Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Colin wrote: A more obscure BIOS tactic common back in the day was to put all or part of it in a hidden area on the primary master hard drive. This might be your issue, except I think this was only Compaq 486/Pentium systems. Name-brand computers always have some proprietary feature to keep us power users away (like warranties, or older Dells' nonstandard power supplies). -- Colin When you ran fdisk and created all your partitions, did you flag one of them as bootable? -- Ted Ozolins(VE7TVO) Westbank, B. C -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
On 6/24/05, Ted Ozolins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Colin wrote: A more obscure BIOS tactic common back in the day was to put all or part of it in a hidden area on the primary master hard drive. This might be your issue, except I think this was only Compaq 486/Pentium systems. Name-brand computers always have some proprietary feature to keep us power users away (like warranties, or older Dells' nonstandard power supplies). -- Colin When you ran fdisk and created all your partitions, did you flag one of them as bootable? -- Ted Ozolins(VE7TVO) Westbank, B. C -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I did what I always do: /dev/hda1 /boot ext3 /dev/hda2 swap /dev/hda3 /reiser and I don't recall ever flagging anything as bootable (other than installing grub) to the MBR. Where do you flag partitions as bootable in fdisk? -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Daniel da Veiga [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). So, the bios detects the hard drive but it won't let you specify it as the boot device? What version of bios is that? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list It looks like Dell messed up with the BIOS, they allways do modifications for their own purpose, I had problems like that in a Compaq too... As someone said before, try running Gentoo from a boot floppy (if your BIOS refuses to boot from floppy, get a hammer and throw your computer of a bridge), this way you'll know if its a BIOS issue. Ok. How do I get a Gentoo boot floppy? Were you able to boot a different hard drive with same bios and disk controller? Here are instructions for creating a grub floppy: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Creating-a-GRUB-boot-floppy.html Maybe you can boot with that using these commands: rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I was able to boot the factory HD (and, I think, possibly the CD too) with SuSE. But I took that drive when I built another Gentoo box, so I replaced it with another drive I had laying around. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan schreef: I was able to boot the factory HD (and, I think, possibly the CD too) with SuSE. But I took that drive when I built another Gentoo box, so I replaced it with another drive I had laying around. And what comes to my mind on hearing this is jumpers? The short version of why I'm thinking this basically has to do with myself never remembering how drives I just had laying around are jumpered before plunking them into a box. The long version involves Dell and their custom everything, which could quite possibly require, for example, that drives are jumpered cable select in order to be recognized by their BIOS. $DEITY knows I hope that they don't have and require a hidden, custom boot sector for the drive to be bootable at all on the machine. Anyway, just an idea, as I've seen systems fail to boot without some partitions marked bootable, but never that the system won't even *try* before failing. So it seems to me that the problem lies prior to looking for a bootable partition (and possibly not finding one), and that's either hardware or BIOS, afaik. HTH, Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Holly Bostick wrote: Michael Haan schreef: I was able to boot the factory HD (and, I think, possibly the CD too) with SuSE. But I took that drive when I built another Gentoo box, so I replaced it with another drive I had laying around. And what comes to my mind on hearing this is jumpers? If that doesn't do it then you may want to experiment with 1 or 2 other hard drives if you have some around. Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan wrote: On 6/24/05, Ted Ozolins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Colin wrote: A more obscure BIOS tactic common back in the day was to put all or part of it in a hidden area on the primary master hard drive. This might be your issue, except I think this was only Compaq 486/Pentium systems. Name-brand computers always have some proprietary feature to keep us power users away (like warranties, or older Dells' nonstandard power supplies). -- Colin When you ran fdisk and created all your partitions, did you flag one of them as bootable? -- Ted Ozolins(VE7TVO) Westbank, B. C -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I did what I always do: /dev/hda1 /boot ext3 /dev/hda2 swap /dev/hda3 /reiser and I don't recall ever flagging anything as bootable (other than installing grub) to the MBR. Where do you flag partitions as bootable in fdisk? Yes, fdisk can toggle the boot flag on a partition. It's not very logical for the bios to look at the partition table though. It really only needs to be interested in the boot loader part of the mbr. Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
[gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). So, the bios detects the hard drive but it won't let you specify it as the boot device? What version of bios is that? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
It looks like Dell messed up with the BIOS, they allways do modifications for their own purpose, I had problems like that in a Compaq too... As someone said before, try running Gentoo from a boot floppy (if your BIOS refuses to boot from floppy, get a hammer and throw your computer of a bridge), this way you'll know if its a BIOS issue. On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). So, the bios detects the hard drive but it won't let you specify it as the boot device? What version of bios is that? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list -- Daniel da Veiga Computer Operator - RS - Brazil -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
On 6/23/05, Daniel da Veiga [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It looks like Dell messed up with the BIOS, they allways do modifications for their own purpose, I had problems like that in a Compaq too... As someone said before, try running Gentoo from a boot floppy (if your BIOS refuses to boot from floppy, get a hammer and throw your computer of a bridge), this way you'll know if its a BIOS issue. On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). So, the bios detects the hard drive but it won't let you specify it as the boot device? What version of bios is that? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list -- Daniel da Veiga Computer Operator - RS - Brazil -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list Ok. How do I get a Gentoo boot floppy? -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Daniel da Veiga [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: On 6/23/05, Zac Medico [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? That's odd. Have you tried to chain load it from a grub floppy or cd? rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 What kind of hard drive and disk controller are they? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list I'm not even sure what that means! The fact of the matter is, the PC refuses to even try to boot from the HD (FYI - it has booted linux in the past from the HD). So, the bios detects the hard drive but it won't let you specify it as the boot device? What version of bios is that? Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list It looks like Dell messed up with the BIOS, they allways do modifications for their own purpose, I had problems like that in a Compaq too... As someone said before, try running Gentoo from a boot floppy (if your BIOS refuses to boot from floppy, get a hammer and throw your computer of a bridge), this way you'll know if its a BIOS issue. Ok. How do I get a Gentoo boot floppy? Were you able to boot a different hard drive with same bios and disk controller? Here are instructions for creating a grub floppy: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Creating-a-GRUB-boot-floppy.html Maybe you can boot with that using these commands: rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 Zac -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? I've seen similar behavior with my Sager when switching hard disks. In my case, the boot list in the bios would show the primary master disk twice, but not my secondary slave! But it never found a bootable disk. Swapping in the old hard disk didn't fix the problem, and it was autodetecting the hard disks correctly. Eventually, I set all the disk types to None in the IDE device configuration screen, saved, and powered off. This removed the harddisk entries from the boot configuration. Then I rebooted, set the device detection back to Auto, and the boot configuration screen came up correctly, and the system booted up perfectly. HTH -Richard -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Dell Optiplex, New HD, Won't Boot from HD after install
Richard Fish wrote: Michael Haan wrote: I don't know what is going on here. I've installed x86 2005.0 on a Dell Optiplex. I've installed a new harddrive (b/c I took the factory one for another gentoo box), run through the x86 install, built a kernel and installed grub. The box refuses to boot from the hard drive. In fact, in the BIOS setup, it refuses to let me specify the hard drive as a boot option. Anyone have any idea why? Is there a BIOS update available? Grab the update and put it on a floppy/CD, and flash your BIOS to the latest version. You might have a bug in your BIOS. One of my motherboards' BIOSes didn't support hard drives 32 GB, but the patch included an error in autodectection, causing my 60 GB hard drive to appear as 2.1 GB in the BIOS when set to LBA mode. Gentoo didn't have any problems with it, even without hdx=stroke, so I think that was just a display error. But the update was well worth it, anyway. A more obscure BIOS tactic common back in the day was to put all or part of it in a hidden area on the primary master hard drive. This might be your issue, except I think this was only Compaq 486/Pentium systems. Name-brand computers always have some proprietary feature to keep us power users away (like warranties, or older Dells' nonstandard power supplies). -- Colin -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
