Grub error 15 File not found on Ubuntu and Linux
Don’t normally do this, but I was editing the menu.lst file on my Ubuntu machine and thought I would be cool and just replace some of the file names. Well, I did not fair too well. I received the infamous Grub error 15: File not found with any of my boot selections.
While I wanted to upgrade the system, this was not the time. So here is what I did to rectify the situation without having to install the system.
- Download a Linux LiveCD. If you cannot find a LiveCD, then download an installation CD for the OS.
- I happened to have my old and trusty Ubuntu 8.04 CD.
- At the Ubuntu prompt, I selected “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”, which should be a LiveCD version..
- This is where we tell the Linux Administrators apart from the rest. You should have the disk partitioned and know which partition everything is on. Remember, the boot partition needs to be physical and not an LVM partition. So, I know that /boot is located on /dev/hda2 because Windows is running on /dev/hda1.
- It takes a couple of minutes for the LiveCD to boot, so be patient. If you are watching the LED on the CD player and it stops for a couple of minutes, just restart the machine after cleaning the CD.
- The mistake I had to correct was stupid. See if you can pick it out from these screen shots.
- Here is a listing of the boot packages I have under /boot.
- Now, here is the fixed menu.lst file.
- The moral of the story is don’t panic when you make a mistake. Look towards the learning experience. After all, a Linux Administrator is someone who breaks things to see how they work.
Enjoy your Linux system and don’t be affraid to experiment. After all you are getting good backups right?
