[GRLUG] error: invalid arch independent ELF magic

Michael Mol mikemol at gmail.com
Wed Aug 31 13:32:59 EDT 2011


On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 1:25 PM, Eric Beversluis
<ebever at researchintegration.org> wrote:
> I'm getting more insight into why the Linux desktop isn't going to take
> off like some people hope. I'm into my third day of trying to get Ubuntu
> to work on my new Lenovo Thinkpad x120e.
>
> First day was spend figuring out that the computer didn't like the USB2
> cable to my DVD drive. Then when I finally got 10.04 installed, I
> couldn't get anything but 1080x768 resolution, even tho the computer is
> 1360x768. After two days of bootlessly (no pun intended) trying to find
> an answer--there are none out that that address this resolution problem
> on this system and 10.04--I decided to try Ubuntu 11.04.
>
> The install seemed to go fine. I told it to reformat sda1, which is
> where I mount root, but not to reformat sda3, where I mount /home. The
> resolution on the installation screens looked lovely. (This problem
> solved?)
>
> But when the installation completed and I tried to boot 11.04 I got this
> strange screen:
>   "Error: invalid arch independent ELF magic"
>   "grub rescue>"
>
> Again, searching around doesn't seem to help. Lots of detailed
> instructions that (a) do not clearly apply to this situation (many
> dealing with dual-boot situations); and (b) go well beyond the level of
> technical understanding that I have or want to develop.
>
> By the way, the 'live' version opens beautifully.
>
> (When I Google 'ELF magic' it seems to be all about Santa Claus. I wish
> Santa would give me a Linux distro that "just works.")

http://askubuntu.com/questions/37692/grub-invalid-arch-independent-elf-magic-after-natty-install-on-ssd

Sounds like you might need to either install grub-efi (if the laptop
has EFI. I don't know; EFI is relatively new to consumer systems), or
re-install grub to the boot sector.


(also, to find that link, I dropped "invalid arch independent ELF
magic" (without the quotes) into DuckDuckGo)
-- 
:wq

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