[TriLUG] Updates installed, system won't boot now

[Brian Blater]

So today I get several updates to my Ubuntu 11.04 system and I go
ahead and install them. Afterwards I reboot and I get the dreaded
blank screen with flashing cursor. This is a Lenovo M57 desktop. After
some searching I find that the system isn't even getting to the grub
menu and it just brings up the blank screen with flashing cursor. It
won't even boot a live CD. After some puzzled looks, I decide to boot
the system and try to get the system boot menu. I get that working and
I'm able to boot a live CD. I try to boot to the HDD with the same
procedures and I just get the dreaded grub> prompt.

After trying all kinds of solutions from the Internet to get the
system back up and running, all I can get is the grub> prompt. I can
boot the live CD and mount the partitions from my system, so the files
are there.

>From the grub> prompt I've tried booting the system with the following commands:

set root=(hd0,6) *I have the root partition at /dev/sda6
set prefix=(hd0,1)/boot/grub *I have a boot partition at /dev/sda1
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
I get error: file not found
I've actually tried all the partitions and all give me error: file not found
I've tried the following at grub>:
initrd /initrd.img
I get error: you need to load the kernel first.

So basically I'm stuck here. What am I doing wrong in getting grub
setup and booting the system again?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brian