Invalid environment block

[Tib-Tib]

Hi all!

I already brought up this problem in the thread
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...3550#msg263550
I thought I had it sorted and then it started doing it again but since that wasn't disturbing my activities I kinda ignored it.

Until yesterday everytime I would start the computer I would get a blue screen with the error message:

error: Invalid environment block.
Press any key to continue...

Today it just won't start at all and I get, on a black screen, the following:

error: invalid environment block.
error: invalid extent.
error: no suitable mode found.
error: no video mode activated.
error: invalid environment block.

Press any key to continue...
General error mounting filesystems.
A maintenance shell will now be started.
CONTROL-D will terminate this shell and reboot the system.
root@(none):~#

Anyone got any idea on how I could solve that?

Thanks a lot!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Invalid environment block

When you get the grub menu, try editting the entry you're going to boot to and removing the line that says save_env recordfail and then booting. If this works, I'll tell you how to fix it permanetely.

[Tib-Tib]

Re: Invalid environment block

To access the GRUB I must press Esc while the DELL screen apears or just after, right? anyhow I can't access the grub, it comes straight to that error message after the DELL screen.
Or what's the way to access the grub?

[oshunluvr]

Re: Invalid environment block

I think it's the "shift" key for grub2. You could also boot to a liveCD or USB and edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file on your hard drive and change timeout=0 to =10.

[Tib-Tib]

Re: Invalid environment block

Ok so I got to the grub2, I looked for a line that says save_env recordfail but there was only a line that said recordfail so I deleted that one. It still wouldn't boot and give the exact same error message.

I then plugged in my live USB and boot in live mode,
this is a first time for me editing a file with konsole so here's what I typed:
edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg
and here's what I got back:

Waring: unknown mime-type for "/boot/gru/grub.cfg" -- using "application/octet-stream"
Error: no write parmission for file "/boot/grub/grub.cfg"

Then I tried to access the hard drive with dolphin and realised that I couldn't, there was an error message at the bottom of the window saying:

An error occurred while accessing '71.5GiB Hard Drive', the system responded:

And the USB device notifier shows up as well and says that the Hard Drive cannot be mounted.

I tried to access the grub again but it wouldn't work. It says Grub loadig. and then the same error message apears again before the grub loads up and the grub never end up comming up.

I also did a File Integrity Check and it came up with 1 file having an error.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Invalid environment block

If you checked the filesystem and it has problems and/or the filesystem can't be mounted: I'd say you've found the source of the boot problem.

It's possible your hard drive is dying.

[Tib-Tib]

Re: Invalid environment block

Yeah right, it seems to be the case...
Anyway I could recover my data on a USB hard drive before it completly crashes?
I already gave it a try but I don't know the exact command for it and I don't know what are the directories for the external and internal hard drive.
Or is there another way?