UPDATE: Always falling to grub prompt (now I don't even have prompt)
On Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 09:50:49AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: I'm not positive that gparted will move the beginning of a partition, but its certainly worth a shot. This is what I'd do: 1. Backup everything. 2. Review 1 several times. 3. launch a live-cd (knoppix or somesuch) 4. use a partition editor (gparted, qtparted, whatever) to rezise the existing / partition by moving the start of it up 500MB or so. 5. create a new bootable partition at the front of the device. 6. create a fs on the new partition 7. mount the new and old partitions. 8. copy over all of /mnt/old-part/boot to /mnt/new-part 9. edit up /mnt/old-part/etc/fstab 10. umount /mnt/new-part and remount it on /mnt/old-part/boot 11. chroot into /mnt/old-part 12. update-grub or manually edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to reflect new root partitions in kernel=lines 13. maybe have to run update-initrdfs to fix-up the initrd for new root partition. 14. reboot... Thank you very much for the very detailed response. I have spent the last couple of days trying to fix this, but still I can't. The first problem, creating a bootable partition at the beginning of the disk, is already solved. GParted is actually an amazing tool. Anyway, I had a Debian Etch Live CD, and the GParted version on it didn't work (can't move the beginning of a partition). So I had to download a gparted Live CD (0.3.4-8), and it did the job (took a couple of hours, though). I then did all the other steps. I edited fstab, menu.lst, and ran update-initramfs. Initially, the /boot partition was named /dev/hdd3, but running fdisk I could change the order, and now it's /dev/hdd1 (/boot, 500 Mb), /dev/hdd2 (/, 160G), and /dev/hdd3 (swap). However, when I boot, I get to the grub stage 1.5 line, then Error 15 (no further explanaition), and nothing, not even the grub prompt. I understand Error 15 means some file not found, but don't know what to do. Currently, my /etc/fstab is: /dev/hdd2 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/hdd1 /boot ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 2 /dev/hdd3 none swap sw 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0 /dev/fda /media/floppy auto rw,user,noauto 0 0 All menu.lst entries are of the form: root (hd1,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-version And device.map is, as before: (hd0) /dev/hdc (hd1) /dev/hdd And I have two bootable partitions, /dev/hdc (Windows), and /dev/hdd1 (/boot partition). I've tried several things: boot from Debian Live CD/Etch Disk 1/Gparted Live CD, then change the order of entries in /etc/fstab, changing the pass-number parameter in /etc/fstab (hdd1 and hdd2 had pass number 1, and I changed it to be 2 and 1, respectively, have run update-initramfs again, but nothing. I understand that, now that partitions are in order, /dev/hdd2, which is the root filesystem according to fstab, will be (hd1,1) for grub, and that kernels should be found in (hd1,1)/boot/, thus the kernel line in menu.lst should be /boot/vmlinuz, if root=(hd1,1). Right? Until now, the only strange thing is that 'update-initramfs -k all -u' yields some grep: /proc/modules No such file or directory errors for each kernel, but don't know if that's relevant. Sorry to keep bothering with this, but it's still not solved, I've googled a lot, and can't find something that works. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UPDATE: Always falling to grub prompt (now I don't even have prompt)
Victor Munoz wrote: Currently, my /etc/fstab is: /dev/hdd2 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/hdd1 /boot ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 2 /dev/hdd3 none swap sw 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0 /dev/fda /media/floppy auto rw,user,noauto 0 0 All menu.lst entries are of the form: root (hd1,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-version And device.map is, as before: (hd0) /dev/hdc (hd1) /dev/hdd And I have two bootable partitions, /dev/hdc (Windows), and /dev/hdd1 (/boot partition). I've tried several things: boot from Debian Live CD/Etch Disk 1/Gparted Live CD, then change the order of entries in /etc/fstab, changing the pass-number parameter in /etc/fstab (hdd1 and hdd2 had pass number 1, and I changed it to be 2 and 1, respectively, have run update-initramfs again, but nothing. I understand that, now that partitions are in order, /dev/hdd2, which is the root filesystem according to fstab, will be (hd1,1) for grub, and that kernels should be found in (hd1,1)/boot/, thus the kernel line in menu.lst should be /boot/vmlinuz, if root=(hd1,1). Right? I think the 'root' command should specify the partition where the boot directory is located, so it should be (hd1,0) rather than (hd1,1). Furthermore, the kernels are not located on the hdd2-partition, so they are not in (hd1,1)/boot/, but they are in (hd1,0)/ So you could try to change your entries in menu.lst to: root (hd1,0) kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img-version or, omitting the device-specification in the 'kernel' and 'initrd' command (since the device is equal to the root device): root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd /initrd.img-version -- Regards, Hans. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UPDATE: Always falling to grub prompt (now I don't even have prompt)
