I have a machine which is supposed to be a media server. I have tried to install Ubuntu (both alternate and regular i386). The installation (and boot to usb drive) went on fine, but after the install I tried to load the machine and it froze.
In the case of i386 I get the error "hd0 out of disk" and am left with a grub rescue console. set gives:
prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
root=hd0,msdos1
Following ubuntu wiki, I replaced msdos1 with 1 which didn't work.
In the case of the alternate install, I only get a blinking cursor on the top left (I waited for about two minutes).
If I wait a really long time in the alternate version, I get:
error: no such partition
grub rescue>
Nothing works in this mode as well. I also tried to replace (hd0,1) with (hd0,sda) or (hd0,0) but this doesn't seam to have an effect.
Install information:
- Single hard drive
- Install on a hard drive via usb thumb drive
- Ubuntu's default hard drive portioning and formatting (use entire hard drive)
- Ubuntu Natty
How can I fix this?
I would start with testing your hardware. It is probably not RAM but I would test that first anyway to prove it isn't a problem.
Next I would move onto the hard drive. You could try the diagnostics on the Ultimate Boot CD. There is a tool for most brands of hard drive. The other thing I would recommend is to try a different hard drive in your machine. Also changing USB cables if this is a desktop machine.
Hopefully at some point during this process you isolated the problem. If not then I think it is probably a software issue not hardware.