Booting to grub_rescue prompt

[LinuxN00binTraining]

Hello, I just followed this article: http://www.nfoservers.com/forums/viewto ... =46&t=5045 to put my home server (running on 11.10) onto my VPS (10.04 LTS). After all was said and done I rebooted the VPS. Now it boots to a grub_rescue prompt and gives this error: "error: the symbol 'grub_xputs' not found. I'm guessing cloning my server had something to do with this as my server and the VPS aren't created equally Thanks for any help that can be provided. I'm trying to get my website up and running by days end so i can test everything out before my 2 day trial period ends.

[Edge100x]

It's likely that the grub version difference is causing a problem here. Have you tried installing 11.10 onto the VDS first, then performing the sync?

I don't yet know if Ubuntu 11.10 is even compatible with Xen HVM. I know that the kernel distributed with 11.04 was broken and incompatible, and I was unable to create an install image for that release because of this.

[LinuxN00binTraining]

It's likely that the grub version difference is causing a problem here. Have you tried installing 11.10 onto the VDS first, then performing the sync?

I don't yet know if Ubuntu 11.10 is even compatible with Xen HVM. I know that the kernels distributed with 10.10 and 11.04 were broken and incompatible.

Yes sir! I already attempted to do that, the only way I knew how was to install your pre-loaded 10.10 then upgrade to 11.04>11.10 but the upgrades failed at 11.04 I couldn't get the system to boot past a "Gave up looking for root device error" then it dropped to (ash).

[Edge100x]

You could try installing 11.10 directly, if you'd like. Shoot me a support request through the "Help!" page in your control panel and I can put the .iso on for you as a choice.

Alternately, you might try using grub-install from a boot CD. One fellow suggests this at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1580752.

[LinuxN00binTraining]

You could try installing 11.10 directly, if you'd like. Shoot me a support request through the "Help!" page in your control panel and I can put the .iso on for you as a choice.

Alternately, you might try using grub-install from a boot CD. One fellow at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1591450 said this worked for that error.

That's an idea! : ) But I wonder, will there be conflicts like there are now with the grub? The kernels could possibly be conflicting as well, only one way to find out! I also was curious when I did what the article stated in my OP did it transfer users, databases, permissions, everything? Overwrote the default root user and default UNIX passwords with the one on my home server? Thanks for all the help so far

[Edge100x]

The copying procedure would have replaced all of those things, that's correct.

The main thing that I'd worry about in copying from a physical machine install to a VDS would be grub and the /boot files. It sounds like grub might be giving you problems, and it's possible that the boot parameters might need to be adjusted to use a different name/UUID for the root device (how Ubuntu sets things up is a bit complicated, and there may be multiple files that need to be edited).

If you install 11.10 onto the VDS manually and then try to sync from there (after confirming that it works), it might be best to avoid such problems by adjustng the rsync invocation to also leave out /boot and any boot-related configuration files (I don't know their locations offhand, but there are likely some in one of the directories in /etc). This would involve adding more --exclude= lines: For instance, tossing this into the middle:

Code: Select all

--exclude=/boot \