Hi all, I am feeling more and more like I've reverted to noobdom and I'm very appreciative of all the recent advice/feedback I've got. Let me try your collective patience again. Apologies that this is long, but a shorter email seems likely to result in requests for more information.
I just "finished" a Debian install using a Debian 6.04 XFCE Desktop live CD. When I reboot post install, I get GRUB loading. Welcome to GRUB! error: file `/grub2/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found. Entering rescue mode... grub rescue> _ At the grub rescue prompt, I tried `help' `?' and `update-grub' and was rewarded with an unknown command error each time. I rebooted and took the GUI Rescue option off the live CD menu. I selected my / (/dev/ssd/root --- see below[*]) from the install as the root file system. I was then presented with a `Enter rescue mode' menu which offered: Execute a shell in /dev/ssd/root Execute a shell in the installer environment Reinstall GRUB boot loader Choose a different root file system Reboot the system I opted for a shell in /dev/ssd/root. # update-grub Generating grub.cfg ... /usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: no such disk. I then opted for the reinstall GRUB option. I got a screen telling me that the normal place to instal GRUB is the MBR of the first hard drive and offering me the ability to choose a particular device instead. Clicking though without specificy a particular device produced Unable to install GRUB in Executing 'grub install ' failed. This is a fatal error. I then tried again, specifying the /dev on which I had installed the /boot partition in the install process (/dev/sdb1 as it happens). That produced Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sdb1 Executing 'grub install /dev/sdb1' failed. This is a fatal error. So, I am stuck. Googling about for 30m didn't yield a path forward. I did save the logs at the end of the install. That produced 5.1MB, so a bit much to stick in this email :-) I don't know what parts would be most useful, but am happy to pare that down as appropriate and post if guided. [*] One possible cause is that I may have messed up partitioning. I am installing on a multiple disk system for the first time. I have a 500GB IDE HDD and a (new) 64GB SATA SSD. I was trying to use the 500GB HDD as an encrypted /home and to put /boot (2GB), a swap of 4.4GB, and whatever was left over as / on the SSD. I want / and swap to be encrypted. I made the /boot on the SSD and used all of the space on the HDD and the remaining space on the SSD as physical volumes for encryption. I then made /home within the entire HDD encrypted volume and made an LVM physical volume that I labeled `ssd' inside the SSD encrypted volume. Within that SSD physical LVM volume, I created logical volumes for / and swap. (I also saved screenshots of the various stages of my partitioning. But, attaching 300KB of screenshots seems rude.) As far as I can tell, the two best hypotheses for the failure are that I borked the partition setup and that using the Debian Live CD wasn't the best choice. My plan going forward is to take my dog on a nice long walk, check my email and follow up on any advice. Failing that (it is a workday :-) I am going to reinstall, this time using a more standard route than from a Debian Live CD. The live CD is the cause hypotheses seems easier to test than the borked the partitioning one. Typing though my tears, Brian vdB _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
