Linux Lubuntu boot failure.

[Salty seadog]

I have an old desktop pc that I revived with Lubuntu when it started playing up with Windows. It now will not boot up from the hard drive but will from the boot disk. But it will not let me complete a fresh install from the disc. I think the error message says grub bootloader failure.

Any ideas you Linux users out there?
I'll be back with the machine this afternoon.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

It's there anything on the hard drive that you need?

 

[mjr]

Yep, sounds like a dead disk. The lines just above the bootloader failure may reveal what type of disk failure. Hope your backups are up to date!

 

[Salty seadog]

It's there anything on the hard drive that you need?

No, I do however have 2 drives in there

Yep, sounds like a dead disk. The lines just above the bootloader failure may reveal what type of disk failure. Hope your backups are up to date!

Will screenshot later.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

If you can get to the command prompt you should be able to run disk utilities from there to see what the system can see. Might be worth just taking the top of the case to ensure that no cables have come adrift

 

[the snail]

As above, sounds like disc fail. If you can boot from dvd you can try mounting the hds, reading from them, seeing what errors you get. I've managed to recover data from dodgy disks before like that.

 

[ianbarton]

I have an old desktop pc that I revived with Lubuntu when it started playing up with Windows. It now will not boot up from the hard drive but will from the boot disk. But it will not let me complete a fresh install from the disc. I think the error message says grub bootloader failure.

Any ideas you Linux users out there?
I'll be back with the machine this afternoon.

If it's not a dead hard disk, it could be a corrupt boot partition. Boot up from a usb stick and use something like GParted to see if it can see the hard drive. If the drive appears OK, you could try mounting the partition with the data on it.

From a terminal something like:

sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt

Where X is the partition number. You can see what disks are available by running lsblk from a command prompt. If you manage to mount the disk its contents will be visible in the /mnt directory.

 

[Salty seadog]

So , just got in and tried a couple of boot ups. Going into the boot menu gives me these options.

Selecting the top option hard disc, M it goes on to this screen and no further

If I select to not from the second option, S it goes to a similar screen then asks for the boy disk instead as below.

I'm more trying again to install from disk and will screen shot a couple of points before it stops responding. I'm not too au fait with Linux as you can tell.

Does this post offer anything more to anyone?

 

[Salty seadog]

So trying to reinstall from disk is as follows, it is the same if I load from disk then try installing from the desktop icon.

I opted for erase disk for a clean install, option 2.

It then goes through some basic setup screens.

Then this message about the boot loader.

It allows me to use the drop down menu

Then it becomes unresponsive, nothing happens when I click OK whatever I select from the menu.

Sorry for the long post but I know nothing about Linux it has worked for about a year fine.

Thank you for your time.

 

[ianbarton]

I haven't use the lubuntu install disk. However, from memory all Ubuntu flavours allow you to run a "Live" version direct from the CD. Choose this option and you will have a working version of Lubuntu loaded from your CD/usb stick. Open a terminal (I think it's called lx-terminal).

From the command prompt type: sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda1
You should see output something like:
Disk /dev/sda: 57.9 GiB, 62109253632 bytes, 121307136 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc36deac7

Now try typing sudo fdisk /dev/sda1
This should complete without errors if the disk is OK.
Now type p to print the partition table:

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 6143 4096 2M BIOS boot
/dev/nvme0n1p2 6144 62920703 62914560 30G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 62920704 79697919 16777216 8G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p4 79697920 500118158 420420239 200.5G Linux filesystem

Note the bit after /dev will be different on your system. If you can get this information OK, your disk is not hosed. The next step is to use fdisk to nuke all partitions and start the re-install. Note nuking partitions WILL destroy all the data on the disk.

 

[Salty seadog]

I haven't use the lubuntu install disk. However, from memory all Ubuntu flavours allow you to run a "Live" version direct from the CD. Choose this option and you will have a working version of Lubuntu loaded from your CD/usb stick. Open a terminal (I think it's called lx-terminal).

From the command prompt type: sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda1
You should see output something like:
Disk /dev/sda: 57.9 GiB, 62109253632 bytes, 121307136 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc36deac7

Now try typing sudo fdisk /dev/sda1
This should complete without errors if the disk is OK.
Now type p to print the partition table:

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 6143 4096 2M BIOS boot
/dev/nvme0n1p2 6144 62920703 62914560 30G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 62920704 79697919 16777216 8G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p4 79697920 500118158 420420239 200.5G Linux filesystem

Note the bit after /dev will be different on your system. If you can get this information OK, your disk is not hosed. The next step is to use fdisk to nuke all partitions and start the re-install. Note nuking partitions WILL destroy all the data on the disk.

Ok, I'll try and get my head round that tomorrow. Got to shoot off soon.
I'm just trying a new iso disk install that I downloaded and burned to disc on my laptop but expect the same results.
I can destroy the partitions on the C/ drive as i have 2 500Gb drives and all the data is on the D/ drive.

Thanks for your time in replying.

 

[Salty seadog]

Ok, I'll try and get my head round that tomorrow. Got to shoot off soon.
I'm just trying a new iso disk install that I downloaded and burned to disc on my laptop but expect the same results.
I can destroy the partitions on the C/ drive as i have 2 500Gb drives and all the data is on the D/ drive.

Thanks for your time in replying.

To quote myself, this seems to have reinstalled a working copy on the C/ drive. Gotta go now so will see how it behaves going forward.

Many thanks for the replies.

 

[mjr]

I'm more trying again to install from disk and will screen shot a couple of points before it stops responding. I'm not too au fait with Linux as you can tell.

Does this post offer anything more to anyone?

It's not getting as far as Linux so don't worry too much about that. Few people are au fait with bootloaders.

There don't seem to be any disk error messages shown so it doesn't say much more. Something's eaten the bootloader but who knows what. Could be disk corruption, could be something better or worse.

Now you've got it back, I'd make sure the packages of SMART disk monitoring tools (package names probably start smart- ) are installed and use them occasionally, in the hope of early warning of disk failure.

 

[Salty seadog]

It's not getting as far as Linux so don't worry too much about that. Few people are au fait with bootloaders.

There don't seem to be any disk error messages shown so it doesn't say much more. Something's eaten the bootloader but who knows what. Could be disk corruption, could be something better or worse.

Now you've got it back, I'd make sure the packages of SMART disk monitoring tools (package names probably start smart- ) are installed and use them occasionally, in the hope of early warning of disk failure.

Cheers Mj, could you give me an idea of how to check if I have them installed?
If not would I find them in the software repository?
If i serch in the software repository It comes up with Gnome Discs and thats it.

 

[mjr]

Cheers Mj, could you give me an idea of how to check if I have them installed?
If not would I find them in the software repository?
If i serch in the software repository It comes up with Gnome Discs and thats it.

GNOME Disks will do. Fire it up, look at the lines saying "Assessment" on the Hard Disk entries (not the Drive or Block Device) ones. It should say "Disk is OK". For extreme detail, pick the "SMART..." entry in the menu. The pop-up window may also let you run extra tests, but it will probably require you to become the root user, possibly before starting gnome-disks.