Boot Issues with FC2

Wed Jun 23 00:32:05 UTC 2004

Okay - so I have something to start with - thank you very much. Fdisk 
displayed 38792 cylinders, when it should be 16,383 cylinders. Now my next 
problem is: where do I declare that with Fedora?  When I choose to manual 
configure disk with Disk Druid - there's now place to edit the CHS values. 
How do I accomplish this?

>From: Jeff Vian <jvian10 at charter.net>
>Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
>To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
>Subject: Re: Boot Issues with FC2
>Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:23:35 -0500
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>
>Lonnie Santella wrote:
>
>>Can someone please take a shot at this?  seems like a fundamental problem, 
>>but I've exhausted all my resources. All support docs seem to suggest the 
>>same thing, which doesn't work: directories relative to /boot.
>>
>>Bottom line is, Red Hat 9.0 installs fine on same machine - but FC2 always 
>>produces the same problem (below).
>>
>>Here?s a quick review of my environment:
>>
>>(1) Always a COMPLETELY clean install ? using Drive Image utility to erase 
>>all partitions and restore MBR.
>>
>>(2) Two machines, both Asus P4 clones with 1 GB RAM, and 1 Western Digital 
>>20 GB hard drive each.
>>
>>(3) Both machines have subsequently loaded Redhat 9.0 and ran flawlessly ? 
>>no problems at all.
>>
>>(4) I have two different ISO image CD?s from two different mirrors ? both 
>>with verified MD5Sum?s and both producing the exact same problem each 
>>time.
>>
>>So I?ve been trying to install FC2 ? I?ve just finished my 11th attempt. 
>>Following the advice of different threads and release notes, I always go 
>>back to a fresh install before trying anything new.
>>
>>To minimize variables, I keep the install as simple as possible. I choose 
>>?Automatic Partition?, which creates a 100MB /boot on hda1, a 17GB ?/? 
>>(root) on hda2, and a 2GB swap on hda3. I also choose a ?minimal? install 
>>to eliminate possible variables from the other CD?s ? this way I only have 
>>to use CD1.
>
>Try doing a manual partition.  Also verify that the bios is set to lba for 
>these drives and that fdisk shows the correct lba CHS parameters for the 
>drives.
>
>
>>
>>Each time, the install itself is flawless. But after the first reboot ? 
>>and naturally each time thereafter, immediately following the POST, I get 
>>a black screen with the word ?GRUB? in the upper left corner. No response 
>>to keyboard strokes or mouse movement at that point.
>>
>>I have to rule out hardware ? since this problem with FC2, I have 
>>successfully installed and ran RedHat 9.0 and FreeBSD 4.10. I always use a 
>>tried and true utility to erase the hard drives of all partitions and 
>>restore MBR before installing anything new. This guarantees a pristine 
>>physical drive during the install.
>>
>>I compared the grub.conf files on each machine after the FC2 install. They 
>>are identical. No big surprise there I guess. Then, just for further 
>>comparison, I isolated one machine and wiped it clean, and loaded RedHat 
>>9.0. Then I compared it?s grub.conf to that of the FC2 install. Almost 
>>identical except for the ?/? (root) and swap partitions. In each case the 
>>/boot partition is always the first (hda1). In FC2, the ?/? root partition 
>>is the second one (hda2) followed but the swap on hda3. But in RedHat 9.0, 
>>the swap is on hda2, followed by the / root on hda3. No big deal there, 
>>the grub.conf files compensate for this but looking to hda2 on FC2 and 
>>hda3 on RedHat 9.0 as one would expect.
>>
>>Both grub.conf files from FC2 and RedHat 9.0 list an entry as follows:
>>
>>Root (hd0,0)
>>
>>? I?m not sure if having different root partitions should affect this or 
>>not, but it?s the same in both OS?s.
>>
>>One other thing I thought was odd is that on both machines, the standard 
>>FC2 install puts a strange format or partition table on the physical 
>>drive; so much so that it takes a few extreme steps to wipe the partition 
>>info off the drive. Normally I would just use the ?delete? function of the 
>>utility, which works for all the RedHat dirstros and FreeBSD ? but in FC2 
>>it generates and error stating that it can?t delete the partition. I have 
>>to use a utility called ?bigfdisk? then put a dos partition on it, then 
>>delete the dos partition ? to get everything set back to a completely 
>>empty hard drive.
>
>This is the clue that you may need to check the CHS values and do a manual 
>partiton
>
>I suspect you are seeing the bug related to some mobo/bios and the lba 
>parameters with the 2.6 kernel and partitoning.
>
>My MSI mobo had this problem and after I manually set the CHS parameters on 
>the disk it worked perfectly.
>
>I thought I had the link to the fix for this bookmarked but I can't find it 
>right now.
>
>Maybe someone can repost the link here.
>
>>
>>I?d really like to give FC2 a test run ? been looking forward to it. I?ve 
>>read the release notes, and browsed for two solid days through news 
>>threads and docs. I?m stuck, could you please help me out here?
>>
>>Thanks in advance,
>>
>>Lonnie
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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