Grub Error 15 "file not found" Help!

[painterh]

Hey there;
I haven't been around the forum for a while (going to school, which is really taxing for an old guy), so greetings to all. Just the other night I finished doing an update, and re-started as prompted that it was necessary. One of the updates was a new kernel, 2.6.24-21. I was using 2.6.24-19. This was probably not the source of my current issue, but I thought better preface this post with those details. After restarting, I decided to make a few changes using SUM (start up manager) such as my grub splash image and a few others. It seemed to be taking a long time to apply the changes, (maybe 10 minutes or so) and I thought it was hung. I tried to restart only to find that there was no entry for the new kernel 2.6.14-21, or even 2.6.24-19. The only Linux entry in grub was Hardy 8.04 x64 2.6.24-16. I selected that one and voila', Grub error 15 "File Not Found". I don't know what happened, except that by restarting before startup manager finished what it was doing, it has rendered my Linux install unable to boot. Does anyone know what I might try to get it back in operation. I am stuck in Windows XP (on my other drive) until further notice. Please help!

[pch.shot]

You can use this to edit your Linux partition from Windows:
http://www.fs-driver.org/
You should be able to fix your Linux boot loader that way.
There is also this:
http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/

[painterh]

pch.shot;
Thanks for the reply. I took a look at the links, but was a little confused. I have a copy of SuperGrub, however when I used it and tried to use the tools (which I was a little confused about), I could not even find a bootable linux install. I also booted up using the Ultimate 1.8 live cd, but didn't have necessary permissions to open any of the menu.1st files to try and edit them. I have had the Ext2 driver installed in my Windows install for some time, in order to move or copy office docs around when needed, but Windows doesn't have any programs cabable of opening any of the menu.1st files either. I'm not sure what to do next, as some of this seems a little over my head.

[pch.shot]

There are a couple ways to edit files in linux.
One way is to chown(change ownership). You open up a terminal and type chown then the file name you want to change ownership of. Linux is set up so that only root can change files. When you log in you as a user you cannot just change things.
The other way is to log in as root:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1682
p.s. Somtimes the best and fastest way is to just re-install. I use macrium(for Windows) to make a backup image of my Windows os and I'm up and running again in minutes.
With Ultimate I just re-install. It takes me about 20 minutes!! When you get a chance I would up your ram to 2 gigs. It will speed things up a lot. Linux loves lots of ram!!

[painterh]

I might do that as a last resort. Is there any Windows program that can open a Linux text file (such as menu.1st) ? I have been planning to get another gig of ram for a while. When I am running Ultimate and using Virtualbox to run my other Win xp install, it maxes out my ram with 98% usage. I will post back later after I try a couple of things.

[pch.shot]

Try this:
http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html

[painterh]

pch.shot;
Hey there, and good morning. I have a couple of real basic (probably newbish) questions. I took a look at that text editing program, and it looks quite interesting. However, my question is this; My linux drive is seen as "157 gb disk" when I look at it while using the live dvd of 1.8 (or any other version), and just Drive "K" in Windows. If I go to the management console in Win XP, it is seen as "hd1" and my Windows Drive is seen as "hd0". (1)If I am using the live dvd, how do I navigate (in terminal) to that drive, in order to use "sudo gedit" to edit my menu.1st file? (2)If I try to use a text editing program (such as the one you showed the link for), how can I get permissions (from within windows) to edit and save changes to a file on my linux drive, or is that even possible? I have been looking at this post (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.p ... =3081671.0), but I can't quite understand how to navigate (using terminal from the live dvd) to my linux drive) where my Ultimate 1.8 install resides. I have tried several commands such as "cd /media/157 gb disk", but always seem to get "no such file or directory. I am a little dense sometimes, but if you have any (simple) way to explain this, I would greatly appreciate it.
By the way, the main reason for not just doing a reinstall is that I have way too much on that drive to just install over it. Also, I broke a very basic rule and did not have a backup of my data. I have VirtualBox installed and have Win XP installed inside along with several other vms, and each of those have some data on them.

[painterh]

Thanks for the input. I finally found the answer I needed, by going to the SuperGrub page and carefully reading instructions. It was not nearly as cryptic as I was making it out to be. I merely selected the erroneous menu.lst entry by putting in the info for the current kernel and location (typing it in the same order as the other entries, saving it and voila'. Amazing what you can co when you read directions. Thanks again

[pch.shot]

You just did the typical guy thing. Ignore the instructions first, spend hours trying to figure it out and the go back and read the instructions and have everything fixed in a few minutes. That's why women are smarter than we are. They read the instructions first!!!