GRUB crash at startup ERROR 15

[polopolo]

Binary package hint: grub

When I was installing a shipit version of ubuntu gutsy 7.10 and restart my computer, GRUB gives me a message called "error 15".

I was doing a normal installation on my first harddrive on the 2nd partition of my harddrive. A second install gives me the same.
How can I use gutsy gibbon without using a upgrade from ubuntu 7.04 (because it's removes compiz (fusion)).

PLEASE HELPPP!!!!!!!!!

[jtholmes (jtholmes)]

Thank you for your report

[TerryG (tgalati4)]

Triaged to Incomplete. Error 15 is common with new installs. It could be /dev/hda vs /dev/sda naming convention. It could be UUID assignment to drive versus /dev/sda. Check /etc/fstab and compare to /boot/grub/device.map to make sure they are consistent. Make sure boot=/dev/sda statement is consistent to what is in fstab in menu.lst or grub.conf.

[®om (rom1v)]

Same problem with a fresh install of ubuntu hardy heron final.
I had no problem with ubuntu hardy beta :(

[®om (rom1v)]

(just press 'e' then edit hd(1,0) to hd(0,0) resolve the problem)

[Nicolas_Raoul (nicolas-raoul)]

Today I decided to install Ubuntu Heron. Default install, all options by default, no dual boot or anything non-standard.

I inserted the live cd, booted my computer (Acer Aspire 1640), clicked Next Next Next (all default options, including automatic partitioning of the whole disk). I finally ended up with the nice Heron desktop, together with a Ubiquity crash report which is probably unrelated.

I restarted the computer and got this on my screen:
GRUB Loading stage 1.5
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 15

I can't do anything, and pressing 'e' does nothing.

More to come:
It is not so easy to read the filesystem configuration to guess what went wrong, because I have no OS now, but I will try with a live cd.

[Nicolas_Raoul (nicolas-raoul)]

Following my last comment, pleas find attached the /etc/fstab file from the badly installed hard drive.

[Nicolas_Raoul (nicolas-raoul)]

Following my last comment:
The hard drive does not contain a /boot/grub/device.map file. I attached the result of "ls -l" command on the boot directory to show that there is no grub directory there.
For those who may wonder, I insist that those files were copied from the mounted hard drive, they do not belong to the live cd.

[Nicolas_Raoul (nicolas-raoul)]

I just reinstalled. Same steps. Same result.

[Nicolas_Raoul (nicolas-raoul)]

In two days I have found two workarounds:

Workaround 1:
At boot, do not select "install" directly. Instead, load the live desktop, and from there, click on the icon to install.

Workaround 2:
Use the alternate CD (when downloading from the Ubuntu website, check the "alternate" checkbox)

[Hooya (tjbassoon)]

I'm having this issue with Xubuntu 8.04. No matter how I install it there is no /grub directory in /boot on the hard disk. So I get error 15 because the files truly don't exist. From what I understand there's no automated utility to create what should be in the /boot directory at all. I have 6 files in /boot, but no subfolders.

[cyrion (cyrion)]

Same problem here : fresh install of ubuntu 8.04 : no grub directory.
I tried 6 times selecting different partitions to install grub, with no luck.
I'll try alternate cd...

[Toad (btorgerson)]

I just installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 AMD64 using the Desktop CD. When I rebooted the machine I got GRUB error 15. I booted with the live CD and took a look in /boot. There was no /boot/grub directory. I am now trying to install with the alternate CD.

[VladNistor (vladnistor)]

This also happened to me today.
I had Ubuntu 8.04.1 installed, then installed Intrepid beta on a separate partition to give it a try. I liked intrepid and it seemed stable so i upgraded 8.04.1 to 8.10 beta then erased the swap and ext3 used for the 8.10 and created 2 partitions out of it. It worked fine before i erased the test Intrepid instalation, now i can't get Ubuntu to run. I've checked the fstab and device.map and they match. I'm unsure what to do.

[deric (barton-tomas)]

I had the same problem on Intrepid 8.10. There are 3 hard drives on my computer and after normal installation I got error 2. So I erased MBR a reinstalled Kubuntu, then I got error 15. Fixing grub from boot CD didn't helped at all. As a desperate option I tried installation from live desktop and now everything works fine. Thanks guys

[Hobie (hobartcat)]

LESS TECHIE SOLUTION

I had this problem, too, and I found a lot of super-techie solutions out there which I did not understand. So, I reinstalled Jaunty and when selecting the partition, I used the Advanced Options to make sure my exact hard drive was selected. Luckily, I had just installed the drive and so recognized the brand name, etc. which was very helpful.

I had this trouble with Heron, too, but couldn't get Heron to reinstall (some I/O error which comes and goes...?)

Good luck. I hope this is a helpful comment to techie and less-techie alike.

[Vish (vish)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]