Recover Redhat Linux 4 Grub Boot loader [Minimal Bash-like line editing is supported]

[yasiriqbal]

Dear All,
I am trying to recover grub book loader on RHEL 4 update 2 through redhat 6 rescure disk. Redhat 4 installed on LVM disk. The rescue disk could not mount the local hardisk iamge in /mnt/sysimage. I have to manually mounted it through the command given below.

# lvm vgchange -a y volgroup1
# mount /dev/mapper/volgroup-rootvol
# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# grub-install /mnt/sysimage
after that command i recived the attached error. Pleae help me to solve this error.

 

[neskepi]

perhaps your boot partition is not on lvm

 

[Alexzee]

Maybe try these links:

How to re-install GRUB bootloader on the Master Boot Record(MBR) in rescue mode - Red Hat Customer Portal

I had to restore my system and data partitions from tape after a crash. Why does my Red Hat Enterprise Linux system only shows a black screen after POST? Why does my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 system drops to GRUB rescue prompt on boot? How to reinstall grub2 into the MBR on Red Hat Enterprise...

access.redhat.com

E.3. Installing GRUB | Red Hat Product Documentation

E.3. Installing GRUB | Red Hat Documentation

access.redhat.com

If that doesn't help the only other thing that comes to mind is the first google search I found.

Boot the system from an installation boot medium. Type linux rescue at the installation boot prompt to enter the rescue environment. Type chroot /mnt/sysimage to mount the root partition. Type /sbin/grub-install bootpart to reinstall the GRUB boot loader, where bootpart is the boot partition (typically, /dev/sda).

 

[Alexzee]

Question:

What were you doing before you got the message:

No suitable drive was found in the generated device map?

 

[yasiriqbal]

Dear,
I have already attached the error screen short. When i give the command grub-install /dev/dsa
it gives the error.
There are two partitions on the drive sda1 and sda2. sda1 is boot and sda2 is / which is LVM.
I have also tried the same steps using Centos 4.7 Rescue disk and it give me the error . (Fatal: old kernel)
Can you tell me one thing, i have to mount /dev/sda1 in /mnt/sysimage or /dev/sda2 in /mnt/sysimage.

 

[Alexzee]

Dear,
I have already attached the error screen short. When i give the command grub-install /dev/dsa
it gives the error.
There are two partitions on the drive sda1 and sda2. sda1 is boot and sda2 is / which is LVM.
I have also tried the same steps using Centos 4.7 Rescue disk and it give me the error . (Fatal: old kernel)
Can you tell me one thing, i have to mount /dev/sda1 in /mnt/sysimage or /dev/sda2 in /mnt/sysimage.

I understand that when you run the grub-install it returns the error.
What I need to know is what were you doing on the system before it stopped booting correctly?

***IF you are trying to re-install grub you would install it to /dev/sda. [The whole HDD]
**IF your trying to chroot into your system you would mount /dev/sda2.

Run the cmd as "root":
Type su - hit Enter than run the cmd.

grub-install /dev/sda

What rescue disk are you using?

 

[Alexzee]

Unless I am mistaken you have to be in rescue mode to fix things.

To boot into rescue mode, you must be able to boot the system using one of the following methods:

• By booting the system from an installation boot CD-ROM.
• By booting the system from other installation boot media, such as USB flash devices.
• By booting the system from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROM #1.

Read the section that says:
5.2.1. Reinstalling the Boot Loader

5.2. Booting into Rescue Mode | Red Hat Product Documentation

5.2. Booting into Rescue Mode | Red Hat Documentation

access.redhat.com

 

[yasiriqbal]

Dear,
One of my client gave send me a system and ask that it is not booting and giving the following error when boot it

GNU GRUB version 0,97 (638k lower / 1046464 upper MEMORY)
[Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported . For the first word . TAB lists possible command completions . Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename.]

grub >

He said that Centos 4 update 2 was installed on the system and they want to recover that system.
I have used centos 7/6/4 rescue disk but no luck

 

[Alexzee]

-:::::-CentOS 4 is not longer supported-:::::-
That's likely the problem:-

CentOS - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Anyway; if you followed everything under "Reinstalling The Bootloader" in the link in post # 7 and typed this 'exactly':

1.) Boot the system from an installation boot medium.

2.) Type linux rescue at the installation boot prompt to enter the rescue environment.
3.) Type chroot /mnt/sysimage to mount the root partition.

4.) Type /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda to reinstall the GRUB boot loader, where /dev/hda is the boot partition.

5.) Review the /boot/grub/grub.conf file, as additional entries may be needed for GRUB to control additional operating systems.

6.) Reboot the system.

What's the output of this command as root?

fdisk -l <that's a small letter L>

 

[Alexzee]

If all you have is a black console with:

grub>

Have a look here:

Classic SysAdmin: How to Rescue a Non-booting GRUB 2 on Linux - Linux Foundation

Once upon a time we had legacy GRUB, the Grand Unified Linux Bootloader version 0.97. Learn how to rescue a non-booting GRUB 2 on Linux.

www.linux.com

If that doesn't fix it I'm not sure what will.

-:::-In the meantime, I would boot up the Live DVD of Centos that you have and try to copy all that you can for that system onto a external device of some sort.-:::-

Another idea is maybe something in that last update didn't go well.

When I was running Centos I had to re-install it twice as my memory serves me correctly because I couldn't figure out what went wrong after an update.

 

[f33dm3bits]

1. Why are you still running RHEL4? RHEL4 is EOL and hasn't had updates in a long time unless you bought ELS, which ended 3 years ago which is also a long time for not having installed updates.
2. I'd try and contact RHEL Support if it is an important system, since you are running RHEL you probably have a subscription for other systems?