On Sat, Sep 15, 2007 at 10:39:35AM +0200, Hans Hofker wrote: I think the 'root' command should specify the partition where the boot directory is located, so it should be (hd1,0) rather than (hd1,1). Furthermore, the kernels are not located on the hdd2-partition, so they are not in (hd1,1)/boot/, but they are in (hd1,0)/ So you could try to change your entries in menu.lst to: root (hd1,0) kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img-version or, omitting the device-specification in the 'kernel' and 'initrd' command (since the device is equal to the root device): root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd /initrd.img-version Thanks, but it didn't work either. I had tried before, anyway. I could reinstall Debian, after all I have a backup of /home, but I feel it's only a little detail somewhere that's missing, and I'd prefer not to do that. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SOLVED: Always falling to grub prompt
Finally my problem is solved. The problem was that I had to reinstall grub in the MBR of the first disk, *telling it that /boot was in a different partition*. I booted from a LiveCD (I was using GParted's one, as it booted faster than the rescue option of Debian's LiveCD, and I had to boot quite a few times in the last hours), then typed grub. This led to the grub prompt. I set the root device to (hd1,0), since this is the boot partition (where grub/stage1 file is): grub root (hd1,0) And then I install grub in the MBR of *the first disk*, where Windows is installed, and quit the grub shell: grub setup (hd0) grub quit Then reboot, and... voila, the grub menu I was missing so much, after one week of absense. All my kernels and Windows are booting normally, and I'm very happy. Thanks to all those of you who helped. It was really difficult to be sure what to do just by browsing the web. Two particularly useful websites were the grub manual, http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Installing-GRUB-natively.html#Installing-GRUB-natively, and http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=232 Anyway, for the record, for anyone browsing the web, here is a short summary of this adventure :-) 1. Initial setup: hda : cdrom hdc1 : Windows partition in first disk (10G) hdd1 : Linux bootable partition in second disk (160G) hdd2 : Linux swap in second disk 2. The problem: Some kernel upgrade left the system unbootable. Booting with the new kernel led to Error 18 (more cylinders than BIOS can manage). Old kernel booted. Subsequent kernel upgrades and playing with menu.lst completed the mess. In the end, I had two kernels (the oldest and the newest) booting, and two kernels with Error 18. None of them booted normally, though, and I always got the grub prompt. I had to manually give root, kernel, initrd and boot commands at the prompt, to boot. 3. The diagnostics: As someone pointed out, kernels and menu.lst must have been written beyond the zone visible by the BIOS, so after months of normal operation, suddenly I could not boot. 4. Solution (first step): Following suggestions from this list, I left a small boot partition at the beginning of /dev/hdd. I used GParted Live CD 0.3.4-8, which was able (amazingly) to move the beginning of the /dev/hdd1 partition. I left 500 M free. With GParted, I set it as ext3. After executing pending actions, which meant 1h40m of waiting until the resize of hdd1 completed, I had a new /dev/hdd3 partition at the beginning of the 160G disk. Then I set the bootable flag on it, also with GParted. Now open a terminal, and followed the suggestions I received: - Mounted both partitions, /dev/hdd3 as /mnt/new-part and /dev/hdd1 as /mnt/old-part. - Copy /mnt/old-part/boot/* to /mnt/new-part - Moved /mnt/old-part/boot to /mnt/old-part/old-boot, then mkdir /mnt/old-part/boot [probably not necessary?]. - Edit /mnt/old-part/fstab (see later for the final setup that works) - Umount /mnt/new-part, remount on /mnt/old-part/boot - Chroot into /mnt/old-part - Edited menu.lst (see later for the final setup that works) I rebuilt initrd's: update-initramfs -k all -u 5. Solution (second, probably unnecessary, step) The previous procedure didn't work, and I was still left with an unbootable system. It failed with Error 15, and not even got a grub prompt. I thought there was a problem with partition order, and I fixed that. fstab and menu.lst were edited accordingly, and that's the setup that is working now, but I don't think this step was necessary. Anyway: fdisk /dev/hdd Used commands: m (menu), p (print partition table), x (extra functionality), f (fix partition order), w (write partition table to disk) Final /etc/fstab: /dev/hdd2/ ext3defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/hdd1/boot ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 2 /dev/hdd3none swap sw 0 0 [other lines] Final /boot/grub/device.map: (hd0) /dev/hdc (hd1) /dev/hdd Final /boot/grub/menu.lst [only relevant lines]: [...] # kopt=root=/dev/hdd2 ro [...] # groot=(hd1,0) [...] root (hd1,0) kernel /vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdd2 ro initrd /initrd.img-version savedefault [...] titleWindows root (hd0,0) savedefault makeactive chainloader +1 6. Solution (third and final, and critical, step) The problem persisted, and the solution was to reinstall grub in the MBR of the first disk (hd0, hdc), with root in (hd0,1) [hdd]: After booting from LiveCD: # grub grub root (hd0,1) grub setup (hd0) grub quit # Ok, that's it. Thanks again for the help. