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GRUB Problem [solved]


linux_challenged
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I finally got Mandriva 2008 Free running okay after fighting with 2008 One for a couple weeks on my Dell e1505 laptop - worked great for about 3 days. When I came home after a short weekend trip and started up the laptop, I got "GRUB Error 5".

 

From what I can determine, that is a partition problem, but I don't understand how it could occur when all was fine on Friday morning and nothing done since then. I tried to boot from a GRUB live cd and also gparted but couldn't get the interface to come up.

 

I did get a message that said to start a "Forcevideo" script - I have no idea what that is or how to do that.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction to resolve this? How can I troubleshoot or recover the boot menu to figure out what the issue is?

 

I am running dual boot xp pro and mandriva 2008 free with gnome desktop.

 

thanx in advance

 

 

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

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The most common explanation for this event, that is, everything fine and suddenly a bad partition table, is:

1) You used Partition Magic in windows to "fix" the partition table. If this is the case, you just lost everything!

2) The hard drive is failing or has failed. Try to boot until you get it up and back up your data in a hurry. Replace the drive.

 

Sorry, none of this is particularly good news.

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Nope, it wasn't a Partition Magic problem and the hard drive is fine. Something (I am not sure what) got too corrupted to allow access.

 

At any rate, I wiped the hard drive clean and reinstalled xp. I have made sure it is all running okay. Now I want to reinstall Mandriva but would like some suggestion of how to partition the hard drive in advance. My other installation pretty much went with the installation defaults as far as how to partition the hard drive. This time around I thought I might solicit a better plan, if one exists.

 

The one difference I intend to make this time is to set up a fat32 partition that I can use to share between windows and linux.

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA...

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Based on my experience I would suggest the following:-

 

/ ............. 7 to 10Gb

/home ...........10Gb

swap ...........512Mb ( some use up to 2Gb but is generally considered a waste when user has 1Gb or more of Memory)

 

I have also (optional, this stops /home from being over filled and means that I can at times reformat /home too when doing a clean install if I desire ) :-

 

/music .......... 60Gb (music, saved videos)

/pictures ...........40Gb (Photos, Graphics and so on)

 

None of these partition sizes are set in concrete so vary to suit yourself.

 

Cheers. John.

Edited by AussieJohn
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My other installation pretty much went with the installation defaults as far as how to partition the hard drive. This time around I thought I might solicit a better plan, if one exists.

I'm with AussieJohn here - he's suggestion pretty much covers what I would have said. Except for the fact that my disk is a bit simpler: with only /, swap and /home partitions without the /pictures and /music partitions (any such files I either keep under /home partition or on an external HDD). The size of my /home partition is somewhere around 190 - 200 GB.

 

If you need further advice, perhaps this aRTee's article will give some insights (there is a link to another page for custom formatting in the article):

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/installmdv2008.0.html

 

The one difference I intend to make this time is to set up a fat32 partition that I can use to share between windows and linux.

You can also gain read/write access to an NTFS partitions from Mandriva with the correct tools installed. Here's the wiki note on the subject:

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandr...S_write_support

 

You can also do a search in this forum for NTFS.

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Nope, it wasn't a Partition Magic problem and the hard drive is fine. Something (I am not sure what) got too corrupted to allow access.

 

At any rate, I wiped the hard drive clean and reinstalled xp. I have made sure it is all running okay.

 

It's your data, but partition tables are corrupted by specific problems. Get the hard drive manufacturer utility and check the drive. It has nothing to do with the age of the drive; it is a mini computer that can fail. New drives fail because of defects, and old drives fail because of defects. A drive simply does not "get corrupt" without reason. The choice is simple: either something was done to it or it did something. ;)

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When I booted the gparted live cd, the gui wouldn't open. Instead I got a message that said to start a "Forcevideo" script - I have no idea what that is or how to do that.

 

Also, not sure that it was a hardware issue with the hard drive. At any rate, xp is running fine and I intend to reinstall Mandriva this evening possibly.

 

I will however get the hard drive utility, if I can, and see what that says before I do anything else.

 

mucho thanx for all the tips, etc....

 

I will keep you posted.

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Okay, I ran the hard drive utility from the manufacturer as suggested and the hard drive passed, so it is possible that the error occured between my chair and the keyboard :lol2:

 

At any rate, all is well now and I am going ahead with the reinstall of Mandriva. I will be following the tutorial by falko timme that I found. I am not sure about the whether I will go with Gnome or KDE as I had problems with KDE before but that was with the 2008 One version and I will be installing the Free version per the tutorial.

 

I suppose I should be posting on the software forum as this problem has been solved...

 

thanx to all :)

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Do yourself a favour and install Mandriva straightaway, without following any tutorial.

The procedure is absolutely braindead (WAY easier than installing Windows XP, for example), and all you want to know before is very basic things about partitioning.

 

 

Okay, I took your advice and installed Mandriva straightaway - only a couple issues to resolve now. Can you point me to instructions for getting my Intel 3945 wireless card to connect, and I need some help getting a driver installed for the ATI X1400 vid card. Both seem to be recognized in the hardware list but the wireless won't connect and I can't set any 3D desktop effects - I like the Metisse desktop but the wizard says my hardware doesn't support 3d.

 

BTW, everything was working before I had the earlier problem. I just lost my links, instructions.

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There are several drivers which can work with a 3945, but it seems most people are trusting iwlwifi.

http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi

Surely enough there are some premade packages for that driver in Mandy 2008, search your RPMS (after setting the repos by using the "easyurpmi" link on top of this page). You will find it at the official "non-free" repository (not the last version, but it should suffice).

For 3D effects, the best way is swapping your ATi videocard for an Nvidia one... Unfortunately this isn't possible on a laptop, so you do have to install and use the proprietary ATi driver. You will need "dkms-fglrx" from the official "non-free" repo, and then pray it will work without issues (most of the times it doesn't).

Edited by scarecrow
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Final update for this thread:

 

Wireless up and running perfectly (looks around for some wood to knock on :unsure:

 

ATI Vid card up and running perfectly - I now have Metisse working again !!!

 

Many thanx to all for your help and comments - I have truly learned much from where I started :thumbs:

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