[ale] What is grub > and I Killed Access to Desktop

[Jim Kinney]

comments in line :-)

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Marc Ferguson <marcferguson at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I really screwed the pooch on this one.
>

yep!


> I have two issues: 1) how to use GRUB recovery console and 2) non-bootable
> LiveUSB. So; here's my first issue. I have two hard drives and my original
> setup was:
>
> * sda1 - windows (marked as boot)
> * sda2 - /boot
> * sda3 - lvm (fedora)
> * sdb1 - data
>
> With the release of Fedora 18 I figured I'll finally remove my Windows
> partition and turn it into a home directory. I fire up gparted and do just
> that. I'm not familiar with UUID so I simply changed the "label" to "home."
> I then use rsync to copy my existing /home directory into the new
> partition. All seems well...
>

So you rsynced a pile of files to an old ntfs partition that has a
partition label of "home"?

>
> I reboot and after GRUB selects the latest instance of Fedora 17 I'm sent
> to some sort of recovery mode. I can only log in as root. My data partition
> is still mounted, but my newly created home partition no longer shows any
> data in it. I wonder if it has something to do with me changing it from
> NTFS to ext4.
>

Unless you formatted it to ext4 it has to be mounted as ntfs to be
readable.  Did you set the partition type to Linux (type 83 I think) and
then not format it?

>
> Either way I'm thinking that my GRUB is pointing to the wrong partition
> and stupidly run "grub install /dev/sda1". Now when I reboot and GRUB fires
> it immediately goes into a GRUB recovery console and I'm completely lost at
> this point.
>

Oops. Did you mark the /boot partition as bootable? GRUB is fireing off but
there is no bootable partition other than the old windows which is now
called home and has no bootable data in it.

>
> At this point I feel I've gone way down into the rabbit hole. I dont' mind
> losing the home directories since my data partition is still functioning. I
> want to just start fresh and do a clean install of Fedora 18. My main beef
> is I can't boot from the newly created Fedora 18 LiveUSB. It works on my
> laptop, but not on my desktop. When in GRUB recovery I ran "grub> usb" and
> it's supposed to show any USB's plugged in, but nothing shows up.
>

Download the Fedora 18 net install CD and use that instead (assuming a fast
ISP connection). It sounds like your system doesn't know/support USB
booting.

>
>
> --
> *Marc Ferguson*
>
> www.fergytech.com | www.digitalalias.net
>
> *"When life gives me lemons... I make Linuxaide, hmm good stuff!"*
>
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>


-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
*Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
*
http://electjimkinney.org
http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
*
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