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 02:12:19PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: yup. probably up until now you've always had this problem, but the kernels happened to be written within the first 1024 cylinders and thus caused no problem. Also, the same with menu.lst, it was probably within that boundary as well. Then last week, the menu.lst got rewritten to a part of the disk that the bios can't see and suddenly doesn't work. At least that's the way I understand it. Reality may diverge drastically from my perception. ;) Sounds very logical, so it must be true :-) Anyway, is there anyway to make a nondestructive repartition? I'm aware gparted can resize partitions, for instance, but in this case I need to split one big partition into two, and I'm afraid I can't do it in a safe way, right? Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 02:18:18AM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 02:12:19PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: yup. probably up until now you've always had this problem, but the kernels happened to be written within the first 1024 cylinders and thus caused no problem. Also, the same with menu.lst, it was probably within that boundary as well. Then last week, the menu.lst got rewritten to a part of the disk that the bios can't see and suddenly doesn't work. At least that's the way I understand it. Reality may diverge drastically from my perception. ;) Sounds very logical, so it must be true :-) Anyway, is there anyway to make a nondestructive repartition? I'm aware gparted can resize partitions, for instance, but in this case I need to split one big partition into two, and I'm afraid I can't do it in a safe way, right? I'm not positive that gparted will move the beginning of a partition, but its certainly worth a shot. This is what I'd do: 1. Backup everything. 2. Review 1 several times. 3. launch a live-cd (knoppix or somesuch) 4. use a partition editor (gparted, qtparted, whatever) to rezise the existing / partition by moving the start of it up 500MB or so. 5. create a new bootable partition at the front of the device. 6. create a fs on the new partition 7. mount the new and old partitions. 8. copy over all of /mnt/old-part/boot to /mnt/new-part 9. edit up /mnt/old-part/etc/fstab 10. umount /mnt/new-part and remount it on /mnt/old-part/boot 11. chroot into /mnt/old-part 12. update-grub or manually edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to reflect new root partitions in kernel=lines 13. maybe have to run update-initrdfs to fix-up the initrd for new root partition. 14. reboot... this is entirely untested. ymmv wildly. I am not liable! though, FWIW, I have done *similar* things in the past, but never before split /boot from / in such a way that / moves to a relatively different partition. the most important part is 1. If you blow that one, you can't recover. All the others can be recovered from because of 1 :) A signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On 09/08/2007 11:40 PM, Victor Munoz wrote: [...] Well, it was not me anyway :-). grub decided it was time to get confused last week, after months of normal operation. Victor Hello Victor. I would try reinstalling the failing kernels; if you do this, copy the kernel .deb files out of /var/cache/apt/archives first, because those kernels are probably no longer available on the Debian mirrors. I *might* also try reinstalling Grub using grub-install yada yada. However, if you install to the MBR, you must be sure that Grub will be able to boot Windows. Have bootdisks for both Windows and Linux handy. PS. I think it's safer to let Windows have the MBR, and configure NTLOADER to chain-load a Linux partition. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 07:05:39AM -0500, Mumia W.. wrote: Hello Victor. I would try reinstalling the failing kernels; if you do this, copy the kernel .deb files out of /var/cache/apt/archives first, because those kernels are probably no longer available on the Debian mirrors. I tried leaving only one entry in menu.lst, corresponding to one working kernel (2.6.18 I think), but got the boot prompt anyway. I *might* also try reinstalling Grub using grub-install yada yada. However, if you install to the MBR, you must be sure that Grub will be able to boot Windows. Have bootdisks for both Windows and Linux handy. Using Debian disc 1 in rescue mode, I re-installed the boot loader, and nothing. Maybe I should do it manually? Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
