the second drive contains a
Win2KP installation. You can also checkout SuperGrub to see if that can
help: http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

Hope this helps.

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from
0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default
entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved'
or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the
default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive
editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --[sniped]
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd1,4)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-386
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro splash
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-386
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-386

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-28-386
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro quiet splash
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-28-386
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-28-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-28-386

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-27-386
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro quiet splash
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-27-386
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-27-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-27-386

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro quiet splash
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro quiet splash
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single
initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd1,4)
kernel		/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1