Grub fails with Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

Situation

After an online update grub fails with:

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

Resolution

Solution:

For systems running SLES11SP1 or immediate action to get the system back online please see the workaround below. On systems running SLES11SP2 update perl-Bootloader to version 0.4.89.44-0.4.2.1 or later.

Workaround:

Press enter to get back into the grub menu, press "e" on the default boot entry (usually the first in the list), select the line root (hd0) and press "e" again. Change root (hd0) to the desired value (e.g. if the root device is /dev/sda1, the location would be hd0,0) and press enter. Check the changes on the screen for correctness and press "b" to boot.

Once the system is online, please adjust /boot/grub/menu.lst and change all root (hd0) entries to their correct values.

Cause

After the update /boot/grub/menu.lst contains

root (hd0)

for the default boot entry but should contain

root (hdx,y)

instead.

Disclaimer

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