(no subject) [GRUB boot problems]

[Paolo]

Phil Schaffner said:
> On Thu, 2004-01-15 at 10:16, Phil Schaffner wrote:
>> List members:  Sorry for any confusion here, but we took it off the list
>> so I could send Paolo an attachment.  (Anyone who would like to have the
>> script, a mod of an old version of mkbootdisk to make a grub-menu
>> floppy, please e-mail me directly.  If there's interest I can post it.)
>>snip<
>> I should have also asked for "fdisk -l" output, but will wing it -
>> device names may have to be changed to protect the innocent.  It's
>> possible all this can be fixed by modifying BIOS setting to change the
>> boot order; however, on my IDE/IDE-RAID/SCSI system that failed to
>> work.  Thus the following mess...

fdisl -l says:

Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *        15      3738  29912998+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2             1        14    112423+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3          3739      4997  10112917+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

>> Let's assume for now that the disk that grub (when booted from the
>> floppy) sees as (hd0) is /dev/sda.  (If it's on something else, like a
>> second IDE controller, it might be /dev/hde.)
>
> Replying to my own post.  Just had a "DUHHHH!" moment when I went back
> to Paolo's original post in this thread - an eternity ago in the
> time-scale of this list.  He clearly shows that the disks are /dev/hda
> and /dev/hdb which makes me wonder if I'm off in the weeds.
>
> Try it anyway Paolo - just change /dev/sda to /dev/hdb everywhere, in my
> last post, but I fail to understand why your system would switch the
> master and slave on the same controller as preferred boot devices.  Much
> easier to understand my problems where I have /dev/hda (original ATA-33
> system disk), /dev/hde (large ATA-100 on HPT-370 IDE motherboard raid
> controller), and /dev/sda (current Linux system disk on an Adaptec SCSI
> card).

In short,
with the following config files I can boot both XP and linux from the grub
boot disk:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,1)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
	root (hd1,1)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
	initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title DOS
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	chainloader +1

Note that rootnoverify (hd0,0) is different from what you suggested me
(hd1,0).
I don't understand why I need to put (hd0,0) instead of (hd1,0)
but hey, it works!

# this device map was generated by anaconda
(fd0)     /dev/fd0
(hd1)     /dev/hda


then I copied those files to /boot/grub
and Iìve run:
grub --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map
root (hd1,1)
setup (hd1) --> hd0 doesn't work, see below
quit

After the reboot the machine din't  display the boot option,
it just booted windowsXP.

Another strange thing is the following:
grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,1)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "install /grub/stage1 d (hd0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/grub.conf "...
fail
ed

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> setup (hd1)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"...  16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+16 p (hd1,1)/grub/stage2
/grub/grub
.conf"... succeeded
Done.

Hints? Suggestions ?

                            Paolo