Re: Odd error message

[Dale R. Worley]

Andrei Borzenkov <address@hidden> writes:
>>     error: can't find command 'initrd'
>
> initrd command is implemented by module that is loaded on demand (most
> commands in grub are implemented by additional modules to keep initial
> image small). This means grub could not load module (file not found,
> some error during module init execution).

Thanks, that's helpful.

IMO, it would be clearer if the message was something like "can't find
module file for command '%s'".  While looking at the Grub configuration,
I found the module directory, so if I knew that Grub was looking for a
file for a command, I could guess that is where it should be.

> What filesystem /boot/grub (or /boot/grub2 depending on your
> distribution) is located on?

On a running system, the configuration file is at /boot/grub2/grub.cfg.
Partition sda2 is mounted as /boot.

The odd thing about the error is that it has been intermittent.  E.g.,
the system is up and running now because the last time I booted, it
worked.

If I look at the modules directory, /boot/grub2/i386-pc, linux.mod and
linux16.mod are present, but there is no initrd*.mod.  The only file
with 'initrd' in its name is /boot/initrd-plymouth.img.

A menuentry that has been starting intermittently is:

    menuentry 'Fedora 19 (3.14.27-100.fc19.x86_64) (Schrodinger's Cat) (on 
/dev/mapper/Hobgoblin00-RootF19)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os 
$menuentry_id_option 
'osprober-gnulinux-/vmlinuz-3.14.27-100.fc19.x86_64--188c0958-d8f1-41dd-a64c-d7f468c80737'
 {
            insmod part_gpt
            insmod ext2
            set root='hd0,gpt2'
            if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt2 
--hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt2 --hint='hd0,gpt2'  
9c2021d3-d105-41b1-b805-ff88c399c943
            else
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 
9c2021d3-d105-41b1-b805-ff88c399c943
            fi
            linux /vmlinuz-3.14.27-100.fc19.x86_64 
root=/dev/Hobgoblin00/RootF19 ro rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 vconsole.keymap=us 
rd.lvm.lv=Hobgoblin00/Swap rd.luks=0 vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 
rd.lvm.lv=Hobgoblin00/RootF19 rhgb quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8
            initrd /initramfs-3.14.27-100.fc19.x86_64.img
    }

A menuentry which seems to be starting consistently (though I don't use
it much) is

    menuentry 'Fedora 24 (4.7.7-200.fc24.x86_64) (Workstation Edition)' --class 
fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --unrestricted 
$menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.7.7-200.fc24.x86_64-advanced-a14df364-bada-4583-8545-b7ec674db26d' {
            load_video
            set gfxpayload=keep
            insmod gzio
            insmod part_gpt
            insmod lvm
            insmod ext2
            set root='hd0,gpt2'
            if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt2 
--hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt2 --hint='hd0,gpt2'  
9c2021d3-d105-41b1-b805-ff88c399c943
            else
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 
9c2021d3-d105-41b1-b805-ff88c399c943
            fi
            linux16 /vmlinuz-4.7.7-200.fc24.x86_64 
root=/dev/mapper/Hobgoblin00-RootF24 ro rd.lvm.lv=Hobgoblin00/RootF24 
rd.lvm.lv=Hobgoblin00/Swap rhgb quiet 
            initrd16 /initramfs-4.7.7-200.fc24.x86_64.img
    }

Dale