Victor Munoz([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is reported to have said: On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 10:53:20PM -0400, Wayne Topa wrote: It's late and I'm tired but something looks wrong to me. Do you have 4 hard drives or is this one (1) HD with You say /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)] But to me /dev/hda - (hd0,0) /hdb - (hd1,0) /hdc - (hd2,0) /hdd - (hd3,0) That would be the logical order, but here hda and hdb have to do with the cdrom. I get this from dmesg: dmesg | grep hda ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd000-0xd007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio hda: HL-DT-ST GCE-8320B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hda: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 8192kB Cache, DMA Then hdc is the 10G disk for Windows, and hdd the 160G disk for sid. If I type root hd( at the boot prompt, it only gives me 0 and 1 as options, and a later kernel command actually finds vmlinuz in (hd1,0)/boot. So I guess this is ok. I'm confused. How many HD's do you have, 1 or 2 or ? 2, as I said, and a cdrom, recognized as hda. It might be just me, as I have never seen/heard of a system set up that way. I have always put my HD's on the promary IDE interfaces (A B) and the CD/DVD's on the secondary IDE interfaces (C D). It may or may not be necessary but that is how I always have seen it done. I hope I'm wrong but I think you are confusing grub as much as me. Well, it was not me anyway :-). grub decided it was time to get confused last week, after months of normalVoperation. title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-2-686 --- root(hd1,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-2-686 root=/dev/hdd1 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-2-686 savedefault Grub did the 2 -- Lines? The root line says hdb and the kernel line says hdd. No wonder it won't boot. Yet the older kernels boot up with the same (wrong looking) root and kernel lines, so I am wrong. I have not yet upgraded any of my sid partitions to the 2.6.22-2 kernel. Maybe I have this problem to look forward to or maybe I should wait till it (whatever 'it' is) gets fixed. Sorry I could not help. Wayne -- Hit any user to continue. ___ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
Wayne Topa wrote: title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-2-686 --- root(hd1,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-2-686 root=/dev/hdd1 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-2-686 savedefault Grub did the 2 -- Lines? The root line says hdb and the kernel line says hdd. No wonder it won't boot. Yet the older kernels boot up with the same (wrong looking) root and kernel lines, so I am wrong. I have not yet upgraded any of my sid partitions to the 2.6.22-2 kernel. Maybe I have this problem to look forward to or maybe I should wait till it (whatever 'it' is) gets fixed. Sorry I could not help. Wayne Not necessarily. Grub uses /boot/grub/device.map to identify which HDD maps to which (hd?). It might be useful to see the OP's device.map file, but grub could just ignore hda and hdb as they are not HDD. HTH Wackojacko -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 09:32:03PM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 09:07:39PM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: Disk /dev/hdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00014f58 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdd1 * 1 19331 155276226 83 Linux /dev/hdd2 19332 19457 1012095 82 Linux swap / Solaris As I'm typing this, I notice for the first time that hdd1 is marked as bootable. That's not correct, right? Is is possible that something during some upgrade did it without me knowing? I will try to delete the boot flag... Ok, I'm disappointed. It didn't work. hdd has no bootable partitions, and I still get the grub prompt, and using configfile complains about cylinders. I read the other part of this thread and I'm not sure those guys are barking up the right tree, though they could be. I think it is perfectly valid for grub and the kernel to have different device names for the drives and so long as you keep track of which context you're working in, then I think you're alright. One thing that might be helpful is what does the BIOS call those drives? In your bios setup screen there will be the usual table of harddrives and their positions on the motherboard, as the bios sees them. Can you provide that info for us? please include how the bios is addressing them (LBA etc). What motherboard is this and how old is it? It looks like you are facing an ancient problem with BIOS that couldn't see beyond the first 1024 cylinders. With your large / partition, I'd bet those non-working kernels are beyond the range that the bios can see, and I'm willing to bet that your bios is configured incorrectly to see those higher cylinders. A signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 01:15:58PM -0400, Wayne Topa wrote: Victor Munoz([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is reported to have said: On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 10:53:20PM -0400, Wayne Topa wrote: It might be just me, as I have never seen/heard of a system set up that way. I have always put my HD's on the promary IDE interfaces (A B) and the CD/DVD's on the secondary IDE interfaces (C D). It may or may not be necessary but that is how I always have seen it done. Not necessarily. Since performance is poor if you have two hard drives on one controller (e.g. hda and hdb), I've always put the boot drive as the first hard drive (e.g. hda) since that is what some BIOSs look for. Then removeable media on hdb, a second hard (if used) on hdc, then other media on hdd. Also, don't confuse Grub's hd0 or hd1 as necessarily /dev/hda or /dev/hdb. Grub goes with the order of drives as the BIOS sees them. The other question you've received is also valid: is this Etch, why a custom kernel, what errors with a normal kernel, etc. Is there a reason that you didn't put your boot hard drive as the first drive on the first controller? Since I haven't run M$ since 3.1, I don't know what would happen if you swapped the drives around. