From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

My hardware is a Dell Latitude E6410 that *WAS* using Windows XP when I deserted Microsoft for Debian Stretch. My OS was Debian 12.8 and I was
surfing with SeaMonkey {version ???} with both JavaScript and cookies
enabled [I *rarely* use either]. I ignored a *WARNING MESSAGE* causing a system *CRASH*.

Fortunately I was able to boot to a Debian 9.13 system on which
SeaMonkey 2.49.4 is available.

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a peculiar
error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I need to
refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a system of
my vintage.

Can someone point me to documentation not protected(sic) by Cloudflare?

TIA


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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On 09/07/2026 07:49 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:

My hardware is a Dell Latitude E6410 that *WAS* using Windows XP when I deserted Microsoft for Debian Stretch. My OS was Debian 12.8 and I was surfing with SeaMonkey {version ???} with both JavaScript and cookies enabled [I *rarely* use either]. I ignored a *WARNING MESSAGE* causing a system *CRASH*.

Fortunately I was able to boot to a Debian 9.13 system on which
SeaMonkey 2.49.4 is available.

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I need to
refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a system of
my vintage.

Can someone point me to documentation not protected(sic) by Cloudflare?

TIA

Another search told me that I need to understand a BIOS [not UEFI] based
boot process/sequence.


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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Am 07.09.26 um 14:49 schrieb Richard Owlett:

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I need to
refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a system of
my vintage.

Use a live USB thumb disk to boot the live OS an then repair the boot
loader:


https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/740193/how-to-repair-or-re-install-grub-using-the-chroot-command/
--
Gru|f
Marco

Please send unsolicited mail to dustbin12@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On 09/07/2026 08:38 AM, Marco Moock wrote:

Am 07.09.26 um 14:49 schrieb Richard Owlett:

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a
peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I
need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a
system of my vintage.

Use a live USB thumb disk to boot the live OS an then repair the boot loader:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/740193/how-to-repair-or-re-install-grub-using-the-chroot-command/

That article not germane:
1. it assumes Windows present. It was evicted years ago.
2. Another search told me that I need to understand a BIOS [not UEFI]
based boot process/sequence.

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Am 07.09.26 um 16:16 schrieb Richard Owlett:

On 09/07/2026 08:38 AM, Marco Moock wrote:

Am 07.09.26 um 14:49 schrieb Richard Owlett:

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a
peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I
need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a
system of my vintage.

Use a live USB thumb disk to boot the live OS an then repair the boot
loader:


https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/740193/how-to-repair-or-re-
install-grub-using-the-chroot-command/

That article not germane:
-a-a 1. it assumes Windows present. It was evicted years ago.

Not it tells you the command to run under a Live Linux OS.

-a-a 2. Another search told me that I need to understand a BIOS [not UEFI]
-a-a-a-a-a based boot process/sequence.

If your machine ran Windows XP, you have a BIOS. If it boots GRUB, it
works fine and ended its job after loading the binary in the first
sector of the disk.
--
Gru|f
Marco

Junk-Mail bitte an trashcan@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Richard Owlett wrote:
...

try this:

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux


songbird
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On 09/07/2026 09:27 AM, Marco Moock wrote:

Am 07.09.26 um 16:16 schrieb Richard Owlett:

On 09/07/2026 08:38 AM, Marco Moock wrote:

Am 07.09.26 um 14:49 schrieb Richard Owlett:

When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a
peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I >>>> need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a
system of my vintage.

Use a live USB thumb disk to boot the live OS an then repair the boot
loader:


https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/740193/how-to-repair-or-re-
install-grub-using-the-chroot-command/

That article not germane:
-a-a-a 1. it assumes Windows present. It was evicted years ago.

Not it tells you the command to run under a Live Linux OS.

*BUT*
I need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a system of my vintage.
Without that your method may irretrievably destroy valuable information.
60+ years of programming has taught me to LOOK before LEAPING.

-a-a-a 2. Another search told me that I need to understand a BIOS [not UEFI] >> -a-a-a-a-a-a based boot process/sequence.

