Re: how to install the bootloader

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2014-11-30 at 13:12:06 +0300, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:

 > В Sun, 30 Nov 2014 02:10:08 +0100
 > Reinhard Kotucha <address@hidden> пишет:
 > 
 > > Hi,
 > > I'm running Gentoo Linux and used rsync in order to create backups on
 > > another disk.  The content of the backup disk is exactly the same as
 > > on my working disk.  And I installed a boot loader on the bachup disk
 > > so that I can simply swap the disks if necessary.
 > > 
 > > Some time ago I noticed that the backup disk didn't boot anymore
 > > though I didn't change anything.  I tried to install the bootloader
 > > again.  grub-install didn't complain but the disk didn't boot and
 > > there was no error message.  Nevertheless, the backup disk was quite
 > > useful though, I could at least restore files I removed accidentally.
 > > 
 > > Now my main disk seems to be broken.  The system still works but I get
 > > zillions of I/O-errors on /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4.
 > > 
 > > I bought a new disk now because I don't want to modify anything on my
 > > backup disk.  Now the new disk contains an exact copy of the backup
 > > disk.
 > > 
 > > When I try to boot the new disk, I end up in a grub shell.  This is
 > > much better than the blinking cursor I've always seen in the past.
 > > 
 > 
 > If you are as far as booting full grub, you probably just need grub
 > configuration file.
 > 
 > > The first step seems to work:
 > > 
 > >   grub> root (hd0,1)
 > >   Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
 > > 
 > > This is correct.  The first partition /dev/hda1 (hd0,0) is the swap
 > > partition and /dev/hda2 (hd0,1) contains the operating system as well
 > > as the /boot/grub directory.
 > > 
 > > When I try to install the bootloader
 > > 
 > >   grub> setup (hd0)
 > > 
 > > I get the error messages
 > > 
 > >   Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 > >   Checking if "/boot/stage1" exists... no
 > > 
 > >   Rerror 15: File not found
 > > 
 > > Why? /boot/grub/stage1 definitely exists on (hd0,1).
 > > 
 > 
 > It could be that fileystem is corrupted; it could be that it is too new
 > for a grub legacy. Is it ext2, ext3 or ext4? Can grub list content of
 > directory? Does "search /boot/grub/stage1" work?

Dear Andrei,
thank you very much for your answer and please excuse the late
response.

The solution was to install a CentOS system on another disk and to run
grub-install from there.  This worked like a charm.  The only
explanation I have is that the grub installation on my Gentoo system
is utterly broken.

Regards and thanks again,
  Reinhard

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