Broken Grub menu: boot to the menu, drop to a consloe and boot Debian direct.
Sometimes the only thing that works when you boot is the Grub menu appears on your screen.
When you see Grub’s boot menu on your screen, instead fo selecting a boot item, press the “c” key.
That brings up a messages like this:
GNU GRUB version 1.99-14
Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the firs word,
TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists
posssible device or file completions. ESC at any time exits.
grub>
Now carry out the following commands at the grub prompt:
grub> search.file /sbin/init
hd0,msdos1
grub> search.file /boot/grub/device.map
hd0,msdos1
grub> search.file /vmlinuz
hd0,msdos1
Whatever you use, will ok. What we looking for is:
– Grub pointer to my Debian installation on drive number 1, partition number 1, your pointer
will be different from my example (hd0,msdos1)
– UUID assigned to this partition 625b756b-737e-4502-a914-9d351d50603a
grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)
Partition hd0,msdos1: Filesystem type ext2 - Last modification time
2012-01-11 10:57:44 Wednesday, UUID 625b756b-737e-4502-a914-9d351d50603a -
Partition start at 2048 - Total size 40134656 sectros
grub> set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-{press TAB key}
Possible files are:
vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 vmlinuz-3.2.0-1-686-pae
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-1-686-pae ro root=UUID=625b756b-737e-4502-a914-9d351d50603a
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-{press TAB key}
Possible files are:
initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686 initrd.img-3.2.0-1-686-pae
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-1-686-pae
grub> boot
and the machine boots š