Darryl: I had many, many problems with Grub under Debian 5 on the net5501. Although there are a series of complicated steps you can take to get it running (sometimes) , LILO works fine out of the box.
I recommend you just install LILO as your boot loader if you want to use Deb5 on net5501 - it'll work fine and save you a lot of headache. Darryl L. Miles wrote: > I have a net5501 with 16Gb SanDisk PCMCIA storage. I have a working PXE > setup which is used to install the OS, the net5501 came with comBIOS > 1.33 installed. > > net5501 > > 0512 Mbyte Memory CPU Geode LX 500 Mhz > > Pri Mas SanDisk SDCFH-016G LBA Xlt 1024--63 15638 Mbyte > > > > > So have tried to install CentOS 5.4 and am able to use its VNCserver > mode to answer all the questions but at the very end when it goes to > resolve the packages selected I get python errors. I suspect this is > due to i686 issue, even though the distribution calls itself i386 and > the kernel it uses for install appears to have no problems running. > > So I then tried Debian 5.0.3 i386, this seemed to install fine but upon > reboot I get GRUB console. I have implemented the extra things noted in > http://wiki.soekris.info/Installing_Debian_Linux_5.0 relating to > initrd. However I am unable to get it booting past GRUB to make use of > this fix. > > My evaluation of the problem is that GRUB is having some issues and > isn't providing a useful error about it. > > When I was running a shell inside Debian 5 installer I did the following > to ensure the files were in the root directory of the rootfs: > cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /menu.lst > cp /initrd.gz /initrd.gz.0 > cp /vmlinuz /vmlinuz.0 > > sh-3.2# ls -lad /initrd.img* /vmlinuz* /menu.lst > > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 Mar 8 04:35 /initrd.img -> > boot/initrd.img-2.6.2 > 6-2-486 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6178780 Mar 8 05:58 /initrd.img.0 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4120 Mar 8 05:58 /menu.lst > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Mar 8 04:35 /vmlinuz -> > boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-48 > 6 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1469200 Mar 8 05:58 /vmlinuz.0 > sh-3.2# ls -l /boot > total 14548 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 912841 Feb 10 12:25 System.map-2.6.26-2-486 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 92019 Feb 10 12:25 config-2.6.26-2-486 > drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 8 05:57 grub > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6178780 Mar 8 05:37 initrd.img-2.6.26-2-486 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6194106 Mar 8 04:40 initrd.img-2.6.26-2-486.bak > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1469200 Feb 10 12:24 vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-486 > sh-3.2# > sh-3.2# ls -l /boot/grub > total 224 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 197 Mar 8 05:57 default > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 Mar 8 04:44 device.map > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Mar 8 05:57 e2fs_stage1_5 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8544 Mar 8 05:57 fat_stage1_5 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9568 Mar 8 05:57 jfs_stage1_5 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4120 Mar 8 04:44 menu.lst > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3965 Mar 8 04:44 menu.lst~ > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7904 Mar 8 05:57 minix_stage1_5 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10720 Mar 8 05:57 reiserfs_stage1_5 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Mar 8 05:57 stage1 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 128552 Mar 8 05:57 stage2 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10280 Mar 8 05:57 xfs_stage1_5 > sh-3.2# file /boot/* > /boot/System.map-2.6.26-2-486: ASCII text > /boot/config-2.6.26-2-486: ASCII English text > /boot/grub: directory > /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-486: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last > modifie > d: Mon Mar 8 05:37:20 2010 > /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-486.bak: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last > modifie > d: Mon Mar 8 04:40:08 2010 > /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-486: Linux kernel x86 boot executable > RO-rootFS, root_dev 0x6803, swap_dev 0x1, Normal VGA > sh-3.2# file /vmlinuz.0 > /vmlinuz.0: Linux kernel x86 boot executable RO-rootFS, root_dev 0x6803, > swap_dev 0x1, Normal VGA > > > > So all the useful files were in the root directory since when I tried to > manually use "kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-486" I get file not found > error from GRUB as shown below. > > The partition layout is basically one huge rootfs all but around 768Mb > of swap. Desktop computers normally partition a /boot at the start of > the storage so that BIOS limits are not reached in older BIOSes, but I > presume since the BIOS is recent/newly released this issue doesn't exist > for the size of storage I have. > > Question 1) Is there a BIOS limitation relating to the maximum > addressable block that GRUB can access for boot loading purposes ? > Wasn't this limitation lifted in modern PC BIOS by use of a defacto > change/extension to the BIOS disk access routines ? Does comBIOS > support this ? > > > This is a session when trying to manually use the GRUB command prompt > during a bootup: > > grub> root (hd0,0) > > > Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 > > > grub> configfile /menu.lst > > [This causes the screen to clear and then the version info and shell prompt > to appear, this is the same as what happens when I try to bootup normally ] > > GNU GRUB version 0.97 (639K lower / 523264K upper memory) > > > > [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For > > > the first word, TAB lists possible command > > > completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible > > > completions of a device/filename. ] > > > > > grub> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-486 > > > > > > Error 2: Bad file or directory type > > > > grub> kernel /vmlinuz.0 > > > Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format > > grub> > > > > > So now I reboot using Debian installed and let it run all the way until > it starts to ask about partition layouts, then I select <Go Back> and > then <Execute Shell> > > I then run: > > # mount /dev/hda1 /mnt > # mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc > # mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev > # chroot /mnt > sh-3.2# fdisk -l > > Disk /dev/hda: 16.0 GB, 16013942784 bytes > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes > Disk identifier: 0x000760fd > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/hda1 * 1 1859 14932386 83 Linux > /dev/hda2 1860 1946 698827+ 5 Extended > /dev/hda5 1860 1946 698796 82 Linux swap / Solaris > # [I create a file /tmp/aa with these contents ] > sh-3.2# cat /tmp/aa > root (hd0,0) > setup (hd0) > sh-3.2# /usr/sbin/grub < /tmp/aa > /tmp/out.log > Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. > # cat /tmp/out.log > GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory) > > [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For > the first word, TAB lists possible command > completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible > completions of a device/filename. ] > > grub> root (hd0,0) > Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 > > grub> setup (hd0) > Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes > Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes > Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes > Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded. > succeeded > Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 > /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded > Done. > > grub> > > > > This does not fix the problem but looks a nominal GRUB install to me. > > > > > I have also tried installing with /boot in the first 128Mb of the Flash > disk this has made no difference. > > > TIA, > > Darryl > > _______________________________________________ > Soekris-tech mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech > _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
