no linux after reboot

Fri Dec 9 16:26:16 UTC 2005

On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 05:03:01AM +1300, Grant Allan wrote:
> > On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 04:19:45AM +1300, Grant Allan wrote:
> >> > On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 03:18:32AM +1300, Grant Allan wrote:
> >> >> >> hi,
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> i have some more news: grub.conf looks OK to me.
> >> >> >> but grub-install generates an error as follows:
> >> >> >>    /dev/hdd1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> does that maybe mean that i should jump into BIOS and get it to
> >> >> >> autodetect
> >> >> >> my hard drives?  i forgot to do that yesterday.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > It's probably already doing that.  It's unrelated.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> cheers,
> >> >> >> grant
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Just another detail to take care of what the installer missed.
> >> After
> >> >> > you have chrooted to /mnt/sysimage, edit /boot/grub/device.map to
> >> add
> >> >> > the line
> >> >> >
> >> >> > (hd3)     /dev/hdd
> >> >> >
> >> >> > assuming "hd3" is not mapped to some other device.  Note that in
> >> >> > grub.conf, numbering starts at 0, not 1.  Then do the grub-install
> >> >> > thing.  If that doesn't work, you may need to tell us more about
> >> the
> >> >> > drive and partitioning arrangement, and post grub.conf, if you can.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Cheers,
> >> >> > --
> >> >> > Bob McClure, Jr.
> >> >>
> >> >> Hi,
> >> >>
> >> >> Yay, I'm no longer getting windows!  Furthermore, I have learned
> >> today
> >> >> about bottom posting.
> >> >
> >> > Hurray!  And don't be afraid to trim unrelated or unnecessary cruft
> >> > like mailing list footer and excess lines in the sigs.
> >> >
> >> >> However, I now have the following on rebooting my machine:
> >> >>
> >> >> GRUB Loading stage1.5
> >> >> GRUB loading, please wait...
> >> >> Error 21
> >> >>
> >> >> To make sure I tell you the right stuff regarding partitions & disks,
> >> >> please can you tell me if there is a way to query for this info (e.g.
> >> >> using linux rescue)?
> >> >
> >> > Hmm.  I dunno.  If you have another machine on your local net, maybe
> >> > you could start up networking during the rescue startup, then chroot
> >> > to /mnt/sysimage, and then you could scp (secure cp using SSH) the
> >> > info to another machine.
> >> >
> >> >> I have both put old and new hard drives on the one ribbon, but by my
> >> >> understanding that doesn't add up with the name /hdd, so I'd like to
> >> >> find
> >> >> out for sure.
> >> >
> >> > That's correct.  Here's how the labeling goes:
> >> >
> >> > Controller  Drive   Device   Grub map
> >> > ---------   -----   ------   --------
> >> > Primary     Master  /dev/hda (hd0)
> >> > Primary     Slave   /dev/hdb (hd1)
> >> > Secondary   Master  /dev/hdc (hd2)
> >> > Secondary   Slave   /dev/hdd (hd3)
> >> >
> >> > I might also mention that, in general, jumpering drives as Cable
> >> > Select (CS) is evil.  Just jumper the drives as master and slave as
> >> > appropriate.  That _always_ works.
> >> >
> >> >> Thanks again,
> >> >> Grant
> >> >
> >> > Cheers,
> >> > --
> >> > Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> >>
> >> ok,
> >>
> >> so since my second hard-drive is on the same ribbon as /dev/hda, i
> >> expect
> >> it to be hdb, not hdd.
> >>
> >> this makes it odd that calling grub-install generated an error that
> >> "/dev/hdd1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive"
> >
> > Yeah, it's not clear where that came from if there's no reference to
> > it in the grub.conf
> >
> >> is it possible to fire up that druid thingy from the rescue cd to see if
> >> the names are mixed up?
> >
> > I don't think it's that bright, and I think it's useful only during
> > installation.  I'd just make sure that grub.conf refers to the
> > primary-slave drive as variously /dev/hdb, (hd1), and the like, and
> > that device.map has this line in it:
> >
> > (hd1)     /dev/hdb
> >
> >> cheers,
> >> grant
> 
> hi,
> 
> strange but true: if i replace the line about /dev/hdd with the line
>  (hd1)     /dev/hdb
> then i get the same error back when running grub-install:
>   /dev/hdd1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
> 
> i've also tried
>  (hd1)     /dev/hdd
> but then i get the same error 21 as i before with
>  (hd3)     /dev/hdd
> 
> what to do next? any ideas about what could be causing both anaconda and
> qtparted to think that this drive is hdd? does the error code 21 give any
> clues?  i'm a bit lost.
> 
> thanks,
> grant

Well, when all else fails, Google.  I Googled for "grub loading error
21" and it led me to this

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grub/2003-02/msg00078.html

Go to the third posting in that thread

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grub/2003-02/msg00082.html

for his solution.  I don't know how it fixes things or if it's
relevant, but he had to turn on auto-detect in his BIOS.

One other thing I noticed in his grub.conf was a line like this:

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
    root (hd1,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/1
    initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img

You probably have "root=LABEL=/" or something like that.  That's
another evil - partition labeling for dummies.  I'd change the
"LABEL=<whatever>" to /dev/hdd5 or whatever it really is.  It's the
partition that mounts on /.  It may work on a first-time installation,
but the next time you add a disk drive from another machine, GRUB will
become very confused with filesystems from each disk that both have
the same label.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure at earthlink.net  http://www.bobcatos.com
Peace at any price is inflationary.