Alternative booting

[David Krings]

Chris Jones wrote:
>> So, unless my list above is incomplete it doesn't really allow for much
>> else other than GRUB/kernel or some mysterious force from above. So what
>> is the next thing you tell me? Aliens abducted my system? ;)
> 
> You can discount the kernel since, as far as I understand when you have the 
> problem all you get is
> 
> grub>
> 
> I.e. you have only got to the grub prompt - The kernel only comes into play 
> *after* grub, once grub has found the kernel you selected.
> 
> The fact you don't get that far means grub is unable to find the kernel you 
> requested (or its own config file perhaps ?). This means grub cannot 
> read /boot for some reason.
> 
>> >From your list this leaves
> 
> - hardware
> - BIOS
> - GRUB
> - user

OK, I agree that the kernel isn't the issue here unless one of the 
updates installs a new kernel, but even then it is an installer issue, 
not a kernel issue.

BIOS is not the problem as I was able to successfully boot several times 
with the exact same BIOS without any problems.

Hardware is out as it did work before more than once and the hardware is 
perfectly fine.

Leaves GRUB, updater, or user...since we cannot agree on either GRUB 
(which in its defense worked a few times!) or user (my setup worked fine 
several times in regards to booting) I add updater to the list and blame
that one.

> 
> and from the details in this thread I cannot discount any of the above 
> (although personally I would consider GRUB the least likely)

Well, I don't fault GRUB for not booting the OS when it gets fed wrong 
info. What I squarely blame GRUB for is that at the grub> prompt no 
reasonable means of recovery are available, at least not in my case.

> You say you have installed this system a few times - How hard would it be to 
> just install one more time, but this time with a /boot at the start of your 
> drive - This will either a) work, so all is fine or b) not work, proving 
> something or other about the problem.

I could ignore any updates and may get this done in a few hours, true, 
but I don't want to spend more time on trying stuff out that doesn't 
have a good chance of working.