Hello,
we are using GRUB to setup systems with AmigaOS XL - our new Amiga emulation package. We install a boot menu to load QNX which then can run AmigaXL - our QNX based Amiga emulation environment, to load Amithlon - an Amiga emulation environment made by our contractor VMC software based on a heavily modified linux kernel - and eventually to load Windows. We use GRUB 0.90 as installed via Debian package. I just copy the binary files from that Debian installed GRUB to the new system. I format a FAT16/32 (tried both) partition and put the files on it into /boot/grub and put the AMIthlon Linux kernel and initrd on it into /amithlon. This served quite well for several systems including two with Windows installed. But now it failed: I installed Windows in a partition at the first 10GB, then I created 50MB for the GRUB bootloader FAT partition, then I made 5 GB for QNX, and the rest were partitioned under type $76. Type $76 marks a virtual Amiga harddisks: The emulated Amiga will use this partition as a complete harddisk it can partition with its own tool HDToolBox. I am preparing this on a Athlon XP 1500 machine using a Elitegroup K7S5A board with BIOS from 8/27 but also one from october (the lastest available at www.ecs.com.tw). After I copied the files necessary for GRUB onto the second partition I rebooted the machine inserted the boot GRUB disk and typed: root (hd0,1) setup (hd0) There has been no error message of GRUB. It all succeeded. But when rebooting the machine it goes into an endless reboot loop. It detects harddisks, tries to determine where to boot from, possibly starts booting, its going to quickly to see whats going on and then it resets. I can only stop this loop by entering setup or inserting bootable floppy or CD-ROM. I tried quite some stuff. I made the Windows partition smaller - only 5 GB - to ensure its no problem with big disks. But then the BIOS auto HD configuration displays LBA mode anyway. I tried different other scenarios. I finally found out that when I remove the menu.lst file from the second partition /boot/grub partition, GRUB will come up with its shell interface and it will not enter endless reboot loop. See the attached file "menu.lst": 1) QNX will be loaded via chainloader from the third partition 2) AMIthlon will be loaded just like Linux with some additional options from the second partition. AMIthlon (small) uses a smaller initrd to save memory for the Amiga emulation 3) Windows is loaded via chainloder from the first partition I can see no obvious error or mistake in that menu.lst file. But if its there GRUB enters endless reboot loop and if not, GRUB enters GRUB shell and I can issue the chainloader commands to boot QNX or Windows and it works! Then I tried replacing that menu.lst file with something I knew should work: At least it works on the system I am writing this email on. Its even more complex and before the GRUB bootloader FAT partition is not only a Windows but also the QNX partition. I copied over this menu.lst file without adapting it to the target system. So when that menu.lst that works on my system it should be OK and therefore GRUB should at least display that menu on the test system even when the menu entry commands would not be working due to the different partition table. Well it still entered the endless loop. The system I am writing on uses a AMD Athlon 1400 with Elitegroup K7VTA3 board. I attach this menu.lst config that works on the K7VTA3 machine as "menu.lst-sunfire". Also other configurations on the same Elitegroup K7S5A machines as the test machine where GRUB enters endless rebooting *did* work: 1) Putting Windows on a second 20MB drive. Connecting the Windows drive as primary master and the AmigaOSXL drive as primary slave. Install GRUB to the Windows drive but let it take its files from the bootloader partition on the second drive. Works like a charm! 2) Doing without Windows and putting GRUB bootloader partition as first partition on the harddisk in the first 50-100MB. Works like a charm to. Can you make any clue out of that? I do not know whereelse to search for the problem. I tried quite some stuff to resolve it but failed. I like GRUB very much and think its a great boot loader, so I really want to fix this issue. Right now we have to supply two harddisks one for Windows and one for AmigaOS XL to solve that problem. -- __________________________________________________________________________ HAAGE & PARTNER Computer GmbH A M I G A DEVELOPMENTS Fon: +49-6174-96 61 -00 Fax: -01 AmigaOS and PowerPC http://www.haage-partner.com StormC|ArtEffect|AmigaWriter Martin Steigerwald - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
# # Sample boot menu configuration file # # Boot automatically after 30 secs. timeout 10 # By default, boot the first entry. default 2 # Fallback to the second entry. fallback 0 # QNX title QNX rootnoverify (hd0,2) makeactive chainloader +1 # AMIthlon title AMIthlon root (hd0,1) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 initrd /amithlon/bigird.gz # AMIthlon (small) title AMIthlon (small) root (hd0,1) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=2310 leavepages=5000 initrd /amithlon/smallird.gz # Windows title Windows rootnoverify (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader +1
# # Sample boot menu configuration file # # Boot automatically after 30 secs. timeout 10 # By default, boot the first entry. default 2 # Fallback to the second entry. fallback 0 # QNX title QNX rootnoverify (hd0,1) makeactive chainloader +1 # AMIthlon title AMIthlon root (hd0,0) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 initrd /amithlon/bigird.gz # AMIthlon (small) title AMIthlon (small) root (hd0,0) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=2310 leavepages=5000 initrd /amithlon/smallird.gz
# # Sample boot menu configuration file # # Boot automatically after 30 secs. timeout 10 # By default, boot the first entry. default 0 # Fallback to the second entry. fallback 1 # For booting AMIthlon title AMIthlon root (hd0,3) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 initrd /amithlon/bigird.gz # For booting QNX title QNX rootnoverify (hd0,1) makeactive chainloader +1 # For booting Linux title Linux root (hd0,4) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.12-k6 root=/dev/hda5 initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.12-k6 # For booting Windows title Windows rootnoverify (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader +1 # For booting Linux 2.2 title Linux 2.2 root (hd0,4) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.19pre17 root=/dev/hda5 # For booting AMIthlon Small title AMIthlon Small root (hd0,3) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=0 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=2310 leavepages=7400 initrd /amithlon/smallird.gz # For booting AMIthlon Debug title AMIthlon Debug root (hd0,3) kernel /amithlon/emubox.gz console_level=4 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 initrd /amithlon/bigird.gz
