Thanks for your link, Gregory.
Turns out I didn't give enough information in my original post - and after thinking of the right terms, a Google search found the problem.� I was affected by bug 477104, fix and cause here:� https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/477104 in case it will help someone.
I was running Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 via Wubi (critical missing info in my original email).� Wubi + kernel update = broken grub2 & left at bootloader.� In the future, I'll need to follow any major updates by running sudo update-grub2.
If this happens to anyone else, I fixed it by running:
> set root=(hd0,1)
> loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
> set root=(loop0)
> linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=/dev/sda1 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro
> initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
> boot
Once Ubuntu booted successfully, I had to run sudo update-grub2 to prevent the issue from recurring at next boot.
Obviously, the versioning will vary; I also had to rollback to the previous version of vmlinuz and initrd.� I've seen comments that the first 2 lines aren't necessary, but I needed them on my system.
Hope this helps someone out in the future!
Cheers,
- Eric