mjhjmtu

I have googled a lot for this problem.
I found this,
but it didn't solve my problem.
Other solutions suggest me to reinstall grub (run grub-install), which didn't work either.

Here is what I am doing: (my grub version is 2.02)

1. I use grub2-mkrescue to make my X.iso


2. I boot a VMWareWorkstation virtual machine, which has a 1.0GB SATA disk, from X.iso


3. I install X.iso on disk, the details are:

3.1. erase /dev/sda in case there are old partitions on it:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1

3.2. Create 3 primary partitions on /dev/sda as dev/sda1,sda2,sda3 (the size is 100M, 30M and 70M),
and toggle sda1 to be bootable

Disk /dev/sda: 1024 MB, 1073741824 bytes, 2097152 sectors
130 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot StartCHS EndCHS StartLBA EndLBA Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 0,1,1 12,191,50 63 204862 204800 100M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 12,191,51 16,147,2 204863 266302 61440 30.0M 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 16,147,3 25,127,37 266303 409662 143360 70.0M 83 Linux

3.3. Format the 3 partitions as ext2, and mount /dev/sda1

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda3
ROOTFS_PATH=/var/.rootfs
mkdir $ROOTFS_PATH
mount /dev/sda1 $ROOTFS_PATH

3.4 copy files...

for i in bzImage initrd.img vmlinuz-*; do
 cp -rf /boot/$i $ROOTFS_PATH/boot
done
cp -f /boot/grub/device.map $ROOTFS_PATH/boot/grub/device.map
for i in init linuxrc; do
 cp -rf /$i $ROOTFS_PATH
done
for i in bin etc lib sbin share usr; do
 cp -a /$i $ROOTFS_PATH
done
for i in dev var proc sys tmp data log; do
 mkdir -p $ROOTFS_PATH/$i
done

3.5 Install grub and make grub config file

chroot $ROOTFS_PATH <<EOF
mount -a
mdev -s
grub-install $tdisk
grub-install --recheck $tdisk
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
EOF

4. reboot

It says:

.
error: disk 'hd0,msdos1' not found
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

And the most strange thing is that ls command shows nothing in grub-rescue cli
---- as someone says, it should show disk list.

cp -f /boot/grub/device.map $ROOTFS_PATH/boot/grub/device.map

So, you copied the GRUB device.map file from the GRUB rescue ISO image to your disk?
It might be forcing grub-install to associate the GRUB device identifier hd0 with a disk device other than /dev/sda.

Before running grub-install, verify that the device.map file actually associates hd0 with the disk you're installing GRUB to (i.e. /dev/sda in your case).

Also, why are you doing all this? It looks like you're trying to make a grub2-mkrescue VM image that might be useable in rescuing some other VM that has lost its bootloader - is that what you're planning to do? If so, simply booting the problem VM using an ISO image of any Live CD/DVD Linux distribution would give you a more extensive set of tools and more comfortable environment for fixing your original problem, whether it's a missing bootloader or something else.

If you specifically need grub2-mkrescue, you already have your X.iso - why you are trying to convert it to a virtual-disk-based installation?