The officially official Devuan Forum!

Monti

Member

Registered: 2017-09-25

Posts: 52  

error: no symbol table - Grub error HOWTO fix

After installing ASCII I got the message at start of boot:

error: no symbol table

Just so we have it on the forum I list the solution below.

To list the name of your harddrive type the command:

lsblk

Then:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda (if your harddrive is sda)

sudo update-grub

sudo reboot

aitor

Member

From: basque country

Registered: 2016-12-03

Posts: 230  

Website

Re: error: no symbol table - Grub error HOWTO fix

You can restore the grub using a live image. Run it and type:

cat /proc/partitions

You will get all the existent partitions sda1, sda2, sdd1,... Create a directory:

mkdir /tmp/mnt

and mount the first partition:

mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/mnt

You can see the content of this partition typing:

ls /tmp/mnt

If it contains the /boot directory you hit the target. In this case, you will be able to restore the grub by the following way:

grub-install --root-directory=/tmp/mnt /dev/sda

Otherwise, umount  the partition:

umount /tmp/mnt

and try with another one.

Last edited by aitor (2018-10-11 20:02:37)

---

If you work systematically, things will come by itself (Lev D. Landau)

Geoff 42

Member

Registered: 2016-12-15

Posts: 462  

Re: error: no symbol table - Grub error HOWTO fix

grub-install --root-directory=/tmp/mnt /dev/sda

Should that be boot-directory rather than root-directory? I can find no mention of root-directory in the documentation.

Geoff

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: error: no symbol table - Grub error HOWTO fix

I think you have to go back to squeeze to find --root-directory in the grub-install man page. Pretty sure it still works, though. These days, I tend to chroot into the system to install grub, so I don't use that option.