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 01:15:58PM -0400, Wayne Topa wrote: Well, it was not me anyway :-). grub decided it was time to get confused last week, after months of normalVoperation. title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-2-686 --- root(hd1,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-2-686 root=/dev/hdd1 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-2-686 savedefault Grub did the 2 -- Lines? The root line says hdb and the kernel line says hdd. No wonder it won't boot. Yet the older kernels boot up with the same (wrong looking) root and kernel lines, so I am wrong. I have not yet upgraded any of my sid partitions to the 2.6.22-2 kernel. Maybe I have this problem to look forward to or maybe I should wait till it (whatever 'it' is) gets fixed. device.map, as posted in the original mail, correctly maps grub and device names: /boot/grub$ cat device.map (hd0) /dev/hdc (hd1) /dev/hdd So probably there's no problem here. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 06:46:14PM +0100, Wackojacko wrote: Not necessarily. Grub uses /boot/grub/device.map to identify which HDD maps to which (hd?). It might be useful to see the OP's device.map file, but grub could just ignore hda and hdb as they are not HDD. I did post it in the original post, and the map looks correct. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 11:00:24AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: One thing that might be helpful is what does the BIOS call those drives? In your bios setup screen there will be the usual table of harddrives and their positions on the motherboard, as the bios sees them. Can you provide that info for us? please include how the bios is addressing them (LBA etc). Bios says this: Primary master: HL-DL-ST GCE-8320B [that's the cdrom] Primary slave: [Auto] Secondary master: Fujitsu MPF3102AT [this is the 10G Windows disk] Secondary slave: ST 3160212A [the 160G Debian disk] Details for each drive follow: Fujitsu: Cylinders 1024 Head 255 Sector 63 CHS Capacity 8422 Mb Maximum LBA Capacity 10248 Mb ST: Cylinders 1024 Head 255 Sector 63 CHS Capacity 8422 Mb Maximum LBA Capacity 8455 Mb Which is strange, since ST is 160G. Fujitsu data (10G), look ok. What motherboard is this and how old is it? It looks like you are facing an ancient problem with BIOS that couldn't see beyond the first 1024 cylinders. With your large / partition, I'd bet those non-working kernels are beyond the range that the bios can see, and I'm willing to bet that your bios is configured incorrectly to see those higher cylinders. So your suggestion would be to repartition the disk, leaving a small boot partition at the beginning of the 160G disk? Anyway, the motherboard is not new. lspci -v: 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333] Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7V266-E Mainboard Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0 Memory at fc00 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M] Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0 Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 Probably 6 years old? (I bought it used, in 2003) Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On 09/09/2007 03:02 PM, Victor Munoz wrote: On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 11:00:24AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: [...] So your suggestion would be to repartition the disk, leaving a small boot partition at the beginning of the 160G disk? Anyway, the motherboard is not new. lspci -v: 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333] Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7V266-E Mainboard Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0 Memory at fc00 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M] Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0 Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 Probably 6 years old? (I bought it used, in 2003) Victor Yes, create a small (~1GB) /boot partition at the head of the 160GB disk. I always had to do that with my old 486 computer because its BIOS was restricted by the 1024-cylinder limit. