[sf-lug] Grub 1 loading stage read error

[Eric Walstad]

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):
>
>> A teacher called me today saying that when she tries to boot up her Ubuntu
>> 10.04
...
>> "Grub 1 loading stage read error"
This error message seems to indicate Grub 1 (grub-legacy) but I
believe Ubuntu 10.04 gets grub2 by default.  I recommend you confirm
which grub is actually installed before making any system changes.

...
> Let's try that.  Link goes to:
> http://dedoimedo.com/computers/grub.html
If you are working with grub2, that page includes a link to grub2 instructions.


I've had to fix grub2 on a couple of Ubuntu systems and found these
steps (boot livecd, mount select partitions, chroot, install grub to
the device) to be simple and effective:

# Make note of your partitions
sudo fdisk -l

# Note: on my 2-disk, dual-boot, system Windows is installed on
/dev/sda and linux is installed on /dev/sdb
# Mount the Linux partition
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt

# Edit grub file to taste
vi /etc/default/grub
update-grub

# Install grub2 on the Windows partition
grub-install /dev/sda
# (try grub-install --recheck /dev/sda if it fails)

# Ctrl+D (to exit out of chroot)
sudo umount /mnt/dev
sudo umount /mnt/proc
sudo umount /mnt/sys
sudo umount /mnt
sudo reboot


Good luck,

Eric.