grub stage 1.5 error 5 problem

Mon Apr 11 22:30:50 UTC 2005

On Mon, 2005-04-11 at 06:32 +0000, Dave Stevens wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Recently I made some changes in my system in order to try a new
> distribution I hope to be able to use on old small computers. After the
> test I could no longer boot into FC3 on hda1. Grub starts up, gives a
> stage 1.5 notice then displays error 5. This seems to be generated by
> grub not being able to find a needed file. I am not sure what file or
> what to do about this.
> 
> My system details:
> 
> athlon 1 gig 512 megs RAM
> 1 9.1 gig Seagate scsi drive, sda (sda1) with a bootable Morphix system
> (Debian based, works ok) If I tell the BIOS to boot off SCSI this starts
> up.
> 1 Samsung 40 gig IDE as hda (hda1, hda2). hda1 marked as bootable has
> always worked ok before. Should be booting 2.6.9-1.667 which is where I
> was. BIOS was set to boot from IDE-0.
> 1 LG CDRW/DVDRW at hdb
> 1 Samsung 60 gig IDE as hdc (hdc1) was mounted under /home, all user
> data, all intact and accessible.
> 1 WD 1.6 gig IDE as hdd (hdd1) which was the test unit for the small
> system.
> 
> the directory of / on hda1 shows:
> 
> root at athlon:/mnt # ls -al /mnt/hda1
> total 13492
> drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root         2048 Apr 11 11:09 .
> drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Apr 11 11:56 ..
> -rw-r--r--    2 root     root       714266 Apr 11 11:02 System.map
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       239593 May  8  2004
> System.map-2.6.5-1.358
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       237792 Jul  1  2004
> System.map-2.6.6-1.435.2.3
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       242782 Aug  3  2004
> System.map-2.6.7-1.494.2.2
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       245557 Aug 14  2004
> System.map-2.6.8-1.520
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       245203 Aug 16  2004
> System.map-2.6.8-1.521
> -rw-r--r--    2 root     root       714266 Apr 11 11:02
> System.map.new-2.6.9-1.667
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        46375 May  8  2004
> config-2.6.5-1.358
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        46437 Jul  1  2004
> config-2.6.6-1.435.2.3
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        49658 Aug  3  2004
> config-2.6.7-1.494.2.2
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        49763 Aug 14  2004
> config-2.6.8-1.520
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        49728 Aug 16  2004
> config-2.6.8-1.521
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        50929 Nov  3 01:23
> config-2.6.9-1.667
###################
> drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Dec 25 04:58 grub

#################
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       318303 Jul  9  2004
> initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       316663 Jul 30  2004
> initrd-2.6.6-1.435.2.3.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       329942 Aug  5  2004
> initrd-2.6.7-1.494.2.2.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       330626 Aug 17  2004
> initrd-2.6.8-1.520.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       330264 Aug 20  2004
> initrd-2.6.8-1.521.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       530103 Dec 25 04:55
> initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          549 Dec 18  2003 kernel.h
> drwx------    2 root     root        12288 Dec 18  2003 lost+found
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       714266 Nov  3 01:23 s.m
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1199031 May  8  2004
> vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1203835 Jul  1  2004
> vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435.2.3
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1360550 Aug  3  2004
> vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.494.2.2
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1362562 Aug 14  2004
> vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.520
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1360057 Aug 16  2004
> vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.521
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1405861 Nov  3 01:23
> vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667
> root at athlon:/mnt #
> 
> I don't know where to go. I have been reading the GRUB manual but it is
> substantial and I have already tried what seems to me to be likely to
> not cause further problems and wiould prefer to have advice before doing
> anything likely to lead to data loss (of course k3b, my usual backup
> method) is not curently available.)
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Dave
> 
Have a look in the grub directory listed above
/mnt/hda1/boot/grub
it should have the same files there
as in /mnt/hda1/usr/share/grub/i386-redhat

I would not expect them to go missing though.
Maybe grub has gone missing from the MBR of /dev/hda

If you are up in Morphix then it should be possible to
install grub from there.
BE VERY CAREFUL Though!!!!!!!
Make sure you run the FC3 version of grub
/mnt/hda1/sbin/grub
try things like
grub>cat (hdTAB           The TAB char tries to auto complete
so that you can clearly identify which drive is which from grubs point
of view.
grub>cat (hd1,0)/boot/grub/grub.conf      will hopefully list the
grub.conf on the disk in question.

When 100% certain which disk grub and you are interested in
then?
grub>root (hdx,y)     tells grub which disk the files are on
                      the stage1, stage2,.. type files that is
grub>setup (hdx)      Writes to the MBR of hdx
x and y MUST be correct or disaster is likely !!!!!

An alternative is to boot the FC3 CD1 and enter
linux rescue which will give you a shell prompt
where you can issue the same commands

Cheers John