Grub stores the actual physical locations of the datablocks of it's stage 1.5 or stage 2 files in the bootblock. If you restore from a tar archive the location of the blocks for the grub stage files will almost certainly be different and as a result grub will generate an error 15 because it can't find them.
After restoring from a tar archive you need to chroot into the newly restored filesystem and run a grub-install to cause the restored system to write the grub stage file locations to the boot block. Or you can restore grub from the grub command. If my memory serves the commands would look something like this (assuming your /boot filesystem (hd0,1) and you want the boot block on the first hard disk: root (hd0,1) setup (hd0) On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 6:13 PM, Word Wizard <[email protected]> wrote: > > One of the reasons I adopted Linux (Ubuntu Intrepid) was that, unlike > Windows, it SUPPOSEDLY allowed one to fully back up the entire system, > system files and all, and restore them. So if you installed files or > configured your system and made mistakes, you revert to a previous > system. That's the theory. The reality is a bitter disappointment. > > I sudo su, change to / directory and use the following command and > generate a valid tar backup: > > tar cvpjf /home/username/BackUp/Archives/total_backup.tar.bz2 > --exclude="/home//username/HD_1" --exclude="/home//username/HD_2" > --exclude="/home//username/.thumbnails" > --exclude="/home//username/.mozilla/default/Cache" --exclude="/proc" > --exclude="/lost+found" --exclude="/media" --exclude="/mnt" > --exclude="/sys" / > > To restore, I sudo su, change to the / directory and use the following > command: > > tar xvpjf /home/username/BackUp/Archives/total_backup.tar.bz2 -C / > > First problem. Upon reboot I get an "error 15" Can't find the grub > files. They are there but It seems the problem may be with using UUIDs > instead of (hd0) notation. The UUIDs change. What no-life propeller head > chose to use UUIDs anyway? > > It gets worse. I tried booting from the distro DVD (Intrepid) and > using grub to 'find /boot/grub/stage1'. > > grub finds it (hd0,5). That's the correct location. I use the sudo su, > then the root (hd0,5) command. No error messages. I use the setup (hd0) > command and the output says it found the /boot/grub/stage1 file and is > writing (hd0)/boot/grub/menu/.lst. > > BUT... It does not write (hd0)/boot/grub/menu/.lst. Anywhere. I check > the root drive and the old /boot/grub/menu/.lst is still there. Even if > I rename it, no new menu.lst appears . > > > What am I doing wrong? Or is Linux still not ready for prime time and > only for hackers? > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > -- Dwight Hubbard Owner Effective Automation Solutions Website: http://effectiveautomationsolutions.com Blog: http://computing.dwighthubbard.info Email: [email protected] Phone: (503) 616-4493 Redhat Certified Engineer - RHCE #804007137224095 VMware Certified Professional - VCP #18529 _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