If your machine ran Windows XP, you have a BIOS. If it boots GRUB, it
works fine and ended its job after loading the binary in the first
sector of the disk.

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On 09/07/2026 09:35 AM, songbird wrote:

Richard Owlett wrote:
...

try this:

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux

songbird

That's closer.
I *AM NOT* trying to repair/replace some dingus.

My *GOAL* is to grok the failure _mechanism_.

Note I purposely did not quote the specific message received ;}


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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Am 07.09.26 um 16:41 schrieb Richard Owlett:

-aI need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub boots a system of my vintage.

Without that your method may irretrievably destroy valuable information.

Do you have a backup?
If not, this is a huge fault if important (equal how much) data is
stored on this machine.

A BIOS boot itself is rather simple: The BIOS loads the binary in the
first sector. As the space in this sector is limited and a complex
bootloader like GRUB needs more space, it loads more data from other places.
As you said you see the GRUB boot screen, the BIOS is working fine.
--
Gru|f
Marco

Junk-Mail bitte an trashcan@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Richard Owlett wrote:

On 09/07/2026 09:35 AM, songbird wrote:

Richard Owlett wrote:
...

try this:

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux


songbird

That's closer.
I *AM NOT* trying to repair/replace some dingus.

My *GOAL* is to grok the failure _mechanism_.

Note I purposely did not quote the specific message received ;}

for the future, always have a stable partition set aside
so that if you want to experiment in another testing partition
you are not putting valuable information at risk.

also when you partition a disk, keep a printed or backed up
copy of the partition table handy (and any file system types or
flags) that way even if you somehow destroy the disk partition
table you can still find the partition and file system and
mount it read-only to recover.


songbird
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On Mon, 7 Sep 2026 15:38:35 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

Use a live USB thumb disk to boot the live OS an then repair the
boot loader:

This is why I always keep a USB stick with SystemRescue handy <https://www.system-rescue.org/>.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On 2026-09-07, Richard Owlett wrote:

[...]
When using the Grub menu to launch the Debian 12 system I get a peculiar error message. To interpret what it's trying to tell me, I need to

None of us can see what you see, what's the message?
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On Mon, 7 Sep 2026 09:41:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

*BUT* I need to refresh my memory as to the fine details of how Grub
boots a system of my vintage.

In the old BIOS era, Grub had a bunch of loadable modules which give
it read-only access to a range of filesystems. There is an initial
stub part of it in the boot sector, which is loaded and invoked by the
BIOS. That knows where to find enough of the rest of Grub, plus the
relevant module to be able to read files in the partition where the
grub.cfg file is kept, which in turn tells it what kernel to boot and
what parameters to pass to that, including loading its initrd (initial
RAM disk) image.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On Mon, 7 Sep 2026 13:15:53 -0400, songbird wrote:

also when you partition a disk, keep a printed or backed up copy of
the partition table handy (and any file system types or flags) that
way even if you somehow destroy the disk partition table you can
still find the partition and file system and mount it read-only to
recover.

This sounds like a good idea, which I have been doing for years, even
though I have never b0rked things to that degree. ;)

Tip: use rCLsfdisk -drCY to dump the partition table in a low-level format
that can be easily reloaded without zapping the boot code.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 7 Sep 2026 13:15:53 -0400, songbird wrote:

also when you partition a disk, keep a printed or backed up copy of
the partition table handy (and any file system types or flags) that
way even if you somehow destroy the disk partition table you can
still find the partition and file system and mount it read-only to
recover.

This sounds like a good idea, which I have been doing for years, even
though I have never b0rked things to that degree. ;)

i had a hard drive fail where it came in handy.

Tip: use rCLsfdisk -drCY to dump the partition table in a low-level format that can be easily reloaded without zapping the boot code.

it wasn't too bad to get them typed back in.


songbird
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.debian

On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 06:49:26 -0400, songbird wrote:

i had a hard drive fail where it came in handy.

I have had lots of hard drives fail. Exact recreations of the
partition table were the least of my worries, if only because the
failure was often an excuse to upgrade to a bigger drive.
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