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 04:02:35PM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: On Sun, Sep 09, 2007 at 11:00:24AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: One thing that might be helpful is what does the BIOS call those drives? In your bios setup screen there will be the usual table of harddrives and their positions on the motherboard, as the bios sees them. Can you provide that info for us? please include how the bios is addressing them (LBA etc). Bios says this: Primary master: HL-DL-ST GCE-8320B [that's the cdrom] Primary slave: [Auto] Secondary master: Fujitsu MPF3102AT [this is the 10G Windows disk] Secondary slave: ST 3160212A [the 160G Debian disk] Details for each drive follow: Fujitsu: Cylinders 1024 Head 255 Sector 63 CHS Capacity 8422 Mb Maximum LBA Capacity 10248 Mb ST: Cylinders 1024 Head 255 Sector 63 CHS Capacity 8422 Mb Maximum LBA Capacity 8455 Mb Which is strange, since ST is 160G. Fujitsu data (10G), look ok. I don't have a machine available for reboot at the moment, but there are options that can be set for each harddrive. The language is escaping me at the moment, but it has to do with whether the drive is LBA or not etc. You could fiddle with those settings (take notes!) and see if that helps. if its set for some legacy setting (again, the language escapes me ATM), it may pretend it can't address beyond 1024 cylinders when in fact it can. but i think that's a shot in the dark. What motherboard is this and how old is it? It looks like you are facing an ancient problem with BIOS that couldn't see beyond the first 1024 cylinders. With your large / partition, I'd bet those non-working kernels are beyond the range that the bios can see, and I'm willing to bet that your bios is configured incorrectly to see those higher cylinders. So your suggestion would be to repartition the disk, leaving a small boot partition at the beginning of the 160G disk? yup. probably up until now you've always had this problem, but the kernels happened to be written within the first 1024 cylinders and thus caused no problem. Also, the same with menu.lst, it was probably within that boundary as well. Then last week, the menu.lst got rewritten to a part of the disk that the bios can't see and suddenly doesn't work. At least that's the way I understand it. Reality may diverge drastically from my perception. ;) A signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
Mumia W.. wrote: Yes, create a small (~1GB) /boot partition at the head of the 160GB disk. I always had to do that with my old 486 computer because its BIOS was restricted by the 1024-cylinder limit. 1GB /boot would be a waste of space. I have 4 kernel versions installed and am using only 40% of my 137MB /boot partition. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Always falling to grub prompt
Hello. It's been about a week that I've been unable to boot normally. Every time I get the grub prompt, and then I have to go through the sequence of commands root/kernel/initrd/boot. I understand that this may occur due to some defective file, but I can't see anything abnormal in menu.lst, device.map, or fstab. This is a dual boot box, Windows in /dev/hdc [(hd0,0) for grub], Sid in /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)]. I have several kernels installed: 2.6.18-4-686, 2.6.21-2-686, 2.6.22-1-686, 2.6.22-2-686. 21-2 and 22-1 can't boot, saying something about BIOS being unable to handle the number of cylinders. I don't know if this suggests something's wrong with my system, but 18 and 22-2 boot just fine (except for the fact that I always get the grub prompt), and the boot process was normal until a couple of weeks ago. Any help will be appreciated. I have included below the files menu.lst, devide.map, fstab, in case someone is interested. Regards, Victor menu.lst # menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8) #grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8), #grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub #and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/. ## default num # Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and # the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used. # # You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry # is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'. # WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your # array will desync and will not let you boot your system. default 0 ## timeout sec # Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry # (normally the first entry defined). timeout 5 # Pretty colours color cyan/blue white/blue ## password ['--md5'] passwd # If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing # control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the # command 'lock' # e.g. password topsecret # password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/ # password topsecret # # examples # # title Windows 95/98/NT/2000 # root (hd0,0) # makeactive # chainloader +1 # # title Linux # root (hd0,1) # kernel/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro # # # Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST ## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below ## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs ## ## Start Default Options ## ## default kernel options ## default kernel options for automagic boot options ## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z ## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted. ## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro ## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro ## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro # kopt=root=/dev/hdd1 ro ## default grub root device ## e.g. groot=(hd0,0) # groot=(hd1,0) ## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options ## e.g. alternative=true ## alternative=false # alternative=true ## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options ## e.g. lockalternative=true ## lockalternative=false # lockalternative=false ## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the ## alternatives ## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5 # defoptions= ## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options ## e.g. lockold=false ## lockold=true # lockold=false ## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option # xenhopt= ## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option # xenkopt=console=tty0 ## altoption boot targets option ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options ## altoptions=(single-user) single # altoptions=(single-user mode) single ## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst ## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the ## alternative kernel options ## e.g. howmany=all ## howmany=7 # howmany=all ## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option ## e.g. memtest86=true ## memtest86=false # memtest86=true ## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system ## can be true or false # updatedefaultentry=false ## ## End Default Options ## title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-2-686 root(hd1,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-2-686 root=/dev/hdd1 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-2-686 savedefault title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-2-686 (single-user mode) root(hd1,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-2-686 root=/dev/hdd1 ro single initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-2-686 savedefault title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-1-686 root
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 07:45:36PM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: Hello. It's been about a week that I've been unable to boot normally. Every time I get the grub prompt, and then I have to go through the sequence of commands root/kernel/initrd/boot. I understand that this may occur due to some defective file, but I can't see anything abnormal in menu.lst, device.map, or fstab. can you manually load the menu.lst? grub configfile (hd1,0)/grub/menu.list should get you a menu. Its at least easier than type all the root, kernel etc lines. This is a dual boot box, Windows in /dev/hdc [(hd0,0) for grub], Sid in /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)]. I have several kernels installed: 2.6.18-4-686, 2.6.21-2-686, 2.6.22-1-686, 2.6.22-2-686. 21-2 and 22-1 can't boot, saying something about BIOS being unable to handle the number of cylinders. I don't know if this suggests something's wrong with my system, but 18 and 22-2 boot just fine (except for the fact that I always get the grub prompt), and the boot process was normal until a couple of weeks ago. hmmm... that's a little fishy. can we see your (as root) fdisk -l /dev/hda your menu.lst et al looks fine though I just only glanced through them. A signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 05:45:03PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: can you manually load the menu.lst? grub configfile (hd1,0)/grub/menu.list should get you a menu. Its at least easier than type all the root, kernel etc lines. Thanks for the tip, didn't know the command, but no, it doesn't work: Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS hmmm... that's a little fishy. can we see your (as root) fdisk -l /dev/hda hda is cdrom, the bootable disk is hdc: /boot/grub# fdisk -l /dev/hda /boot/grub# fdisk -l /dev/hdb /boot/grub# fdisk -l /dev/hdc Disk /dev/hdc: 10.2 GB, 10248118272 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xa24df59a Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdc1 * 11244 9992398+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /boot/grub# fdisk -l /dev/hdd Disk /dev/hdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00014f58 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdd1 * 1 19331 155276226 83 Linux /dev/hdd2 19332 19457 1012095 82 Linux swap / Solaris As I'm typing this, I notice for the first time that hdd1 is marked as bootable. That's not correct, right? Is is possible that something during some upgrade did it without me knowing? I will try to delete the boot flag... Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 09:07:39PM -0400, Victor Munoz wrote: Disk /dev/hdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00014f58 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdd1 * 1 19331 155276226 83 Linux /dev/hdd2 19332 19457 1012095 82 Linux swap / Solaris As I'm typing this, I notice for the first time that hdd1 is marked as bootable. That's not correct, right? Is is possible that something during some upgrade did it without me knowing? I will try to delete the boot flag... Ok, I'm disappointed. It didn't work. hdd has no bootable partitions, and I still get the grub prompt, and using configfile complains about cylinders. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
