error 17 on new E1505n

Question

Received new E1505n yesterday and completed initial setup (time zone, add users, etc). Ran Update Manager from the pulldown menu first thing this morning. On the required restart, error message 'Error 17 unable to mount selected partition' Any ideas?

karl pell · Answer

Well, that was interesting. It is a GRUB error. Grub is apparently rewritten @ the update ... the offending entry becomes root(hd0,0) instead of root(hd0,2) The fix comes in two parts, 1)booting the machine and 2)edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot - @the error 17: cannot mount selected partition screen, press e to edit - change root(hd0,0) to root(hd0,2) and hit return - press b to boot This will boot the machine, but does not fix /grub/menu.lst edit /boot/grub/menu.lst this is a bit problematic as the default text editor is difficult (for me anyway) to invoke with root priviledges (i.e. sudo). my work-around was to install joe (a wordstar-like editor) via SynPkgMgr, terminal to joe, then sudo joe /boot/grub/menu.lst to edit and save.

rscheckler · Answer

I was in the exact same position that you are in now. Yesterday I received my E1505N laptop and everything worked fine out of the box. When I updated the system I also got the GRUB error 17. This is what the problem is: The E1505N has 4 partitions to it. The boot is located in the 3rd partition (partition 2). When you run the updates, the kernal also gets updated. When the kernal is updated the machine now thinks that the boot is located in the 1st partition (partition 0). What you have to do is manually redirect it so that it looks at partition 2 instead of 0 in the GRUB files. It all has to do with the way that Dell set up the partitions. This is going to be a HUGE problem in the coming weeks for people who are receiving the new E1505N. I hope this helps you.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

karl pell, Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum. You can click the title below to view the Linux FAQ and get the numbers for Hardware and Software support. Linux Faq Support Numbers

rscheckler · Answer

Haha It looks like you figured it out before I could get my post in. I'm glad that you figured it out.

karl pell · Answer

thanks for the look and the thought, rscheckler.

karl pell · Answer

additional note ... sudo update-grub does not properly fix the problem. It rewrites /boot/grub/menu.lst using the (erroneous) hd(0,0) entry.

jinkusu · Answer

barring that, have you had any issues? do the suspend options work well?

rscheckler · Answer

I agree karl pell, even though the machine is great...some work is involved to get some stuff to work. My look on things is that it might be a little work but it will be well worth it in the end.

karl pell · Answer

Sorry, can't speak to the suspend question as I don't use. In general, I'm pleased with the machine, but I would caution you that a satisfying experience is going to require the user to have some experience in problem-solving in the linux world. There is no useful printed documentation included with the machine. There is an Ubuntu help file in the toolbar, but it appears to be the standard Ubuntu help ... nothing specific to this machine. As an example of 'experience counts', I just tried to setup the modem but could not get it working ... no big deal, I've been down this road before, just have to look up online linux modem setup stuff that I've used in the past ... point is, I already know where to look. Absent that prior linux modem experience, I'd be adrift.

rscheckler · Answer

ALL options seem to be working perfectly. This includes all keyboard functions.

fjgaude · Answer

Jesse, please tell Dell to fix this ASAP, for it is going to ready cause problems for new users. Thanks, frank

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

Linux Users, I just posted a fix for the error 17 message at the top of this board.

ToeBee · Answer

This seems like a problem with apt. It shouldn't stomp on the grub settings when it updates the package. Has a bug report been filed with Ubuntu? This seems like a rather big problem...

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