Reinstalling GRUB from the Rescue System

This document (7008279) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

GRUB boot loader is damaged for some reason and needs to be reinstalled.

Resolution

Boot the system with SLES 11 DVD (Select the right DVD match installed SP, however SP4 should be fine), select "Rescue System" and login as root. At the command line enter "grub" and follow this example:

linux:~ # grub

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K 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> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,0)

grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0xfd

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  18 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+18 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/
grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit

In this example the root partition is (hd0,0) as returned by the "find /boot/grub/stage1" command. Use the correct root partition for your system as indicated by this command for the two commands that follow the first one.

Reboot the system and GRUB should come up appropriately.

Disclaimer

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