Victor Munoz([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is reported to have said: Hello. It's been about a week that I've been unable to boot normally. Every time I get the grub prompt, and then I have to go through the sequence of commands root/kernel/initrd/boot. I understand that this may occur due to some defective file, but I can't see anything abnormal in menu.lst, device.map, or fstab. This is a dual boot box, Windows in /dev/hdc [(hd0,0) for grub], Sid in /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)]. I have several kernels installed: 2.6.18-4-686, 2.6.21-2-686, 2.6.22-1-686, 2.6.22-2-686. 21-2 and 22-1 can't boot, saying something about BIOS being unable to handle the number of cylinders. I don't know if this suggests something's wrong with my system, but 18 and 22-2 boot just fine (except for the fact that I always get the grub prompt), and the boot process was normal until a couple of weeks ago. Any help will be appreciated. I have included below the files menu.lst, devide.map, fstab, in case someone is interested. Regards, Victor It's late and I'm tired but something looks wrong to me. Do you have 4 hard drives or is this one (1) HD with You say /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)] But to me /dev/hda - (hd0,0) /hdb - (hd1,0) /hdc - (hd2,0) /hdd - (hd3,0) but you have title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.21-2-amd64 Default root(hd0,4) - kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 ro vga=0x31a initrd /boot/initrd.img savedefault so you say that root is on hda1 partition 3 And the kernel is on root=/dev/sda5 I'm confused. How many HD's do you have, 1 or 2 or ? I don't get this either # kopt=root=/dev/hdd1 ro If it really is on hd1 partition d, that should be hda4 not hdd1. I hope I'm wrong but I think you are confusing grub as much as me. Wayne menu.lst # menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8) #grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8), #grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub #and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/. ## default num # Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and # the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used. # # You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry # is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'. # WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your # array will desync and will not let you boot your system. default 0 ## timeout sec # Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry # (normally the first entry defined). timeout 5 # Pretty colours color cyan/blue white/blue ## password ['--md5'] passwd # If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing # control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the # command 'lock' # e.g. password topsecret # password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/ # password topsecret # # examples # # title Windows 95/98/NT/2000 # root(hd0,0) # makeactive # chainloader +1 # # title Linux # root(hd0,1) # kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro # # # Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST ## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below ## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs ## ## Start Default Options ## ## default kernel options ## default kernel options for automagic boot options ## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z ## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted. ## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro ## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro ## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro # kopt=root=/dev/hdd1 ro ## default grub root device ## e.g. groot=(hd0,0) # groot=(hd1,0) ## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options ## e.g. alternative=true ## alternative=false # alternative=true ## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options ## e.g. lockalternative=true ## lockalternative=false # lockalternative=false ## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the ## alternatives ## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5 # defoptions= ## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options ## e.g. lockold=false ## lockold=true # lockold=false ## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option # xenhopt= ## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option # xenkopt=console=tty0 ## altoption boot targets option ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options ##
Re: Always falling to grub prompt
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 10:53:20PM -0400, Wayne Topa wrote: It's late and I'm tired but something looks wrong to me. Do you have 4 hard drives or is this one (1) HD with You say /dev/hdd [(hd1,0)] But to me /dev/hda - (hd0,0) /hdb - (hd1,0) /hdc - (hd2,0) /hdd - (hd3,0) That would be the logical order, but here hda and hdb have to do with the cdrom. I get this from dmesg: dmesg | grep hda ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd000-0xd007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio hda: HL-DT-ST GCE-8320B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hda: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 8192kB Cache, DMA Then hdc is the 10G disk for Windows, and hdd the 160G disk for sid. If I type root hd( at the boot prompt, it only gives me 0 and 1 as options, and a later kernel command actually finds vmlinuz in (hd1,0)/boot. So I guess this is ok. I'm confused. How many HD's do you have, 1 or 2 or ? 2, as I said, and a cdrom, recognized as hda. I hope I'm wrong but I think you are confusing grub as much as me. Well, it was not me anyway :-). grub decided it was time to get confused last week, after months of normal operation. Victor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
